Leicester are on the brink of relegation from the Premier League after a disappointingseason
Seven years ago, Leicester lifted the Premier League trophy. They are now on the brink of relegation after a miserable spell. The Foxes, who drew 0-0 at Newcastle on Monday, will avoid the drop if they beat West Ham this weekend on the final day of the season and Everton lost at home to Bournemouth.
Dean Smith produced a defensively focused approach against Newcastle and Leicester could not fire until stoppage time, but they kept their first clean sheet in the league since November. It was a great start to the day in 2016, when Claudio Ranieri produced a legendary victory for the year,overcoming a terrible chance of winning the title after Leicester managed to avoid relegation last year.
Despite this amazing success, the Italian did not stay long at the King Power Stadium, but the arrival of Brendan Rodgers in 2019 gave the Thai club a boost. They finished fifth in the Premier League two years in a row - missing out on Champions League qualification - and will win the FA Cup for the first time in 2021.
Even last year, the club finishedeighth and reached the semi-finals of the Europa League. Butthings started to go downhillfor Leicester in the first game of the season when they went 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Brentford.
What followed was a horror show as they lost six matches in a row and despite occasional slips they could not extricatethemselves from danger. Leicester have scored more goals - 49 - than any other club in the bottom half of the table,but their defensive woes have cost them dearly.
Smith, who was appointed caretaker manager whenRodgers left via a one-man dealin April, was not disappointedafter his side's defensive dutiesagainst Newcastle. "We haven'tkept a clean sheet in a long timeand the reason we're here in my opinion is because of that," he said.
The former Aston Villa boss added: “If it's too little, too late, who knows? But we've moved it back to Sunday now."
Editing problems
Leicester have been far from a successful campaign with Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N'GoloKante and Kasper Schmeichel playing in their winning side.
They continued to recruit well, bringing in players of the caliberof Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Wesley Fofana. Fofana signed for Chelsea last year after Schmeichel left Nice, depriving the club of management and experience on the pitch. Vardy is a force to be reckoned with right now. The signings of Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare, Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes did not have the desired impact.
Rodgers sounded the alarm in the opening week of the season, saying he "didn't get the help the team needed in the market". "I came to Leicester to compete and I was able to do that before," he said in September. "You need to add some quality, but in the last two windows we haven't been able to do that."
Two of Leicester's star names -Tielemans and Maddison - couldleave the club if they go down. Vardy, for a long time the team's greatest player, is 36 years old and has performed well this season, while centre-back Jonny Evans has made just12 appearances all season.
Defeat in the Championship was not the financial problem it once was, with the club being written off by a generous parachute payment for three years. But missing out on thePremier League for the first time in nine years would be a blow to the pride of a club that recently enjoyed the unexpected joy of silverware.
It will be a long way to the top.
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