Leicester’s disastrous season: Catastrophic decisions, bad recruitment and toxicity that turned to despair

Ten years ago, Leicester City had defied the odds to tee up the most astonishing period in the club’s history, winning a Premier League title, lifting the FA Cup, and competing in three European campaigns.

That Leicester side had unity, work ethic, dependable leadership, good planning, excellent recruitment and a never-say-die spirit that pulled them through.

This season’s Leicester have none of those, and have meekly surrendered to a relegation that was confirmed on Sunday. Their 1-0 defeat against Liverpool was a ninth consecutive home defeat without scoring — a top-flight record.

Acrimony against members of the hierarchy is growing, with some fans hiring a plane that flew over the stadium carrying a banner that read: “King Power Clueless. Sack the Board.” Another banner displaying similar sentiments was seen in the corner of the Kop at full time. Director of football Jon Rudkin is the figure many protesters see as the most culpable for Leicester’s decline.

Others can certainly share responsibility. Owner and chairman Aiyawatt ‘Khun Top’  Srivaddhanaprabha attended on Sunday and has some big decisions to make. Top of the agenda is the future of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has overseen a disastrous effort to stay in the Premier League. Under him, Leicester have picked up just eight points from 20 games.

Van Nistelrooy wants to hold talks with the club to ensure their vision is aligned, but there is little alignment at Leicester.

Shortly before kick-off against Liverpool, the partner of Harry Winks, the midfielder who Van Nistelrooy has discarded after he refused to stay overnight at the training ground hotel between training sessions, posted a picture of the player holding their newborn, the reason for his desire to return to his London home each day. Winks faces an uncertain future at the club, but so do many. Defender Jannik Vestergaard, who also commutes from London, is also out in the cold despite signing a three-year deal last summer.

This will all be further complicated by profit and sustainability rules (PSR). When Leicester were relegated in 2023, the English Football League, which governs the second, third and fourth tiers, attempted to impose a business plan to restrict the club’s budget and player trading. Leicester won a legal battle against the EFL and the Premier League over an alleged breach of PSR. However, that issue remains in an arbitration process and the EFL is likely to be looking at imposing sanctions on Leicester.

Here, The Athletic has spoken to sources, on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, to examine what has gone wrong this disastrous season.

Even before the celebrations began last summer, planning was under way for Leicester’s return to the Premier League.

Despite late slips, Enzo Maresca’s side were too strong for the Championship, which, given their division-leading budget of £30million ($40m), was not a surprise.

The hangover of the previous season, the discontent among fans and the financial implications of relegation that brought PSR concerns had been challenges, but the gamble of appointing an inexperienced yet visionary coach in Maresca paid dividends.

Leicester’s hierarchy were back where they thought the club belonged, but they would prove the previous dismal failure was not a blip, lessons had not been learned, and underlying issues had not been fixed.

In the accounts for the 2022-23 season, chief executive Susan Whelan explained how the repercussions of relegation would be felt for some time, but Leicester were guilty of causing a lot of new problems last summer, too.

The disruption began with pre-season plans. Leicester had plotted a tour of the United States, but Maresca wanted the squad to stay in Europe. But the loss of Maresca had far-reaching consequences beyond travel plans.

The players celebrate promotion with Maresca in April 2024 (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

The recruitment planning for the new season had begun with Maresca in mind, with players identified to carry on playing his possession-based style, which was popular with the squad. Vestergaard, frozen out during the relegation season under Brendan Rodgers, received his contract extension on Maresca’s request just before the Italian left.

As soon as Chelsea’s interest in Maresca was known, Leicester were talking to prospective candidates to replace him, including eventual successor Steve Cooper, although he was not their first choice.

They were long-term admirers of Graham Potter and had tried to entice him before ending Rodgers’ reign, but Potter had not felt ready to return after his experience at Chelsea.

Time was ticking and while Leicester preferred Potter, they held discussions with others. Cooper had impressed ‘Khun Top’ during meetings in London, where he presented a study he had commissioned that detailed where he ranked among hundreds of coaches across the top five European leagues.

Khun Top ran out of patience waiting for Potter to decide and offered the job to Cooper, who had kept Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and had presented a thorough appraisal of what Leicester had done well in the Championship, explaining where they could improve and what was required in the top flight.

Yet 12 league games into the season, and having been handed an £80million transfer kitty, Cooper was gone.

The sacking seemed harsh as Leicester had picked up nine points in their first eight games, and were two points outside the relegation zone. It came as a huge shock to Cooper.

Khun Top had grown concerned not just by performances, but what was perceived to be a disconnect between Cooper and some of his players — evidenced by their Christmas party in Copenhagen when several of the players were photographed partying while someone in the crowd held up a sign that read, “I miss you Enzo” — and some supporters.

A big concern at board level was what was seen as Cooper’s abrasive manner, particularly over the club’s approach to match officials and challenging decisions. Given Leicester were battling the Premier League and EFL over alleged PSR breaches, the club didn’t want to attract attention for challenging officials.

Whether Cooper could have kept Leicester up is hypothetical, but it is hard to argue he would have done any worse than what followed. The season went from concerning to disastrous under Van Nistelrooy.

Steve Cooper was sacked after a 2-1 defeat against Chelsea (Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images)

The managerial change wasn’t the only pre-season disruption. Changing plans for pre-season meant Leicester headed to Evian-les-Bains on the shore of Lake Geneva before a camp in southern Germany, which was only announced at the start of July. The first part went well enough but in Kempten, near the Austrian border, a thunderstorm forced a friendly against a local team to be abandoned, while the hotel did not have air conditioning to combat the summer heat.

Leicester also picked up injuries to Jamie Vardy, Conor Coady and Luke Thomas.

