How did it come to this? Leicester's shocking downward spiral leaves them odds-on to be relegated again | OneFootball

Leicester's dramatic fall from grace

There was a time when Leicester City felt untouchable. The club that defied probability, logic and the natural order of English football to lift the Premier League title in 2016 became a symbol of possibility and hope. A decade on, that same club finds itself on the brink of falling into League One. It is not just a decline. It is a collapse of epic proportions.

How does something like this happen?

The easy answer is that football moves fast. The harder truth is that Leicester did not move with it.

In the immediate aftermath of their title win, Leicester were seen as one of the smart guys at the table.

Savvy recruitment, a clear identity and a dressing room built on cohesion rather than ego allowed them to punch above their weight. For a time, they sustained it. European nights arrived. An FA Cup success followed. There were even flirtations with the Champions League places again. But beneath the surface, cracks were forming.

Recruitment, once the club's greatest strength, became inconsistent. The model that had unearthed gems began to falter as the margins for error narrowed. Selling key players was part of the strategy - it had to be - but replacing them proved increasingly difficult. Leicester went from being ahead of the curve to chasing it.

There is also the question of identity. Somehow Leicester have gone from the expansive and brave style of Brendan Rodgers and Enzo Maresca to the firefighting of Gary Rowett in just three seasons.

This season the squad has become a patchwork of lost players rather than one with a plan.

Relegation from the Premier League should have been a reset. Instead, it became a catalyst for further decline.

English Sky Bet Championship: English Sky Bet Championship (Relegation 2025/26)

Friday 8 August, 8.00pm

Oxford Utd

Back 1.55

Lay 1.67

Portsmouth

Back 1.71

Lay 1.73

Leicester

Back 1.87

Lay 1.89

Blackburn

Back 7.8

Lay 8.8

West Brom

Back 7.2

Lay 7.6

Parachute payments can offer opportunity, but they also bring pressure of expectations of immediate return. Leicester did not handle that pressure well this summer amid the backdrop of financial penalties to negotiate. Recruitment has lacked coherence and the club seemed caught between rebuilding for the future and chasing instant promotion. They have achieved neither.

Is there still value in backing Leicester to go down?

Strip the name away for a second. Forget the Premier League title, forget the FA Cup win, forget the idea of Leicester as a "big club" at this level. If this was Team A, a side sitting in the bottom three with five games to go, one point from safety and having played a game more than the team above them, what price are we talking? Heavy odds-on all day long.

But we can get 1.9 on the Betfair Exchange. There remains hope from the markets that they can still pull themselves clear.

The badge is doing the heavy lifting.

One win in their last 15 Championship matches. That is relegation form. Over that period, only Sheffield Wednesday have picked up fewer points. You don't need expected goals models or underlying metrics to dress that up - it's a team that is consistently failing to get the job done.

And now look at the run-in.

They still have to go to Fratton Park to face Portsmouth in what is shaping up to be a straight shootout. Call it what it is - a relegation playoff in all but name. The issue for Leicester? That type of game is completely at odds with what this squad has shown all season.

When the pressure is on, they've folded. When the intensity rises, they've shrunk. There's been a softness to them, both mentally and physically, that makes it very hard to trust them in a hostile environment where every tackle, every second ball, every decision is magnified.

Fratton Park won't be forgiving. It will be feral. If Leicester don't win that game, Portsmouth are then in such a strong spot. Leicester will be much shorter than 1.9.

And that's before you even consider the psychological weight of the situation. This isn't a group playing with freedom. This is a team that knows what's on the line - and recent evidence suggests that knowledge has been a burden, not a motivator. The same is happening to Tottenham in the Premier League.

This feels like a slide that is taking them to what could just be a second relegation on the bounce - the weight of it all has become so suffocating for all concerned with the club. They just can't seem to shift the trajectory.