Football Daily - The Rise and Fall of Leicester City – Part 2

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

Kelly Cates is joined by Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Marc Albrighton & BBC Sport's Midlands reporter Nick Mashiter to discuss the remarkable rise and dramatic fall of Leicester City. Ten years on from their incredible Premier League title triumph, the former champions will begin next season in the third tier of English football. The panel reflect on the unforgettable 2015–16 campaign that stunned the football world, what went right both on and off the pitch, how things unravelled in the decade that followed and how the club can rebuild in League One next season.01:00 – Tragedy 02:15 - Khun Vichai’s impact and legacy 04:40 – 2021 FA Cup Win 06:45 – Cracks start to form 09:45 – Change in transfer policy 13:30 – Financial issues 15:25 – Leicester City’s Seagrave training ground 16:40 – How can Leicester City recover? 21:00 – This season’s performances 22:15 – Pulling in the same direction 23:45 – Fan expectations for next season 26:00 – Robert Huth and Marc Albrighton’s final reflections

You're listening to the Football Daily podcast with Kelly Kate. Welcome to part two of our look into the rise and fall of Leicester City. If you miss part one, you can find that on the last episode of the Football Daily. In today's episode, we're going to look at what happened after Lester won the title. We've talked about that huge title winning season, but then moving on into Champions League football, losing Angolo Cantay. Claudia Ranieri sacked in the February the following season. and Craig Shakespeare took over.

Shakespeare, who had been such a huge part of the club and was such an instrumental part of the title winning season, who died in in 2024, was an unsung hero at times for everything that Lester achieved, but the most significant event that happened to Lester in the time after the 2015-16 season was in October 2018, Nick? Yeah, obviously I think everybody in the room and recognises the significance of it

with the helicopter crash which claimed the lives of four people, including the owner Kunvisi. And it was a surreal one for everybody there because it was apparent how serious it was very, very quickly. The stadium was essentially locked down. From a media perspective, everybody was kept inside into the media room. obviously still trying to ascertain what was going on, what was happened, what had happened,

and obviously slowly the facts start to come to life. And everybody who has been to a Leicester game has most likely seen the helicopter flying to and from the ground. I mean, for instance, it was actually used to bring Nathan Dyer to the football club to beat the deadline earlier in the time. title winning season. So it's not something you ever, ever expect to happen to underline just how devastating it was. I don't think we can because Kun Voucher was sort of the beating heart of the club, but also the city and the community. He did it so much, so much for the

area, not just for the football club. He put the football club on the map, of course, but then his commitment to the area was also second to none. And as Nick says, was it, it's different to put into words the size of the loss that was felt not just by the club, but by Lester itself. But what is maybe easier to talk about is the impact that Vichai had when he was alive and when he was involved in the club and why the supporters loved him so much. It's rare for a football club owner to have that relationship with the supporters. Yeah, it was an incredible man, incredible individual. as a person that you can tell he really cared

he invested a lot of time not just into the players but the staff the fans the community the city and I think that's why the feeling the response from everyone has been the same

which is hurt and loss and that's because he had such a profound impact on everybody but we you know we had the we had the benefit of being close to him having him around us a lot and

you know when you get to know him he's even better he just his smile just the way he liked to work I know he definitely cared a lot about his team the people the players and we all felt that

you know so that's why it really hit us hard especially under the circumstances and the way it happened it really hit is hard and it was difficult for us to accept and deal with but we had to remember

what would he want and he would want us to continue to perform and do well and win games so we had to somehow park it as much as we can and go out there and try and play and doing proud

and football requires that people continue even under the most difficult of circumstances And as you said, that's what the players had to do. And then as the club started to recover and started to get to get back on his feet, it was what May 2021, Wes, when you lifted your second major trophy as Lester captain. Yuri Tileman got the winner this time around to win the FA Cup for Lester against Chelsea at Wembley.

How was that experience for you? Incredible, you know, I've gone into that season knowing it's probably my first. final season. You know, I was suffering with a lot of injuries and I wasn't featuring as much. You know, you could see it coming in terms of, you know, you're not starting as much games, you're on the bench a lot more and then all of a sudden, you're not in the squad. And to be fair, I've had a long career. And yeah, my body was falling to pieces to be fair at that point.

