So how was it for you? Bloody awful, of course. Thank god it’s all over and we can concentrate on absolute nonsense like this.
And oh boy, has there been some nonsense across Leicester City’s excruciating 2022-23 season. Naturally, the culprits of these slapstick episodes stretch club-wide: from a boss who hated 75% of his squad to players that made us exhaust thesaurus.com for increasingly lairy synonyms, these are the moments that made our pitiful relegation from the Premier League.
So without further ado, and in absolutely no particular order…
-
Letting the club captain leave four days before the new season started.
-
Having about seven captains thereafter.
-
Naming Marc Albrighton as vice-captain, then loaning him out.
-
Losing our first match of pre-season to a non-league team, conceding from two set-pieces – the first via a goalkeeping howler from Daniel Iversen.
-
Struggling to a 3-3 draw in pre-season against our ‘feeder club’ (despite them never feeding us anyone).
-
The long-awaited set-piece coach not getting a visa.
-
Hosting a pre-season match against Sevilla on the same day as the Women’s Euros final.
-
A stupid badge on the home kit.
-
Accidentally leaking the new away shirt on a chocolate bar.
-
A head of recruitment on gardening leave for the summer transfer window.
-
Being linked with Manuel Akanji, who joined treble winners-in-wait Manchester City just days later.
-
Not being able to afford £12m for Ademola Lookman, who then came joint-fourth in the Serie A goalscoring charts for Lee Congerton’s Atalanta.
-
Danny Ward having absolutely no pre-season, then immediately going in as No.1.
-
Brendan Rodgers saying we were fatigued after one game of the season, after we chucked a two-goal lead away against Brentford – a game in which he made one substitution.
-
Losing a key player to a serious injury in the last pre-season friendly for the second season in a row.
-
Hinging our entire tactical masterplan on inverted full-backs, then watching on as they both get injured.
-
That period between about August and October when every single email out from the club contained an error so they had to send another one with a clarification.
-
Ryan Bertrand existing for an entire season with almost nobody noticing.
-
Dennis Praet coming back to be a crucial part of the team (Brendan: “I’m pretty sure he will end up having a really good season for us”), then never playing.
-
Boubakary Soumare turning down a move/Leicester blocking a move, then playing loads.
-
Brendan blaming a 0-0 home draw with Crystal Palace in October on “the heat”. It was 15 degrees.
-
August 7-Nov 5: Ayoze Perez features in four out of our first 15 matches. Nov 12-January 3: gets a game in four matches running either side of the World Cup. January 31: loaned to Real Betis.
-
That mad Mirror prediction which did actually say we’d be relegated.
-
Jannik Vestergaard turning down two moves in separate windows, to Fulham and then Hertha Berlin.
-
Vestergaard giving a rogue interview complaining he’d been left “out in the cold with no explanation” by Rodgers, who subsequently exiled him.
-
The U21s telling us it didn’t matter if they got relegated, then playing Vestergaard and Bertrand to try to avoid relegation.
-
Vestergaard getting injured after 10 minutes.
-
The U21s getting relegated.
-
Attempting one shot in an entire home match against Arsenal.
-
“The group is very much together, that’s the beauty of it.” – Rodgers in September, after a 5-2 battering at Brighton in which players spent most of the match arguing with one another.
-
Wout Faes being Liverpool’s top scorer since the World Cup on February 5, 2023
-
Losing to Southampton twice – the first after being ahead, the second after conceding a penalty, saving it, then immediately conceding the winning goal anyway.
-
Brendan comparing us with a Chelsea side that would finish 12th by saying it’s “like a Ferrari and a Mini in a race… it’s tough on the Mini.”
-
Months after Chelsea having 10 men inside 28 minutes Stamford Bridge, then going 2-0 up within an hour anyway.
-
Chelsea not winning again for two months.
-
Brendan following up the defeat by saying that “The beauty is that it’s in our hands where we finish.” He was sacked two games later, we won two more games all season and got relegated.
-
Tete
-
That time Timothy Castagne dribbled past Ward against Spurs and shot wide.
-
Ward having the joint-most clean sheets in the league as of mid-November.
-
That period of a few months when every club tweet was met with a barrage of fans demanding a picture of a corner flag.
-
Every youth prospect at the club tearing their ACL.
-
Somehow winning a game 4-0… Twice.
-
Signing three players in January, then all of them being out of the team a few months later.
-
Harry Souttar scoring an own goal on his debut.
-
Going from February 19 to March 11 without having a shot on target in the Premier League.
-
Getting absolutely battered at home by a Blackburn side without their best striker – our first FA Cup home defeat against lower-league opposition since Wycombe in 2001.
-
Son Heung-min coming off the bench to score a 13-minute hat-trick in a 6-2 defeat – a game that was 2-2 at half-time.
-
Former (unsuccessful) Leicester loanee Harry Kane scoring his 20th goal against Leicester in the same match, matching Alan Shearer’s Premier League record against the same club (18).
-
Dean Smith saying our performance against Bournemouth made him not want the job.
-
Caglar Soyuncu being left out all season then coming back in and being the best player.
-
Nampalys Mendy scoring his worldie only goal for the club against Spurs in a man-of-the-match display and then not getting picked by Smith.
-
KDH sliding into a fan’s DMs to question his opinions.
-
When the club asked for people to send in their birthday messages and were flooded by correspondence regarding Brenda Nout.
-
Daniel Amartey being linked with Milan.
-
Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace having 20 shots in the first half alone against us – the most in a Premier League match since Liverpool in December 2015… against Leicester.
-
Taking the lead in that game, it lasting three minutes, then Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring his first goal in 24 games as a last-minute winner.
-
Bertrand Traore scoring his first goal in almost two years as a last-minute winner.
-
Wilf’s assist for that goal.
-
Putting two goalkeeper coaches in caretaker charge for the most important games of the season and that being ‘the plan’.
-
Being turned down by Jesse Marsch.
-
Getting linked with Rafa Benitez to replace Rodgers, then hurtling towards Dean Smith literally 15 minutes later.
-
Maddison missing a penalty against Everton, everyone saying Jamie Vardy should have taken it, then Vardy missing a penalty the next week in a 5-3 battering.
-
Fulham’s Tom Cairney winning the Ezri Konsa trophy by scoring his only two league goals of the season in the same game against us.
-
The club trialling a singing section and then stewarding it like it was Millwall away.
-
John Terry sightseeing.
-
An xG of 0.0 at half-time against Newcastle.
-
Daniel Iversen’s last minute goal kick at Newcastle that went straight out of play.
-
Timewasting for a draw against Newcastle which secured them Champions League football, celebrating a point, then winning our last game and being relegated anyway.
-
Not recording a clean sheet for 22 games, after five in six before the World Cup.
-
Advertising our new shirt on the day where we got relegated.
-
Celebrating a fake Bournemouth goal three times on the final day.
-
Literally not a single player tweeting anything for days after our relegation.
-
Youri Tielemans then completely ignoring said relegation in his farewell video.
-
Kelechi Iheanacho, 11 Premier League starts, winning the club’s player of the season award.
-
The club including Alex Smithies in the voting options and a campaign being set up to vote him the winner.
-
Organising an Asian tour that includes a friendly five days before the Championship season starts.
-
The fact we beat the Europa League winners in pre-season.
-
James Maddison’s tweet.
-
James Maddison deleting his Twitter account.
