Leicester City, champions of the Premier League in 2016, are 18th in League One and the club is up for sale, six years after moving into a £100million training ground built to secure their place among England's top clubs.
On Saturday the Foxes travel to Stockport at Edgeley Park after losing 4-0 at home to Oxford in their last match. Five games into the season, manager Russell Martin is already facing an uphill struggle to convince supporters he can turn things around.
Leicester moved into the new complex at Seagrave in rural Leicestershire on Christmas Eve 2020. Built across 180 acres, it has 21 pitches, hotel-style rooms, canteens, a hydrotherapy pool, an indoor pitch, extensive gym facilities and a nine-hole golf course. Chairman Aiyawatt "Top" Srivaddhanaprabha said at the time it would elevate the club's offering to players and staff "to an entirely new level" and help make recent progress sustainable. When Leicester moved in, they were second in the Premier League.
Martin interrupted a BBC local radio reporter more than once in his post-match interview after the Oxford defeat and appeared to pin the blame for the result on his players.
Will the club be sold?
In mid-August, Leicester's owners authorised the US investment bank Citigroup to produce an eight-page sales booklet valuing the club's assets alone at about £222million. Martin says he was not told of these plans when he was hired as manager in June, and it is understood he still has not been given the full picture.
Daily Mail Sport understands that while there is interest in Leicester, prospective bidders have struggled to find the information they need, including the club's level of debt. The squad's value has also dropped sharply after two consecutive relegations, raising questions over whether the sale price reflects that.
Defender Caleb Okoli, for example, carries a "book value" of nearly £8million, the accounting figure attached to a player, despite suffering a double relegation. Harry Souttar's book value is about £6million, though he is now a 27-year-old centre back in League One.
Problems at the training ground
"Like a holiday camp" was how one player described Seagrave during the 2022-23 season, when Leicester's slide began. Fingerprint recognition was installed on doors so players did not have to carry ID cards, and staff at one stage had to ask players to dispose of their own plates and cutlery after eating rather than leave them for kitchen staff.
Even in the later days of Brendan Rodgers' spell as manager, turning up on time for treatment or meetings was treated as optional by some players, and senior executives were mocked openly by squad members. One former Premier League player, convinced he still belonged in the top flight, would stroll defiantly around training sessions last season, prompting then-manager Marti Cifuentes to send him indoors. Some players preferred commutes of more than 100 miles rather than relocate closer to the training ground, and refused offers to stay overnight in its rooms.
"Too shiny," one senior figure said of the facility soon after the move, with others fearing the togetherness of the club's previous base at Belvoir Drive would be lost.
Rudkin and Top's dithering
Jon Rudkin has worked at Leicester for 30 years in various roles and was director of football from 2014 to 2026. When the club appointed James McCarron as sporting director in March, it was a chance to move Rudkin aside. Instead he was promoted to the new role of "chief football officer" even as Leicester headed towards a second straight relegation. Sources say Rudkin remained central to transfer dealings this summer.
Hamza Choudhury's move to Sheffield United in January 2025 illustrated the problem. Leicester wanted a loan with an obligation to buy, while the Blades wanted an option, and Rudkin held out through the window before relenting, wasting time on a player the management at the time did not want.
Srivaddhanaprabha, who took over the club his father Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha built before Vichai was killed in a helicopter crash outside King Power Stadium in October 2018, has also been undone by delay. He waited until April of the 2022-23 season to sack Rodgers, then left caretakers in charge for home games against Bournemouth and Aston Villa. Leicester lost both and were relegated by two points.
Unforced errors
Leicester's 2016 title winners remain adored by fans, yet most have no role at the club today. Marc Albrighton told Daily Mail Sport in March: "We all say that if we could have a job at any of our former clubs, we'd choose Leicester. I would have thought there must be some way we could pass on our experience and try to get that culture back. There has never been any contact with me from the club regarding this."
Former captain Wes Morgan left to scout for Nottingham Forest and now works as an agent, while former manager Nigel Pearson remains outside the club despite the value his experience could offer. The fixture on May 30 marking 10 years since the 5,000-1 title win should have been planned well in advance, but some of those involved were not informed until mid-April, and key figures are understood to have left the event dissatisfied.
Player contracts have repeatedly been allowed to run into their final year, managers have found their roles did not match what was promised, and some staff have privately questioned whether Top always knew what their jobs entailed. New signings have been offered contracts of three, four and even five years, unusually long terms for League One.
What next for Leicester?
Seagrave has helped the academy flourish even as the first team has declined. Jeremy Monga joined Manchester City this summer after breaking into Leicester's side at 15, and Louis Page is wanted by Manchester United. Academy products Bade Aluko, Will Alves and Sammy Braybrooke have featured alongside Page this season, while Ben Nelson would have played a central role had he not suffered a serious knee injury. Martin's public criticism of these youngsters after the Oxford defeat has raised concern about their confidence.
Leicester's cumulative losses since the 2018-19 accounting period stand at about £323million, with League One income dwarfed by what the Premier League and Championship generate and Seagrave costly to run. Academy players have made up 43 per cent of all playing time this season, with 11 graduates in the first-team squad.
Fourteen players have joined since the end of last season and 34 have left, alongside a significant cut to the wage bill, as Martin tries to rebuild with a possession-heavy style that is already testing supporters' patience. Whether Top is genuinely committed to selling the club remains to be seen, but decisive action, something Leicester have often lacked in recent years, is what fans are waiting for.