But at the same time, you know, you're still in and around, you're still enjoying it. And the club was on a fantastic FA Cup run. And I remember that season. I think it was around December, January. I had a bad injury. I was out for the, kind of for a long, long time with my back. And I'm thinking, right, I just need to try and get fit and try and make one more appearance

just to say kind of bye to the fans and just to kind of have that last kind of taste of football. I did not know that last game will be on the FA Cup final, which is fantastic. I remember training hard, trying to get fit and was fit enough to make the squad for the FA Cup, you know, and I think it was a bit of a flip of a coin between me and Christian Fuchsie was going to be on the bench,

you know, and credit to Mike Stahl, I think he said, you know what, Wes, you need to put them on the bench because if we do go up and you need to kind of show up the defence, you'd be the perfect person to come on and show up the defence. So I've got my final appearance in Wembley in the FA Cup final. Yuri Tillingen scores an absolute screamer. a fantastic goal.

We see out the game. And, yeah, another major trophy in my locker. And final game ever for Leicester City. And I can't think of a better way to kind of finish your football career. Not bad. What a way to bring the curtain down on it. Wes, thank you so much for joining us this evening. It's been a pleasure talking to you, as always.

Thank you, Wes. Thanks. With me for the next 20 minutes or so, Mark Albrighton, Robert Huth and Nick Mashita. So, Nick, let's just set the scene. We have left Leicester City. having won the FA Cup in 2021. In the meantime, they get to the Conference League semi-final, finish eighth in the league,

and it starts to go wrong for Leicester City, just run us through a kind of whistle-stop tour. Yeah, a quick pottered history. It was interesting. Brendan Rogers started making noises and saying he needed to start changing the squad around early 2020. and the start of the next season 22-23,

he caught us all a little bit by surprise by saying, we need to get 40 points. He started talking about survival. Because it's really difficult. It's hard because COVID hit King Power with their duty-free business so hard. The money wasn't there. They had to kind of try to stand still,

but by standing still, you go backwards quite quickly in the Premier League. So they struggle. Brendan Rogers goes. in April 2023 fast forward and now

there once Gary Rowett as we expect to him to leave the club

come the end of the season they're going to be looking for their

eighth manager in three years and to be able to get through

that they've obviously gone through Enzo Moresca Steve

Cooper Ruvan Nistra and Dean Smith came in to replace Brendan Rodgers

to try to keep them up jumping from style to style

the identity has been missing from Lester and I was

at the game last week against Hull when when relegation was confirmed, the place was half empty. We spoke about the unity, just how close this club was to the fans, how close the relationship was between the fans and the players and the staff.

That's not there anymore. The club has, along the way, become broken. And it's very, very difficult to see how they're able to restart this and to be able to recover, quickly because it's not going to be easy in League 1. The finances are completely different. You're not getting the money in that they did.

Of course, there's parachute payments, but they've already borrowed against them. There's a lot of problems. They brought in James McCarran as a new sporting director. He's come in from the City Group, having been at Lomel previously, a sporting director. But the fans still want some more change. John Rudkin has been at the club for 30 years. He was director of football, I think, when they won the Premier League. has been there when they've had some great success.

But he is now the target of the fans. And the fans still want to see more change. Well, let's talk now to Jordan Holford from the big, strong Lester Boys podcast. Jordan, it's a difficult one to narrow down to one underlying cause. Where would you start in terms of trying to work out where it's gone wrong?

Yeah, I mean, it's been a catalogue of errors over the last few years. I think the problem started after the FA Cup win, where we had previously bought players quite low and sold them quite high and decided to sell one asset per year. Then after that, there seemed to be a change of strategy where obviously Yuri Telemann scored in that final. That's when his value probably would have been at the highest,

but we decided actually not to sell anyone. And then brought in the likes of Dhaka, Sumare, I think we signed Vestegaard that summer. And Nick's absolutely right. Brendan Rogers also came in and started, making noises around. I think we lost to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, and he was saying that we, you know,

we need to refresh the squad. We then lost Caspish Michael, who was obviously a huge part of the success that we'd had. And for me, that's when it started deteriorating, that we've moved away from this model that had been so successful for us that you see the likes now of Brentford,

