In April, I compiled a list of 100 things that were wrong with Leicester City Football Club. Looking back now, one stands out.
It’s number 51: “The uncertainty of not knowing what our team or club will look like in six months”.
Well, here we are.
And we may not have been able to predict our current position but the uncertainty over the club’s future has largely been shed over the past couple of months. We are already overwhelming favourites for an immediate return to the Premier League and the feelgood factor is all around.
Clearly, there are aspects of today’s team that couldn’t have been predicted.
Our first and second choice goalkeepers in the Premier League in April are now third and fourth choice in the Championship in October.
Jannik Vestergaard has arguably been our player of the season so far. In April, number 20 on the list was the fact we were paying him to hang around the training ground.
Numbers 44 and 45 were the drop-offs in form suffered by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfred Ndidi, both now reinvigorated by a fresh approach and a fresh division.
55 was the fact we hadn’t signed a decent winger for years. Now we finally have options in that area of the pitch.
8 was dropping Kelechi Iheanacho for Jamie Vardy. Both look in top form right now.
So much has changed.
There was always a sense that a new manager with a strong personality and a fresh set of ideas would be able to sort things out on the pitch. Enzo Maresca has, so far, proven the perfect appointment for our predicament.
There are items on that list that were flippant, but which added to the overall feeling of helplessness as our club slipped towards disaster.
There are also genuine items on that list that felt important when we were losing every week but which have almost resolved themselves in happier times. Think back to the uncertainty over the captaincy and the general lack of leadership – we haven’t really bothered to officially name a captain this season because there’s leadership throughout the spine of the team anyway.
Within six months, item 92 on the list – forgetting what it feels like to win – has morphed into forgetting what it feels like to lose. Number 64 was that there wasn’t a single game you felt you could rely on that Leicester City team to win. Now we’re wondering when we’ll lose again.
The change in mentality and the effect players like Harry Winks have had on the team as a whole has been stark. Number 80 – knowing we’ll lose as soon as we concede: regardless of the drop in division, it does wonders for the mood of a fanbase and a city when there’s confidence that your team can recover from setbacks.
How much of this is purely down to things being easier in the Championship? Quite a lot, probably, but Maresca clearly still deserves huge amounts of credit for turning things around so quickly. This was a club crying out for an identity and with one finally firmly in place, we’re on the right path again.
Looking back, numbers 4 and 69 are basically the same thing – knocking it around slowly and seemingly pointlessly at the back with no real plan. The possession football may have remained but the sense of purpose is new. We are reassured now that there is a method at work when we are retaining the ball at the back, and that chances at the other end will arrive if we remain patient.
And look at number 62 – the lack of a solid, dependable central midfielder or two. The struggles faced by Youri Tielemans at Aston Villa and the energy in our midfield at present, having suffered the Tielemans/Soumare axis six months ago, probably say it all there. In fact, if you want a laugh, number 23 was Soumare getting picked for his “energy”.
To give credit to the club as well, there are off-field issues that are getting sorted. Number 65 – that they weren’t promoting the women’s games enough – would be struck from any updated list given the efforts made so far this season to present the men’s and women’s team as two equals, two parts of the same club.
There is still more work to do off the field. Ticket prices and gambling company partnerships stand out as areas where the club remains in need of a rethink.
But you wouldn’t be able to find 100 things wrong with Leicester City any more and, crucially, you wouldn’t want to.
In six months, the whole mood around the club has been transformed. Leicester City are on our way back.
