The Foxes scavenging for points!

By on March 31, 2015

I thought it best to write this relegation piece considering Leicester’s return to the Premier League looks set to be (almost) shorter than Steven Gerrard’s recent fare on the pitch at Old Trafford. Leicester spent big for a promoted side in the summer and winter transfer windows, so why do they find themselves sitting bottom of the table?

The season started reasonably well for the East Midlands of England club, and the Foxes beat Manchester United in a thrilling 5-3 victory early on; but since, have only gone downhill. Jamie Vardy inspired that inspirational victory over Louis van Gaal’s side, yet has only found the back of the net once. It’s only a shame that the Premier League points system doesn’t give heavier weight to bigger clubs, for Leicester have lost many key relegation six-pointers since. The Foxes were able to score in September, but given Leonardo Ulloa’s recent goal drought, they’ve fallen further behind the likes of QPR and Aston Villa, who have Charlie Austin and Christian Benteke to back them, respectively.

The Thai-owned club attempted to rectify this issue in the January transfer window by spending a club-record of £9 million to secure the services of Andrej Kramaric; however, Kramaric has not had an immediate impact having scored only one FA Cup goal (scoring in Leicester’s defeat Aston Villa) and one Premier League goal. Kramaric clearly has quality, but it takes time for foreign players to settle into English football — especially given Leicester’s drought, far too many expectations has been placed upon the Croatian international’s shoulders. Leicester brought in two young players from Manchester United on the transfer deadline last summer, as well, but neither Nick Powell nor Tom Lawrence have broken into the first team yet.

There is an argument that Leicester have been unlucky to lose on a lot of occasions — they did score three times against Tottenham Hotspur, offering some hope of a late-season turnaround — but Leicester have lost by small margins on so many occasions that, simply, their mindset seems skewered. A team may be unlucky to lose a game on a few occasions, at the hands of the referee or rub of the green, but not consistently throughout thirty-eight games — the luck evens out, so to say. For Leicester, it’s a bigger issue doing with quality.

The club invested a lot in ‘glamor’ signings such as Champions League winner Esteban Cambiasso, but can be criticized for keeping much of the same core team that achieved promotion. They have been able to win a few one-off games, but over a whole season have struggled in consistently getting results week in and week out.

The antics of manager Nigel Pearson have only brought poor tidings, as well. Both the club and the manager have been skating on thin ice this season, and whilst Pearson appeared on the brink of the sack earlier this campaign, the owners to quashed those Twitter rumors by retaining his fiery services. It isn’t just bad form which has troubled the manager’s authority this season, but also violent conduct, as Pearson has been involved in many a fracas this season (a theme that has unsettling been creeping into the Premier League further this season). Pearson needed to be held back like Mario Balotelli was by his own supporters in Liverpool’s home defeat to Manchester United (‘Superman’ was holding back ‘Super Mario’), when he was having some beef with Crystal Palace’s James McArthur. McArthur has subsequently been accused of diving, however, he showed the world his best impression of Tom Daley on a different date, as (ironically) pointed out by his own manager at Palace, Alan Pardew, who failed to keep his head on the touchline last season when at Newcastle United.

Pearson is clearly not a fan of Frozen, because he is not the type of manager to let it go; rather he went all Gordon Ramsey with the expletives when a journalist mentioned the words ‘waxing’ and ‘wanning’. It was not the best-worded question, but Pearson needn’t have taken the bait and launched such a tirade.

Like those King Richard III bones found in the car park, Leicester look quite dead and buried save a remarkable turnaround — they currently sit seven full points from safety. In the same week the notorious King Richard III was finally laid to rest, after being discovered in a Leicester council car park in 2012, and after Zayn Malik announced his departure from One Direction, Leicester look set to be heading in one direction: down.

Photo credit: Walkers Stadium on Flickr

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.