Bormouth and Brighton sort of replicating. And we moved away from that. And the squad that was so successful, I mean, I heard you talking before, obviously about the title win and the success for the FA Cup. But that was a squad of hungry players that all had a point to prove. And it felt like we veered away from that and started signing players still on really high

wages, on long-term contracts. And it almost feels like their attitude is that they're doing us a favour by playing for us. And it, you know, it's poles apart from the success we had. So I'd point it back to that sort of change of strategy after the FA Cup win. Jordan would you take any of the points that Nick sort of alluded to there in his answer where you know there are factors that were beyond lester's control the death of vishai and kuntop coming in and he had bit as his son and then succeeding him and having been involved in a lot of the club's decisions before but it was a decision that they they didn't want to have to make things like the impact of of COVID on their their duty-free business, which impacted the ability to invest in the club in the same way. Would you say that they were mitigating factors? Yeah, absolutely. I think Nick's right. There are a lot of mitigating factors and sort of

sliding doors moments. Obviously, the death of Vichai was extremely tragic, unforeseen, and obviously we weren't to know at the time, but would change and alter the path of the football club forever, really. But since then, You know, his sort of fingerprints, I guess, were on that FA Cup success. There has been COVID and then the sort of PSR rules, but we still had the seventh highest wage bill to get relegated from the Premier League in 2027. So despite those COVID issues, Lester was still spending, you know, hand over fist on wages and then had that huge relegation.

And I'm pretty sure that they, the owner and the director of football, they really weren't kind of sure what PSR was. I mean, our business, like I say, was buy low and sell high, which in this climate would be great, you know, great business, a great strategy, but we've not really managed to do that since. So there are a lot of mitigating circumstances, absolutely. And I do think, you know, two things can be true. You can be extremely grateful for what Vichai gave us,

but then, on the other hand, extremely concerned about the direction that his son and King Power have taken us since then. Nick, just outline the six-point deduction this year, because it feels that this decision on what was PSR has been hanging over Leicester City for a few years now. Yeah, obviously it's made more complicated because they were relegated and then part of the EFL. So initially last year, they managed to exploit the loophole to be able to avoid a points deduction at the time. But coming back into the EFL, that then allows the EFL. to step up the punishments. And ultimately, it's one that sends them down.

It left them just outside the bottom three on goal difference. I think it was at the time. And as we've said, it's poor recruitment, over-expenditure on wages, players needing to be moved on, but because they are on very, very good wages, they don't, they can't. Some of the markets aren't there for them because some of the rivals aren't going to pay the wages

that Lester are paying at the minute. And it's just trickled down. It's just ultimately seen them become a League One side and it's going to be incredibly difficult because we see the TV revenue in the Premier League. The TV revenue in League 1, I think, is around 2 to 3 million. And you're not going to be able to function with what you're paying the players right now

on legal and finances. Five live sports. So here's the first ball of this series. All the cricket you laugh. Shave Rambi Dobby. Lives on BBC sounds. Smash straight back down the ground. This girl.

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It's solely. Cricket on Five Live in every ball. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is the Football Daily podcast with Kelly Kitts. Nick, tell me a little bit more about the training ground, Sea Grave and where that fits into the picture. It's a fantastic facility, as Rob will attest to. It's probably one of the best in the country, if not the best. It's got a huge fountain in the middle of it, hasn't it?

It has with foxes dancing out of it. It is fantastic. I think that's part of what the problem. only very, very small part of the problem with Lester is that Beaver Drive, the former training ground, that you were on top of each other. You were all together. But the way it's kind of Seagrave is shaped as an arc a little bit. And it's very difficult for the players to be together a little bit more.

