By the stage Ben Nelson headed against the bar in stoppage time and then Luke Thomas nodded against the inside of a post, it felt as if Leicester City were missing the chance to move into the promotion playoffs, so dominant had they been in the second half of this absorbing 2-2 draw with Stoke City.
Yet after this month’s six-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules, against which they are appealing, Ben Wilmot’s 89th-minute equaliser dropped Leicester back into the Championship’s relegation zone, placing the challenge facing them and their new manager, Gary Rowett, into stark context.
Leicester’s problems are well documented but, with 17 players set to leave this summer and protests planned against King Power, their owner, at next weekend’s home game with Norwich, avoiding a second successive relegation now resembles the holy grail. Rowett, a former Leicester player, has been appointed until the end of the season. If Harry Winks, the former England player, and co can galvanise the composure and self-belief displayed in the second half, they are certainly good enough to stay up.
Chris Parker, 44, from Chester, blamed the club’s fall on the “complete mismanagement of the team”. “How they got into this financial mess without thinking we’d be charged is beyond me,” he said. “Poor recruitment, poor management overall – we’d take 21st place now.”
How effective protests against the club’s ownership can be is a moot point, even if Leicester fans’ frustrations are understandable. Approaching the 10th anniversary of the 500-1 Premier League title triumph, the Srivaddhanaprabha family have invested £420m into the club over their 16 years at the helm, even if the engagement of the chair, Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, has been questioned this season.
“I’ve been a supporter for 50 years and I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly,” Keith Cook, a supporter from Loughborough, said. “What Top and his family have done for the club and for the city is fantastic. I don’t mind him being in charge, but he needs good people around him.
“Things have got to change. But I’m not with the protests. It’s a case of steadying the ship, get to mid-table and kick on from there.”
Moves are afoot to add to the football knowledge in the boardroom, with appointments pending for a sporting director, a new role; Susan Whelan’s replacement as CEO; and a new commercial director.
Stoke fans had barely had to wait three minutes before they could bait their former manager with the accusation that “Gary Rowett, your football is shit,” after Wilmot headed home his first goal from Aaron Cresswell’s cross. Their Leicester counterparts wasted no time in piling in with the self-deprecating humour that is the hallmark of a club in freefall. “How shit must you be?” they retorted. “It’s only 1-0.”
Managers come and go; club executives can spin through revolving doors; players can walk. For Leicester, the one constant over the decade that also included winning the FA Cup and two relegations is Jon Rudkin, the director of football. Sure enough, either side of the former Potter Asmir Begovic preventing Cresswell’s shot making it 2-0, the sellout away contingent were chanting: “We want Rudkin out,” and: “We want our Leicester back.” Stephy Mavididi was castigated on the BBC live blog for going down to tie his shoelaces four times within the first 20 minutes.
Within an hour, however, 2,850 Leicester fans were roaring: “Leicester till I die,” and: “Always believing,” with no evident irony. No wonder Cook, the fan from Loughborough, had said: “Leicester fans are very fickle.”
The turnaround in Leicester’s performance in this game augurs well, even if Stoke have now not won in six home games. Not only had Divine Mukasa, on loan from Manchester City, equalised with a fortunate cross, but Winks had taken control of the game. Mukasa, 18, who has made six appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side this season, back-heeled a pass for Winks to strike his first league goal for more than two years from the edge of the penalty area 14 minutes from time. Even though Wilmot stole clear at the back post to equalise from Sorba Thomas’s cross – isn’t it wonderful when there’s no video assistant referee? – this was definitely a point gained for Leicester, ending their run of four straight defeats.
Jordan James, Abdul Fatawu and Jordan Ayew, injured on the eve of the game, took to nine the number of players missing but Winks and Mukasa displayed their Premier League quality. Rowett said: “If you’re a footballer, regardless of whether you’ve got three years or six months left [on your contract], there is no benefit to not performing well, to showing people what you’re all about.
“If someone like Winks starts to show what a good footballer he is and we can enjoy that, work with him and celebrate that a little bit, then provided we achieve what we want to achieve … then that’s something we need to come together on. Every player will have individual ambitions but you have to look at your mate standing next to you and you need him to help you out to achieve those things. So you need to be a team, to work hard as a team, and then individuals can go and perform and play really well within that.”
