Football League World
·21 aprile 2025
Gary Lineker makes Leicester City plea after Premier League relegation confirmed

In partnership with
Yahoo sportsFootball League World
·21 aprile 2025
Leicester City's 1-0 loss to Liverpool on Sunday confirmed their relegation to the Championship
Gary Lineker has claimed he’d like to see Leicester City come together at the top of the club in order to bounce back from relegation to the Championship.
A 1-0 loss at home to league leaders Liverpool confirmed their drop from the Premier League, just 12 months after promotion to the top flight.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have not scored in a home league game since 8 December in a 2-2 draw with Brighton.
The Foxes will now be preparing for life back in the second tier, having suffered relegation for the second time in three seasons.
Lineker believes that Leicester have regressed back to the status they held prior to their initial promotion back to the Premier League in 2014, becoming a yo-yo club once again.
However, he is hopeful of keeping the squad together, suggesting a promotion push will be on the cards next year if they can sort out their issues at the top.
“It’s been a mad decade, a really mad decade,” said Lineker, via The Rest Is Football podcast.
“If you’d have told me 12 years ago that Leicester City will win the Premier League and win the FA Cup and then get relegated twice, a, I’d have said ‘are you completely out of your mind?’ and b, I would’ve snapped your hand off.
“Because those memories that we’ve had, I mean basically what we’ve done we’ve gone back to being Leicester City.
“Leicester have also been a kind of yo-yo team, down one season, up the next, that’s pretty much our history.
“I think we spent most of it in the top flight, but I’m sure hopefully we’ll bounce back.
“I’d like to see the club come together at the top and have a little bit more confidence that way.
“But I looked at the players on the pitch [Sunday] and if they can keep, which I’m sure they probably will, keep the vast majority of them they’ll be very competitive in the Championship.
“And I think as well, to be perfectly honest, this has been coming for weeks and weeks, and it’s been inevitable, so it’s not like you’ve suddenly lost.
“I remember two years ago it all happened on the last day of the season. That was really horribly distressing.
“There’s been a degree of certainty about this for quite a considerable amount of time.”
Leicester have failed to win any of their last 10 league games.
To go so long without a goal at home is a really big concern for Leicester ahead of their return to the Championship.
Jamie Vardy isn’t the player he once was, and cannot be relied upon long-term to steer the team in the right direction.
Performances this season have been massively underwhelming under both Steve Cooper and Van Nistelrooy, so it’s clear that signings will be needed in the summer.
However, their financial position remains uncertain now that they’re out of the Premier League, so it remains to be seen whether money will be available to spend in the transfer window.