LEICESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 20: Bilal El Khannouss of Leicester looks dejected after the Premier … More League match between Leicester City FC and Liverpool FC at The King Power Stadium on April 20, 2025 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was a blessing for Leicester City that the result sealing relegation would come in a match filled with other distractions.<\/p>\n
Liverpool could have been crowned champions at the King Power stadium had Arsenal dropped points earlier in the day. But the Gunners\u2019 routing of Ipswich meant the club had to make do with a win, putting them on the precipice of glory.<\/p>\n
The fact that Trent Alexander-Arnold scored the goal, as talk swirls of him leaving for Real Madrid, only added to the visitor\u2019s domination of the postgame headlines.<\/p>\n
There was also the fact that for Leicester City, demotion has become a matter of when, not if, a long, long time ago. The previous 20 games have yielded just one win and two draws, which the term \u2018relegation form\u2019 doesn\u2019t even really begin to cover.<\/p>\n
Manager Ruud van Nistelrooy reflected as much in his statements after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed that it\u2019s a definite now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe kept hoping and fighting, but we saw the gap growing over the last weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you see it coming, although we never gave up and we shifted the focus towards the future to use these games and finish the season as best as possible. Next season, the Championship will start, and it is my job to do the best things possible for the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m working in the coming weeks; it is my job to do everything in the best interests of Leicester City.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a dismal run as head coach, van Nistelrooy spoke hopefully about continuing as boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to use this time to get better,\u201d he told broadcaster Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
LEICESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 20: Leicester City Manager Ruud van Nistelrooy after the Premier League … More match between Leicester City and Liverpool at King Power Stadium on April 20, 2025 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images\/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Leicester City FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m waiting on the clarity of the club and how they want to continue. It is the goal to lead the club. I have to wait on how the club sees things and take it from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club will continue and it is my job to put the club in the best place possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dI hope [to find out if I will stay] soon. The new season starts very soon and preparation needs to start to move forward. The sooner, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question that van Nistelrooy\u2019s statement that time is needed to \u201cget better\u201d is – for what?<\/p>\n
Leicester City ran away with the Championship title in the season before this. So, for the \u201cgetting better\u201d to have actual substance, it would need to be about a possible return to the Premier League in a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
That sounds like a bizarre state of affairs. But disturbingly, the Foxes are far from the only team trapped in the limbo of being too good for the division below but way off the top league.<\/p>\n
Southampton and Ipswich Town, promoted alongside Leicester City, are already relegated and almost down.<\/p>\n
All three sides were promoted from the Championship, looking a class above the rest of the league.<\/p>\n
Yet they have rarely looked like even coming close to surviving. The rest of the Premier League\u2019s 17 clubs have practically had to plan for another year in the top division since January, so poor have the newly elected clubs been.<\/p>\n
Even the players have felt it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to look at ourselves as players in the mirror,\u201d reflected Leicester City\u2019s Conor Coady postgame.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to now, what\u2019s happened has happened. We have to try and put this club in a better position come the summer because we haven\u2019t been good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve took a bit of stick and we\u2019ll continue to take stick because it\u2019s deserved. From minute one this season, we haven’t been at a level to fully compete in the Premier League and you have to be because it\u2019ll chew you up and spit you out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something we have to look at because we\u2019re absolutely devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shameful thing about Leicester City deteriorating into a club trapped in purgatory is that the club has been the shining example of English soccer meritocracy for the past decade.<\/p>\n
Next season marks 10 years since the club did the impossible by turning a narrow relegation escape following promotion into an incredible title-winning campaign during the second campaign.<\/p>\n
A series of top-six finishes and an FA Cup win followed that mind-blowing achievement.<\/p>\n
If the team\u2019s success was impossible, it\u2019s hard to quantify the difficulty level now. The chasm they bridged in fairytale fashion has widened to such an extent that Premier League survival alone is starting to look miraculous for promoted teams.<\/p>\n
At the top of the division, competition has rarely been so healthy. The battle for the Champions League cascades down the table, and next season promises to have one of the most open title races in decades.<\/p>\n
But for the three new teams arriving in the league, the gap has widened, and so far, it\u2019s already hard to see how a promoted side will survive.<\/p>\n
Leicester, on the other hand, must reassess and look to rebuild.<\/p>\n
As ex-Manchester United player Roy Keane pointed out \u201cit\u2019s a big few months coming for them – what to do with the recruitment, which players to hold on to and what to do with the manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they are a good club. They have a brilliant training ground, and they have won the league and the FA Cup. They have had a rollercoaster ride in the past few seasons. But they can bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is that if they do come back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to argue with the Irishman\u2019s logic-but the question remains: what does it even mean to do that anymore?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEICESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 20: Bilal El Khannouss of Leicester looks dejected after the Premier … More League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,200,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-36850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-championship","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leicester-city","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}