Groundhog Day for Leicester City - Hazzetta dello Sport: Chelsea (A)
It was a lovely weekend. Spring was sprung. I saw someone pegging their washing out. Light jacket weather. No stress or bother.
I went non-league. I relaxed with a coffee on Saturday afternoon. Watched a documentary about a cycling race which goes across the continent of Europe.
There was no fume about the starting line-up. No anger that Vestergaard can’t run. No question that it’s a waste of your own valuable time watching us repeatedly making the same errors. The Telegraph article on Saturday morning raised a laugh rather than being annoyed. We’ve hit the gallows humour now.
The tone on social media during and after the West Ham game provided the comfort of confirmation rather than angered meltdown. A performance which to many felt worse than Brentford. Zero effort and little passion was a receipt for an uninteresting non-event of a game played at pre-season pace. On TNT Sports, the pundits were realising where the ‘ungratefulness’ comes from.
We are resigned to an inevitable outcome. Much like the news that promising 15-year-old Jeremy Monga is to join Manchester City. In fairness, the club are largely powerless, but the main takes of both scenarios have a single answer.
Please Leicester City Football Club, just try.
Try to win football games. Try to keep your prized academy assets. Try to undertake actions to repair the relationship between fanbase and club.
The zingers of the neverending news source that is Leicester City Football Club have been relatively quiet this week. Hence the source of discussion has been rather different. The BBC Radio Leicester podcast, The State of Leicester City, became central.
While the Hans Zimmer-esque score and hyperbolic narration befitted a true crime podcast, the collective essence hit bullseye. A variety of ‘talking heads’ from different positions all making the same consistent observations. Poor communication, a lack of strategy, missed opportunities. This consensus is dominant among the fanbase. It is boring repeating the same words and themes.
It is the Groundhog Day of Leicester City. The same criticism, the same conversations are being had weekly. The club doesn’t react, hence the perception that we have just given up.
In the last two weeks, I’ve seen clubs as low down the pyramid as Peterborough, Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury publish communication pieces where a chairman or sporting director publicly speak directly to the fans about poor performance and reasoning behind the club’s decision-making. It is not a silver bullet but also, it’s not hard. It’s key for these clubs that they keep communicating; ticketing income is huge and ensuring that doesn’t dip is pivotal for forthcoming seasons.
Leicester City can be reliant on that never wavering. The demand has always been higher than the capacity. The TV revenue picks up the slack for cashflow too. However, both of those may be altering.
General sale signs are up on the LCFC website for most games now. Arsenal fans were in the home sections on their visit and there is an expectation Manchester United will be the same. The club have self-fulfilled their own destiny. By only ever focusing on the immediate demand, they forgot about future demand. The eyes, if ever there, went away from the biggest part of the club: the fans.
This is more demonstrative when trying to understand what the responsibilities are of the directors at board level. There is nothing of substance on the official website but search them on LinkedIn and you’ll find a job description. A perfect summary.
As the tone of this Hazzetta is reoccurrence, how apt that we face Chelsea who are well into the Enzo Maresca season cycle we suffered last season. The iffy post-Christmas period where the opposition can neutralise Maresca’s tactics is here. In domestic competition in 2025, Chelsea have only beaten Southampton, West Ham, Wolves and Morecambe. Our games during March last season had the same pattern of a defence giving a goal away and then Maresca being reluctant to move away from his tactics to break down the opposition.
If by default rather than design, Ruud van Nistelrooy suffers from the same repeat process system. Despite poor results, there has been little attempt to try an alternative. No three or five at the back. No secondary section to support Vardy. Soumare remains an everpresent despite his form completely downturning. The priority when appointing Leicester City’s next manager should have been tactical flexibility. An admirable way of trying to bridge the quality gap.
However, we all know that on Sunday, we are unlikely to challenge Chelsea. We should know the tactics; we know the patterns of possession, but it will fall into the Groundhog Day of 2024/25. Soft goals, minimal fightback and a resigned, surrendered tone. Over the coming weeks, it’s highly likely that Wolves will push further away from the relegation zone and all but finish the bottom half of the Premier League. The prospects are not only bleak but unappetising.
It’s a game on Sunday where a team of confidence in their own ability with the capabilities to be tactically clever would really fancy their chances against Chelsea. Alas, we have none of that and a dose of apathy amongst the playing squad.
We are the image of the stick man poking meme.
Do something.
