Ten years ago in May 2016, Leicester City were crowned Premier League champions. Today, the Foxes are staring at relegation into League One.
| Betting Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Leicester City to get relegated to League One | 81/50 |
All odds are courtesy of bet365, correct at the time of publishing and subject to change.
From fairytale to nightmare
Leicester’s 2015/16 Premier League triumph was not sealed at the King Power Stadium. It was settled 143 kilometres away at Stamford Bridge, when Chelsea hosted Tottenham Hotspur in the Battle of the Bridge. Spurs needed to lose or draw for Leicester to be crowned PL champions.
Spurs stormed into a two-goal first-half lead. Then substitute Eden Hazard entered the picture. The Belgian icon scored a second-half stunner to hand Leicester City their first-ever top-flight title in their 132 years. The 5000/1 odds outsiders had done the impossible.
Leicester had completed the unthinkable, just one year after surviving Premier League relegation by the skin of their teeth. Claudio Ranieri took charge of a squad many had written off. N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez, Christian Fuchs and Robert Huth were among the low-cost arrivals who formed its backbone.
The Italian tactician’s instructions were gloriously simple: defend compactly, counter-attack and find Jamie Vardy. In 2015/16, they blew Manchester City away at the Etihad in February, before securing Champions League football in April. By May, they claimed their historic accolade, ten points clear of Arsenal at the top.
In simple terms, it was a fairytale season. But fairytales end. Kante and Danny Drinkwater left for Chelsea for a combined €74m that summer. City paid €68m for Mahrez. Later, Harry Maguire became the world’s most expensive defender when Manchester United splurged €87m.
The model worked: find diamonds, polish them and sell for vast profits. Until it didn’t. After their historic FA Cup win in 2021, Leicester tried to flex their muscles. Across 2021/22 and 2022/23, they spent more than €100m on just six players.
Their sporting performance was undermined by a faltering financial position. Their wage bill ballooned to nearly £150m per season – almost four times what it was in 2015/16.
The results were catastrophic. Relegation from the Premier League followed in 2023. They were promoted in 2024 and relegated again in 2025. Five managers have come and gone in this time frame. Gary Rowett is the sixth.
The former Millwall coach returns to the King Power Stadium, having played 49 times for Leicester between 2000 and 2002. He was appointed after Marti Cifuentes’ dismissal following seven straight winless games.
Not a single member of the 2015/16 title-winning squad remains. Vardy was the last to leave at the end of last season, joining Italian side Cremonese. The fairytale is over, the nightmare continues.
The value in backing the Foxes to fall
Bookmakers had Leicester at 5000/1 to win the Premier League in 2015. Exactly 10 years on, they are favourites to drop into League One. The contrast is staggering. At 2.62, the market still offers value in this particular scenario.
The numbers speak for themselves. After 34 Championship games, Leicester have 10 wins, 10 draws and 14 defeats to their name. They have scored 47 and conceded 54 goals. Despite this, they boast the best goal difference among the bottom seven at -7. Their 34-point total leaves them third from the bottom, two points adrift of safety.
If Leicester’s tally wasn’t bad enough, six points were deducted from them in early February. An independent commission imposed the sanction for breaching Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR), dropping Leicester from 17th to 20th. The club have appealed, calling it disproportionate.
The Foxes trail West Brom by one, and Blackburn Rovers by four points. Coincidentally, Leicester’s only win in 2026 came against the former in early January.
Since then, they’ve gone nine games without a victory across all competitions. The latest of those nine – Rowett’s first two games in charge - have been draws against Stoke City and Middlesbrough.
Cifuentes was sacked just days before Rowett’s appointment. His dismissal came immediately after Leicester’s FA Cup elimination to Southampton, who were also relegated from the Premier League last term.
Their Championship fixture list offers no mercy either. Half of their next 12 opponents occupy the top half of the table. The only team beneath them they face are already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday.
Rowett brings experience with more than 400 Championship matches under his managerial belt. He ensured Oxford United’s survival last season against the odds. Yet, Leicester’s problems run deeper than any manager can fix. The squad remain unbalanced.
Leicester’s appeal against the deduction is unlikely to succeed. A ruling will be passed before the end of the season. Should the deduction remain or increase, Leicester’s situation will deteriorate.
Rowett could steady the ship, but Leicester’s survival heavily depends on the form of other teams. Oxford United, five points below, are favourites to drop. Leicester and West Brom are toe-to-toe for the final relegation spot. However, the Foxes face the most difficult run-in of any relegation rival.
Ten years ago, Leicester were busy celebrating an unprecedented Premier League win. At the moment, they are at the risk of returning to League One for the first time since the 2008/09 season.