Former Chelsea and Scotland midfielder Pat Nevin was on The Football Show discussing Leicester and their imminent threat of relegation from the Premier League.
Only seven years later after winning the Premier League in 2016, Leicester are now standing on the precipice of the pit of relegation.
Winning the league that season was definitely unexpected, but there was no denying that the quality of the team then was almost stratospheric. Subsequently with most of the parts being sold off at high prices, Leicester initially did a commendable job of rebuilding and retaining to maintain a place in the top half of the table. Unfortunately a lack of investment coupled with some poor decisions over recent seasons have seen them plummet to the bottom of the table.
It is no doubt a steep fall but Nevin explains that the threat of relegation is never too far away for Premier League teams, with the exception of the untouchables at the top.
“You just need to lose one or two players,” Nevin said.
“And then not replace them. Also one or two more players get older. You have a look at the number of goals Jamie Vardy scored in comparison to what it was before 2-3-4 years ago and that’s a gigantic amount of goals that you’re missing there already.
“That’s not his fault. Nobody can help being a little bit older than they were. But losing ones like Fofana, the ones they were trying to keep through the years, it’s hard. Rodgers will have known that all along. When you do that and you’re top level in the Premier League, you’ve got to replace at least like for like.
“The one or two that have come in haven’t done as well.”
Leicester face Newcastle and West Ham in their final two games. They have 30 points but can still stay up. Nottingham Forest, Everton and Leeds are all still in touching distance.
Leicester has no options but finish above two of them. Southampton are already relegated.