So much so than at Beaver Drive. And I think I'm right in saying that in the rec room, in the players' room, the door was changed to a glass door to show that the players, who was in there. They didn't have to open the door and check who was there to try to encourage them to stay. It's a fantastic facility. It's one that

is a fantastic asset for the club as well. And we have to see what they're going to be able to do with it because in league one, it dwarfs stadiums, let alone training grounds. So let's start to look at what they might be

able to do to try and get themselves out of this situation. The wage bill, I think, Nick, what about 150 million last season in the Premier League? They've now got Patz and Daca and Ricardo Pereira out of contract. The League 1 average total salary is around £9.5 million. This doesn't work out very easily at all, does it? No, no. And the difficulty for them is now that if they wanted to sell players in January,

and there were offers on the table for some players in January, they're not going to get those offers now. They are, there was a good offer for one of them for around 10 million. That's not happening now. You know, the players form for a start hasn't been good enough to warrant bids like that. And now you're essentially a league one player. Clubs aren't going to bid that. The vultures will be circling.

So if there were opportunities to move players on and generate some money, previously, Lester were going to struggle to get that cash again because they just simply won't be able to demand for the players and to be able to function on League One finances with the wage bill they have

and of course there is wage drops, there are wage drops for the players in the contracts but even still they're going to dwarf what other clubs and other budgets have in League One. So it's a huge

undertaking for the club now and we look at Kuntop and John Rudkin and what they're going to do in the direction as we've said, direction of the travel that they've overseen and how much influence is the new sporting director going to have James McCarran?

He's come in if John Rudkin's still there and this is a contentious contentious thing for fans I know and speaking to people who were interested in that role and indeed interviewed for that role, the common theme was what control do I have? What autonomy will I have? What responsibility will I have if I'm underneath people who are still looking to have control? Jordan, what would you like to see happen? I think the first thing,

certainly from a fan's perspective, is the removal of John Rudkin, who's now actually been promoted to Chief Football Officer. So he's responsible for what was called the strategic squad development of the first team and the women's team, both of which are going to get relegated. What I don't see is why Top won't remove him from the position. He's been there, as you've mentioned, he's been there probably 20, 30 years. That seems to me like an easy win to get the fans back on side. And as Nick mentioned earlier,

the whole game, there's barely 15,000 people there. Half of that attendance would have wanted the ownership to be removed. So that seems to me like the most obvious starting place. And as again, Nick said, James McCarron's come in. There looks to be sort of seeds of progress there with the managers that we've been linked with. And I'd like to see him give him more autonomy and a fresh start. But that seems to me, like I say, to be the first starting point after what has been a catastrophic season. I'm just listening to the suggestions, Rob.

And I know the connections that you have with the owners and with John Rudkin, who you worked with, I think when he was loans manager. And I just wonder if there's a part of you that thinks that it would be a mistake to cut ties completely, that maybe you feel there might be a need for continuity and whether that's manageable at the same time as bringing about the change that's needed to get the club back on track.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want. King Power to sell the club purely because of my time there. I think it'd be nostalgic if they could stay on and turn the ship around and have done it before when they initially bought them and had amazing success but yeah you support on mistake

have been made so it's difficult to see how they're going to make or get better with keeping the same people in charge at the moment I think that definitely needs looking at but also the one thing that we haven't mentioned at all is the performance of the players

you know we join I know you're keen on getting getting rid of John but some of the performance of the players they've been getting away with it when I watched them there's just not a lot about them you know we can argue that Lester

have the best squad in a championship so there is a good squad there but why they're not performing it's difficult to understand so the Dactam self a hole and yet I need to see how they get out I'm sure there'll be some changes over the summer I don't see a benefit of

getting rid of staff now but over the summer I think I'm confident something will happen what that would look like I don't know there are people whose job it is to go into this situation and try to fix it

the supporters will have their thoughts they're there every week they're paying their money for their tickets and they are financially and emotional and emotionally invested in the in the club. But for someone like you who's been such a huge part of the club's fabric, what would you like to see happen? A couple of things.

I don't really understand how they get rid of players and sort of get them off the books. But whoever they are bringing in have to be good people because I look at the time before and while she said about, yeah, we had Wes's captain, but there was four or five captains in that team. I look at the team now and the squad now, and I struggle to see one, I struggle to see one player that's trying to get everyone together and going,

even in the tough moments, just getting everyone together and going, right, just sit in for five, ten minutes, be resilient, be hard to be, be hard to play against. There doesn't seem anything like that. I think the other thing that really strikes me and he's really sad to see is the disconnection between everybody at the club.

