From Premier League title winners a decade ago to staring into the abyss, Leicester City’s decline has been as painful as it has been startling. Supporters who once sang of miracles now travel the country watching a team devoid of confidence, identity and fight.
The relationship between players and supporters has never been more fractured, and it hit a new low on Saturday as Leicester lost 1-0 to Portsmouth in a must-win Championship match that left them in 23rd place, eight points adrift of safety with three games to play. Relegation seems inevitable.
Leicester’s squad sheepishly crept towards the 2,000 travelling fans in the away end at Fratton Park after the final whistle and met a wall of abuse. “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” was the most common chant as frustration over a perceived lack of effort from their team reached boiling point. It didn’t end there, with videos surfacing online of Harry Winks’s heated exchange with a supporter as the team boarded the bus.
Leicester fans chanting at the Leicester players once again.
Players just taking as they face relegation to League One. pic.twitter.com/ms2bAOnZt3
— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) April 18, 2026
Part of the supporters’ dismay is that, despite changing managers and their style of play, the same problems persist. Leicester had numerous chances on Saturday, but their execution in the final third continued to let them down and they lacked resilience after Ibane Bowat’s goal put them behind in the 63rd minute.
“I feel for our fans, it’s been a tough season for them,” Gary Rowett, the Leicester manager, said after the defeat. “They’ve seen a lot of games in a similar vein, and they probably feel sometimes the team hasn’t got enough fight. I don’t necessarily think that’s the thing, I just think we haven’t found a way to score goals.”
Many within the squad are familiar with fighting for survival, having suffered relegation from the Premier League last season, but the Championship is a less sophisticated division. With no VAR, Leicester’s complaints fell on deaf ears when Patson Daka was taken out forcefully in the penalty area by Conor Shaughnessy after nine minutes. Replays of Bowat’s goal appeared to show the ball striking the 23-year-old’s hand. It’s unfortunate, but Leicester showed they do not have what it takes to dig themselves out of this hole.
As the roars inside Fratton Park grew in volume, Leicester’s players shrank in stature, appearing overwhelmed by the situation. Academy product Hamza Choudhury seemingly argued with Portsmouth fans as he was substituted, and the rows continued from the bench.
Rowett concedes that Leicester’s destiny may now be out of their own hands Graham Hunt/ProSports/Shutterstock Editorial
For a squad stacked with as much quality as Leicester’s, a record of one win in their past 17 league matches is unacceptable. Leicester have the highest wage bill in the Championship, with the likes of Winks, Ricardo Pereira, Jannik Vestergaard and Daka among the top earners, but that money has not translated into success on the pitch.
Only already-relegated Sheffield Wednesday have conceded more goals than Leicester’s 65, and they rank 20th in the division for big chances created (70). The reaction of the supporters on Saturday was not new, as the squad have been subjected to boos at the King Power Stadium in recent weeks. The point of no return, when relegation concerns truly seeped in, was the 4-3 home loss to Southampton in February. Three goals up after 30 minutes, Leicester’s second-half collapse demonstrated an ability to crumble under pressure that has become an unwanted trend.
Rowett, who has experience of dogfights, having saved Oxford United from relegation to League One last season, has not been able to improve things since Martí Cifuentes departed in January. Rowett has admitted to his players that their fate may be out of their control.
“I said to the players, ‘We might have to start hoping we get a little bit of fortune from somewhere else,’ ” he said.
The 52-year-old is not expected to stay beyond this campaign and has struggled to come up with new solutions for Leicester’s old problems.
“I’m here until the end of the season. For me, it’s about trying to win games of football,” he said. “I’ve looked at the past two weeks to see if we can do something different, but I think the profile of players means we have to keep doing the same thing.”
Who will be Championship’s winners and losers?
Millwall could return to second place on Tuesday with a win or a draw away to Stoke City, but Southampton could also climb there if they win at home to Bristol City and Alex Neil’s side fail to win. Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough return to action on Wednesday against Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday, respectively, with the chance to move to second.
Hull City, who occupy the final play-off position, are vulnerable if they fail to beat Leicester City tomorrow, while Leicester will be relegated if they don’t win. Wrexham, who face Oxford United, are two points behind Hull. Derby County could jump to sixth if they beat Norwich City while Hull and Wrexham lose. Oxford will go down if they lose and Blackburn Rovers and West Brom both win tomorrow. Portsmouth can guarantee safety if they beat Coventry.
Leicester’s ownership has also come under scrutiny from large portions of the fan base. There is sympathy for the chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, after the death of his father, Vichai, in a helicopter crash in 2018 that rocked the club and its supporters, but many fans feel the 40-year-old is now out of his depth.
The financial mismanagement of the club over the past few years has had a huge impact on Leicester’s downfall. 2021 was the start of a spending spree that proved fatal as Leicester forked out more than £100million for players across two seasons, pushing their wage bill to its highest point (£206million) as they were relegated from the Premier League in 2023. It has been widely reported that Leicester failed to negotiate salary reductions in the case of relegation into contracts over this period.
Sales the next season almost halved the wage bill as Leicester won the Championship, but further signings caused the rules breach that led to the club being docked six points in February. Signings amounting to £75million could not keep Leicester in the top flight in 2025 and their financial predicament has forced them to shop in the loan and free markets this campaign.
With three matches to go, against Hull City, Millwall and Blackburn Rovers, things look as bleak as they have in the past ten years at Leicester. The club’s fall has not come from one bad season or poor appointments, but rather from years of drift and costly mistakes that have quickly turned supporter applause to resentment.