“It’s been dubbed ‘El Crapico!’”
Martin Sanders has a smile on his face as he makes that comment. Better to laugh than cry these days.
It’s an hour before kick-off outside the King Power Stadium, where Southampton, the club Sanders has fanatically followed for the past 34 years, are playing Leicester City. Second from bottom in the Premier League hosting bottom of the table. Except that only tells half the story.
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“The worst game in Premier League history” was the headline in one of the tabloid newspapers in the UK on the eve of the game. Two Premier League clubs had never met this late in the season with so few combined points (29) and so many defeats (51).
Remarkably, they were still selling half-and-half scarves on the stalls outside the stadium.
Half-and-half scarves were on sale outside Saturday’s match. (Stuart James/The Athletic)
This was always going to be a day for gallows humour.
Unfortunately for David Webb, who was making his debut as a Premier League referee at 49 years old, he ended up being part of the story too, after Leicester’s Jordan Ayew accidentally poleaxed him. The sight of Jamie Vardy bringing the game to a halt by reaching down to blow Webb’s whistle, which was still attached to the referee’s wrist as he lay prone on the turf, was totally in keeping with the occasion.
“We want our ref back,” sang both sets of supporters as Webb was helped down the tunnel by medical staff from both clubs, followed by chants of ‘Who the f***ing hell are you?’ when his replacement — Sam Barrott, the fourth official — emerged 12 minutes later.
At least Southampton and Leicester supporters haven’t lost their sense of humour.
It’s genuinely hard to do justice to just how miserable the campaign has been for both clubs, which is all the more worrying when you consider how much Southampton (£100million) and Leicester (£80m) spent after winning promotion.
Marooned at the bottom of the table and essentially doing nothing more than making up the numbers since the start of the season, Southampton became the first team in Premier League history to be relegated with seven matches remaining. Leicester, who had picked up only four points from their previous 19 matches before this 2-0 win, had their fate sealed a fortnight later. Ipswich Town were relegated a week after that. All three promoted clubs were out of their depth.
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Most people would probably cut Ipswich some slack. They were returning to the top flight for the first time since 2002 and had been playing in League One as recently as two years ago. But Southampton and Leicester knew the Premier League landscape well.
In the case of Southampton, they had spent 10 out of the previous 11 seasons in the Premier League. Granted, they struggled at times during those years, but there’s a difference between circling the plug-hole and disappearing in record time.
As for Leicester, Vardy probably put it best a few weeks ago when he described the season as a “s***show”.
Incredibly, his goal on Saturday was the first that Leicester have scored at the King Power Stadium in the Premier League for 146 days, going back to early December, when Russell Martin was still in charge of Southampton. The aggregate scoreline across Leicester’s previous nine home league matches, all defeats, was 0-22.
Southampton have had two new managers since Leicester’s barren run at home started, but only recorded one league victory. Indeed, the bar could not be set any lower when it comes to their motivation for the remainder of this season.
“All we want to do is try to beat Derby’s record, just that extra point,” Sanders said outside the stadium before the game, alluding to the record low 11 points that Derby County accumulated in the 2007-08 season.
Martin Sanders is still smiling despite Southampton’s troubles. (Stuart James/The Athletic)
“We’re going to go down as one of the worst teams ever, but not to have that on our record is a big thing. I always say about Robbie Savage’s image … he’s remembered for that Derby County team. And Jack Stephens or Taylor Harwood-Bellis surely wouldn’t want to be associated with (something like) that,” Sanders said.
Winning another point is, however, easier said than done for Southampton, especially now that the Leicester fixture has gone without one. Their final three games are against Manchester City and Arsenal at home, with a trip to Everton sandwiched in between.
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“We are bottom of the league. There’s no dressing that up,” Simon Rusk, their interim manager, said just before the match, talking about the challenge he faced after being asked to take over from Ivan Juric with relegation confirmed. “What we haven’t been able to (do), and were never going to be able to do, is become solid and be either level or in front at half-time and create loads of chances. If we had done all of those things, I’d probably be able to bring world peace as well.”
Rusk has got a job on his hands just trying to keep the Southampton fans happy right now. “You don’t know what you’re doing!” chanted the travelling contingent after Rusk withdrew Mateus Fernandes and replaced him with Will Smallbone shortly before the hour.
Rusk thanks Southampton fans despite their displeasure (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Bathed in sunshine in a corner of the stadium, the Southampton supporters pointedly sang Fernandes’ name for the remainder of the match.
“I was a little taken aback by the fan’s reaction,” Rusk said, before explaining that Fernandes had recently been suffering from a chest infection and travelled back to Portugal for personal reasons.
By the time Fernandes departed against Leicester, the home team were two goals to the good and six-year-old Kush Parmar was well on the way to getting his pre-match wish granted.
“I’ve been a fan all my life,” Hitesh, Kush’s father, said when asked before kick-off why he’s still coming to matches at a time when some other Leicester fans have given up on the season. “We support (the club) where we come from. We’re committed and …”
“… We want to win against Southampton!” interrupted Kush with a big smile on his face.
Kush Parmar and son Hitesh still smiling despite relegation. (Stuart James/The Athletic)
Kush wasn’t born when Leicester won the Premier League in 2016, but there are permanent reminders of that fairytale at the King Power Stadium, where a montage of the club’s greatest moments is played on the giant screens shortly before kick-off at every match.
The contrast between then and now is stark in every sense, from the performances on the pitch to the supporters’ feelings about the way their club is being run.
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“Sack the board” chanted the Leicester fans only three minutes after Vardy had given the home team the lead with a lovely first-time finish from a Bilal El Khannouss cross. It was Vardy’s 199th goal in Leicester colours (he departed to a standing ovation later on) and the team’s first at home in the league in 826 minutes of football.
“We scored a goal!” sang the Leicester supporters, laughing at themselves.
“We’re going down with the Leicester,” responded the Southampton fans.
What happened next wasn’t in the script but felt strangely fitting. Coming up on the blind side of Webb, Ayew unintentionally cleaned the official out, knocking him to the floor. There were only 22 minutes gone, and it soon became clear that Webb couldn’t continue.
“I felt sorry for the ref,” Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Leicester manager, said. “He hit a brick wall called Jordan Ayew. I haven’t seen a body-check like that on a referee before.”
Webb had been waiting 29 years for the opportunity to referee a game at the highest level in England. Vardy had probably been waiting that long to do what he did next — blow a referee’s whistle without the referee knowing anything about it.
It was, quite simply, classic Vardy. “He’s instinctive, not only in the penalty box but also in moments like that,” Van Nistelrooy added, smiling.
Ayew landed a blow of a different kind just before half-time when he drilled home Leicester’s second after his free-kick had come back off the Southampton wall. That goal quelled any more protests from the home supporters.
Leicester had come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Southampton in October, but there was never any prospect of a role reversal on Saturday. Instead, Southampton succumbed to a humiliating 28th league defeat of the season, which confirms they will finish bottom.
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“At the end of the day, we’re not good enough,” Rusk added, looking like a man who has been given the job for seven years, not seven matches.
The good news is that Webb has made a full recovery. How long it will take Leicester and Southampton to do the same is anyone’s guess.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling / Getty Images)