The fans and the players, there's no connection there. The fan base is split. Some are protesting, some aren't. There's obviously protests against the board, the ownership. And everything just feels so disconnected. And whilst it is disconnected, there's no way of succeeding. There's no way of bouncing straight back. You have to have that connection between everybody at the football club.

Everybody has got to be pulling in the same direction. while that isn't the case, then the club is not going to get back to anywhere close to where it should be. Jordan, how optimistic or otherwise are you feeling about next season? I'm not optimistic at all. I mean, we're going to have a huge turnaround of players,

as we alluded to. The wage bill is astronomical. It was the highest in the championship, let alone in League 1. So we're going to need to basically gut the whole squad. And hopefully we can bring through some of the academy players. and then I assume we'll be looking at free transfers. We haven't got a manager in place.

I mean, last year we were chasing our tail for weeks before we got Sifowenters. And the players, again, when we started the season, didn't look fit. So I think that could happen again. But that said, I mean, we, you know, we have been in this division once before in our entire history. We bounced back straight away.

And that was in a large part because of Nigel Pearson. And we need a manager of a similar ilk who can, can kind of galvanise everyone. And like Mark says, we need everyone pulling in the same direction because at the minute, you know, like he says, the fan base is split.

People don't know what the best situation is moving forward. But yeah, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if we were to get another points deduction for PSR breaches at some point. You know, you look what's happened to Sheffield Wednesday. And I see that we could be on a very similar trajectory, unfortunately.

But, yeah, there's always a part of you, as a fan that obviously hopes that you'll bounce back at the first attempt, but the last, or certainly the last two years, have really tested everyone's patience. And it feels like everyone is so down at the minute that, you know, you struggle to see how the ownership and the people in charge are going to be able to turn this round. Jordan, appreciate you coming on to talk about it.

Thank you so much for your time this evening. No problem. Thank you very much to Jordan Halford there from the Big Strong Lester Boys podcast. We've been talking about Lester. And we've focused for the last, what, half an hour or so on on what's happened over the last decade since that incredible title win for Leicester City. And there have been high points in there, including winning the FA Cup. We talked to Wes Morgan about that, about lifting his second major trophy as captain. It has been a really difficult period for Leicester City. And yet, Mark and Rob, it's a club that will always have those incredible memories for you. And we'll always have, Mark, that incredible connection? Yeah, I think I can speak on my time at the football club, 10 of the best years of my life,

in terms of what I experienced, in terms of the people that I met along the way. And just the environment I was working in. Every day was good to be going into training. The games were fantastic. supporters were incredible on a match day. There was never a dull moment. It was, I think that highlights it now.

I think it's such a unique football club that it's just such a roller coaster of emotions. But I think like what got mentioned earlier, the club did everything, everything right in terms of whether it was when we won the league, the event that took place there when we lifted the trophy. And then on the flip side of that, when we had the tragedies as well, everybody was just, everybody come as one. And the club, the club did everything to the best of what they could have done. And to be, to say I've been a part of that football club for just a short spell of their existence. I'm proud to say that. And it's a period of my time that I'll never forget. I'm thankful and grateful for the memories that I've been able to make there.

And Rob, for as much as we've talked towards the end of this programme about how things can gather momentum in the wrong way, when one thing goes wrong, everything seems to fall like dominoes. When Leicester won the title in 2015-16, was that the opposite? Was that just everything hitting a sweet spot at exactly the right time? Yeah, totally agree. I mean, everyone was in the purpose patched that season. We're all peaked at the same time we we wrote the wave of success but

like Mark said I absolutely loved my time there was only there for three and a half years when I first joined the club was bottom of the league so really in a difficult situation as well but the club was just together the fans the board directors everyone was

putting in the right direction and it's just a shame to see how the club's been a 180 now where it's completely disjointed from my time when I was there, which is tough to see. But sports sometimes has these crazy stories, and Lester's unfortunately one of them for now. Robert Huth, Mark Albrighton.

Thank you very much for your time this evening. Thank you as well to our Midlands football reporter, Nick Mashita. Nick, I know we'll be talking lots more about the Lester story in the time to come. So thank you so much for your contribution. Live Sports. BBC Women's Football Weekly. The latest news, insights and analysis from across the women's game.

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