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It has looked inevitable for months, but Leicester City are now officially, mathematically, set to be a Championship team next season, and fans are livid.
After storming to the Championship title last season, some had hoped and expected that Leicester City might be able to return to the Premier League and re-establish themselves as a top flight team.
Indeed, we are less than a decade on from their incredible Premier League title-winning campaign of 2015/16, and yet we’re now witnessing a second relegation in three years for the Foxes.
It’s a sorry state of affairs for the club, and the fans have had to endure a mightily difficult and dismal season, but the final nail in the coffin was finally hammered home by Liverpool on Sunday.
Leicester City are officially relegated to the Championship
We now know that Leicester will be part of the 2025/26 Championship campaign, following Southampton back down to the second tier.
The club announced the news in a bizarre way on Twitter/X, writing: “Today’s result means our place in the 25/26 Championship has been confirmed.”
The odd phrasing of this, as many have suggested, almost implies some kind of success, while the club has been criticised for not simply saying it as it is and admitting they have been relegated.
Among the replies, one Leicester fan wrote: “It’s frustrating. How can you be relegated twice since you became champions? This was actually 2015/16. You still have Jamie Vardy as your lead striker since 2015. Are you serious?”
Another added: “Two relegations in three years, useless summer signings outside of Bilal El Khannouss, and 2 of the worst managerial appointments that could’ve been made. This club has no future while Top is in charge. We have deadweight players on 100,000 a week and our only January signing can’t even make the matchday squad!”
Many supporters have a pretty negative outlook on the whole situation, it seems. One said, “We’ll be there a few years if not in League One. This squad isn’t good enough to bounce back,” while another added, “We will be there no matter what but some BIG changes now need to be made ready for next season’s push to bounce back.”
Meanwhile, our own Callum Boyle was already fearing the worst before kick-off, writing: “A second relegation in three years awaits today. A combination of naivety, failure to learn from mistakes and endless mismanagement at the top and a side who knew their fate in December, coasting ever since. That doesn’t deserve applause at full time.”
The future looks pretty bleak for Leicester City
With another relegation under their belt, financial chaos going on behind the scenes, and a disillusioned fanbase, it’s hard to imagine things going well for Leicester City next season.
On paper, they should be one of the favourites to go back up, but you can surely expect an exodus of players and indeed staff flooding out of Leicester this summer.
We already know that Ruud van Nistelrooy is likely to depart, which means a complete rebuild from top to bottom. Lee Carsley is mooted as a possible replacement, which could be a positive, especially if he can help develop youngsters like Jeremy Monga and Will Alves.
In many ways, stripping the club apart and starting again might be a good thing for the Foxes. But, it would almost certainly mean that the fans will need to brace themselves for a few years stuck in the second tier, is all.
For most fans, that would probably be bearable enough, as long as the board itself moves along and allows Leicester to embark on a new era after this latest catastrophe.