There have been just four back-to-back relegations from the Premier League since its inception in 1992.
A fifth looms, and this could be the most depressing of the lot, with 2015-16 champions Leicester City four points from safety in the Championship with four games to go.
Unlike owner Khun Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, Jamie Vardy was there to witness this descent steepen on Saturday, the Cremonese striker helplessly watching on from the stands as his beloved former club lost to Swansea City.
Vardy was one of the heroes of that Premier League triumph. A club legend who may well have been in town to reminisce, to shoot interviews and recall that heady campaign, but any hopes of wider celebrations for this special anniversary have surely been extinguished. Leicester are their own party poopers.
Inside the King Power Stadium, as another relegation beckons, some supporters have called for louder and angrier protests against the club’s ownership.
The problem is, the majority of fans no longer have the energy. They clap for clapping’s sake before dreading the next 90 minutes.
On Saturday, they saw a shot hit the post, they saw a shot cleared off the line, and then saw 15 seconds sum up their season: a free-kick near Swansea’s box, a basic pass intercepted, and then a blistering counter-attack resulting in Zan Vipotnik scoring the game’s only goal.
It came as no surprise, and a damaging set of weekend results have cut Leicester adrift of both this Saturday’s opponents Portsmouth – in what is a crucial match on the south coast – and Oxford United.
Only Sheffield Wednesday, already relegated and on minus four points after being deducted 18 points, are below the Foxes, who themselves were docked six points and saw an appeal rejected last week.
Deduction or not, Leicester would still be in trouble. With those six points they would merely be 20th, a point behind Blackburn Rovers, who as the only Premier League winners to have since played third-tier football perhaps best recognise the path Leicester are on.
The modern game though is a far cry from the 1995 version, and even the one in which Leicester completed the 5,000-1 job. The gulf gets greater by the year, and now the Premier League has become the de facto Super League, the cost of relegation is both dear and dire.
No club wants to go down – as Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United are all fearing – and you certainly do not want to be two tiers away.
Particularly for a club of Leicester’s size. No Championship club pays their players more, a symbol of their desperation when trying to cling to their Premier League status, and now they could pay double the price.
Leicester’s decade of highlights and lowlights
- 2015-16 – Premier League champions
- 2016-17 – Champions League quarter-finalists
- 2017-18 – Ninth in Premier League
- 2018-19 – Ninth in Premier League
- 2019-20 – Fifth in PL + Carabao Cup semi-final
- 2020-21 – FA Cup winners
- 2021-22 – Community Shield winners + Conference League semi-final
- 2022-23 – Relegated to Championship (18th)
- 2023-24 – Promoted to Premier League as champions
- 2024-25 – Relegated to Championship (18th)
- 2025-26 – Relegated again?
A drop to League One would make their finances more unstable. Whether manager Gary Rowett will stay to pick up the pieces this summer is unclear, but what really matters is how the next decade will play out given Top’s apparent detachment.
This indifference has trickled down, and rather than sleepwalking towards a second straight relegation, Leicester have been awake to the fact this fairy tale ended years ago.
Now they are the cautionary tale, a warning of what could await those who have spent too freely without thinking, or caring, about the consequences, and while Leicester fans deserve better, they feel as powerless as Vardy to prevent it.
A change at the top does not look likely. Relegation does. And with apathy a mood far worse than anger, it is a sign they are resigned to their fate.
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