Leicester City have a big problem: change is expensive

The overspend on wages, the poor recruitment, the strategic failings – supporters deserve to learn how recovery will be planned

Monday, 7 April was the low point of Leicester City’s desperate season. It wasn’t just that they became the first team in the top four tiers of English football to lose eight home league games in a row without scoring. It wasn’t just that Ruud van Nistelrooy had talked about a fast start in a must-win game and they found themselves 2-0 down after 11 minutes.

Leicester’s starting XI that evening contained only one of the 10 players they had recruited since promotion at a cost of roughly £80m. It contained only one outfielder who had been signed the previous season – Conor Coady. Eight outfield players who had proven themselves incapable of survival in 2022-23 started the match and they were two years older and seemingly less wise. There is rolling a die and hoping for the best and there is rolling a die and hoping for a seven.

The decline of Leicester can be reasonably spun as a cautionary tale for every ambitious non-elite club who achieves their miracle. You assemble a brilliant team, you fight at the top, you win and you inspire. But then you quickly learn that yesterday means everything and nothing. The memories of 2015-16 and beyond cannot be taken away. It is just as well: everything else has been ripped up.