Eighteen mistakes made by Leicester City that overshadow easy relegation excuse
A closer look at the reasons that led to Leicester City’s fall into the Championship, eliminating the excuse that their fate was decided by the gulf between top two divisions
Asked to name a reason why Leicester City had been relegated in the immediate aftermath of their downfall, Ruud van Nistelrooy pointed to the gulf between the established Premier League sides and those coming up from the Championship.
When he was then asked to name a reason specific to his side, he repeated the same answer.
Now, there is no denying that facing 17 sides who are all in their third consecutive seasons in the Premier League, and therefore in their third consecutive season of receiving Premier League money, makes for a difficult task for clubs who have been promoted.
In the Premier League, success is so often determined by money. There is no doubt it is a factor.
However, to react as if it is the sole factor in City’s demise is not only wilfully obtuse – they were only a promoted club because they got themselves relegated in the first place – but also unhelpful. City need to recognise where they have gone wrong so that they can learn from their mistakes.
Because every side makes them. Even those who are currently battling for Champions League places will have made errors.
Often, for those sides right at the bottom, it’s about a compendium of mistakes, rather than a single one.
And so, we have put together 18 reasons for City’s fall into the Championship, one for each of the points they had earned at the point at which their relegation was confirmed.
Some of City’s defeats will have been decided on moments of madness or poor individual displays. But it’s not the point to highlight those, more the issues that spanned the full season, or mistakes that had knock-on effects for the whole campaign.
Plus, it should be recognised that many of these mistakes are analysed in hindsight. They were perhaps decisions taken with the best intentions but ones have revealed themselves to be poorly-judged.
They are mistakes all the same, and it’s mistakes that have cost City. It’s what the likes of chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, director of football Jon Rudkin, chief executive Susan Whelan and those in charge need to learn from.
Having to sell Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
The first issue arrived way back at the end of last June. It’s not the act of selling Dewsbury-Hall that was the problem, but more what it represented.
To cope with financial mismanagement across the previous, they were forced to sell their best player and a fan favourite two months after they were promoted.
To avoid punishment over the Profit and Sustainability Rules, selling Dewsbury-Hall made sense. But City had put themselves in the predicament where they had to do it, weakening their squad for a tougher division.