The pre-season recruitment proved problematic. It wasn’t just potential managerial candidates who had concerns over a points deduction from potential PSR punishments. According to sources close to the discussions, players were reluctant to commit. Some players’ agents wanted any contracts to include clauses to protect their clients in the event of a devastating points deduction.

It was announced in September that Leicester had successfully appealed against the Premier League charge and that no points deduction would be immediately forthcoming, but this was delivered a week after the end of the summer window. The issue of jurisdiction remains in arbitration.

The business Leicester did in that window would be a major cause of scrutiny during the season and could be held up as a major factor in their struggles after the managerial change.

Leicester fans protest at the Liverpool game (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s £30million sale to Chelsea boosted the transfer budget and PSR calculation. Cooper got his requested two attacking midfielders to replace him: Facundo Buonanotte on loan from Brighton, and Bilal El Khannouss for an initial £21m from Genk.

Leicester also completed the £14million permanent move of young winger Abdul Fatawu. All three seemed sensible deals.

However, Cooper thought Premier League experience was vital, so he brought in Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, both in their thirties.

Then, despite already having Wilfred Ndidi, Boubakary Soumare, who Leicester failed to move on that summer, Harry Winks and Hamza Choudhury as defensive midfield options, they spent £20million on Oliver Skipp from Tottenham Hotspur, another £13million on central defender Caleb Okoli, and £5million on Chelsea midfielder Michael Golding, who has not played a single minute of first-team football since joining.

Even more puzzling was the late move to bring in striker Odsonne Edouard from Crystal Palace to take up the second and last available Premier League loan, paying a large proportion of his considerable wages to boot.

Cooper and Van Nistelrooy totally disregarded him, making it a transfer catastrophe that hindered their squad strengthening in January, as they couldn’t send him back (and open up another spot for a Premier League loanee) without large financial penalties.

Van Nistelrooy showed little faith in the recent signings (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

The only business they did in January was Parma right-back Woyo Coulibaly for £2million — he has made five appearances, with his lone start ending when he was hooked at half-time of the 4-0 defeat against Brentford.

The transfer decisions were a collective process between the recruitment department, headed by Martyn Glover, Rudkin and the manager at the time, with the manager always having the final say. That recruitment laid the foundation for relegation, as Van Nistelrooy consistently selected only one of the summer recruits, El Khannouss, and the rest did not enhance the starting XI.

The squad was arguably weaker than the one that was promoted, let alone being weaker than the squad that was packed with internationals but relegated two years before.

Van Nistelrooy said he had been promised support in January — a familiar claim made by Rodgers in his final season and Maresca during the previous January window — but again, none was forthcoming because of PSR.

Leicester were left powerless to make significant changes as the season started to run away from them under Van Nistelrooy, but then the Dutchman didn’t seem like a manager keen on making changes.

When Leicester sacked Cooper, they decided not to go for anyone already in situ elsewhere, due to the protracted nature of negotiations and cost of compensation, ruling out Carlos Corberan at West Bromwich Albion, who later moved to Valencia.

They also ruled out another attempt for Potter and even David Moyes, who was available and had a vast track record of success in the Premier League. They wanted someone available and willing.

Van Nistelrooy had been on their radar before after his one season at PSV, and he had just left Manchester United after being Erik ten Hag’s assistant and stepping up as interim for four games, including two wins over Leicester.

Van Nistelrooy watched on — flanked by Khun Top and Rudkin, who was the subject of many chants of protest from the crowd during the season — as Leicester were humbled at Brentford, before he fully took the reins.

A banner flew over the King Power on Sunday (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

Van Nistelrooy promised he was not a football romantic, wedded to one principle, but he was close friends with Maresca, and his philosophy was based around a possession-based side and vigorous pressing.

Cooper had taken a more pragmatic approach. He identified that the style under Maresca, where width was vital and every move was mapped out through training drills, may need changing in the Premier League.

Ultimately, while the game plan was scripted to finite detail under Maresca, Cooper emphasised personal accountability. Van Nistelrooy’s approach wasn’t massively dissimilar and he picked up four points from his first two games, but the ‘honeymoon period’ was incredibly brief.

In his third game, at Newcastle United, the wheels fell off, kicking off a run of 16 defeats in 18 league games.

It quickly became clear Leicester didn’t have enough to stay up (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

The statistics were horrific. A 2-1 away win against Tottenham Hotspur broke a run of seven straight defeats, but Leicester then lost another eight without scoring a single goal.

Home fans have not seen a goal scored on home soil in the league since December 8.

Fans tried to protest, but the general feeling was resignation and apathy as Leicester’s season went from bad to worse under Van Nistelrooy. The players were now so low on confidence and fight that they appeared to be throwing in the towel early.

During the 4-0 home defeat against Newcastle, there were empty seats inside the ground before kick-off and more fans started to leave after the 34th minute, with Leicester three goals down. There were also some empty seats for the visit of Liverpool.

Van Nistelrooy looked like a broken man and the players’ body language illustrated a broken team.

Some, such as Victor Kristiansen and Soumare, had only ever tasted Premier League relegation during their three years at the club. Others, including Winks, were left out in the wilderness after getting on the wrong side of Van Nistelrooy.

Disjointed, dejected, demotivated and defeated. It was a miserable end to a horrendous campaign. Like two years ago, there will be no traditional end-of-season awards dinner.

Sunday’s defeat against Liverpool was the culmination of a series of catastrophic decisions and one of the worst seasons, if not the very worst, in the club’s history.

If the anger and acrimony were bad two years before, this time they were magnified to the point of despair. Some supporters even lost the will to protest, feeling nothing would change.

This time, returning to the Premier League will be much more difficult.

(Top photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

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