Leicester City’s 2024-25 season review: Looking back at the ‘s***show’

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So that’s that. A miserable season is finally over — one that never looked promising, and which by December had entered a relegation spiral from which Leicester never recovered.

A highlight was seeing Jamie Vardy off properly, though even that had an ominous feeling: who’s going to do what he did for so many years?

This is the story of Leicester’s brief, painful return to the Premier League.

This season will be remembered as…

One of the worst in the club’s history. The relegation two years ago was shocking because of their relative success in the period up to then, finishing in the top five twice and then eighth.

Yet the club recovered under Enzo Maresca in the Championship, their bold strategy getting them back into the Premier League at the first attempt. After that, their efforts to remain a Premier League club were a disaster.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to bridge the gap between the two divisions for promoted sides, but Leicester have made a complete hash of it. Most of their problems have been self-inflicted.

Losing Maresca was out of their control, but then to move for Steve Cooper, handing him an £80million ($108m) transfer kitty and then sacking him after just 12 games without a real plan of who was next was strange.

Steve Cooper in August 2024, when there was still hope (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

If anything, the club’s fortunes went from bad to worse following the appointment of Ruud van Nistelrooy. They were relegated with five games still to go and without much of a fight, although they showed better form towards the end of the season, managing a three-game unbeaten run.

The disconnect between the fanbase and the senior management at the club is growing and the discontent could spread into next season, where Leicester could find it a lot harder to get promoted again.

Game of the season

The victory away at Southampton provided some early hope. They had just won their first league game of the season, at home to Bournemouth, but a theme was developing around conceding soft early goals.

They were 2-0 down inside the first 30 minutes, but they rallied in the second half with three in the final 30 minutes through Facundo Buonanotte, a Jamie Vardy penalty and a memorable winner in added time from substitute Jordan Ayew.

The way the substitutes celebrated that goal gave hope that there was a togetherness and fighting spirit in the group, but it proved a false dawn. Four league games later and Cooper was sacked.

Goal of the season

OK, let’s address the elephant in the room: Leicester haven’t scored many goals. It is 46 from 43 games across all competitions — and 10 of those were in cup wins over lower-league opposition, with four against Tranmere and six against Queens Park Rangers.

They had a spell where they scored just once in nine consecutive games across all competitions.

And yet some of the goals have been of good quality. Ayew has scored a couple of screamers, including that winner at Southampton. Harry Winks and Wout Faes have also scored spectacular long-range efforts.

Facundo Buonanotte scored with excellent finishes against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, and Jamie’ Vardy’s 199th for the club versus Southampton was a quality finish.

Bilal El Khannouss’s winner at Tottenham Hotspur takes some beating, but it is a special volley from James Justin (cued up at this link), on the outside of his right foot to draw Leicester level at Arsenal that stands out.

James Justin after scoring his volley against Arsenal in September (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Moment of the season

This is a season best forgotten for so many reasons, but the poignant send-off to Vardy at King Power Stadium after 13 years of incredible service and success will live long in the memory.

To see so many of his former team-mates, including many of the title-winning side, return to the stadium was a reminder of better times, but it is now the end of an unbelievable era. 

Did that really happen?

Cooper was only seven games into his tenure when he experienced for himself the growing discontent amongst a large portion of the Leicester fans.

He looked completely perplexed as Leicester fans turned on their team in the second half of their Carabao Cup tie at League Two Walsall with the score goalless.

He had heard some dissenting voices during the 1-1 draw with Everton, but the Leicester fans chanted “this is embarrassing,” amongst a list of self-deprecating chants as Cooper’s side struggled.

Afterwards, he admitted he had to earn some credit with the Leicester fans.

Favourite quote

Jamie Vardy was honesty personified when he reacted to Leicester’s relegation with five games still to go, branding it “embarrassing” and “a s***show”. Not many would disagree with his sentiments.

Biggest surprise

I think most people were surprised that Leicester stuck with Van Nistelrooy when the team were free-falling towards relegation, losing 17 out of 19 games, failing to score in eight consecutive league games and losing eight consecutive games on home soil without a single goal.

Most managers would find their position untenable after such a run, but nothing about Leicester’s season has been conventional.

Since then, despite Van Nistelrooy presenting his plans for moving forward next season, the club has revealed nothing about what the plan actually is to Van Nistelrooy or anyone else, leaving the manager in limbo and causing more vexation amongst the fanbase.

The funniest moment

As always, it was a Vardy moment and a recent one. When referee David Webb ran into Jordan Ayew and went down with a head injury, there was a lot of concern, and then Vardy grabbed the hand of Webb holding the whistle and blew it to stop the game.

Was it an act of charity to get medical help onto the pitch for Webb? Vardy would later reveal he did it to stop a Southampton counter-attack in its tracks. 

Vardy blows the referee’s whistle (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Best performance by an opposition player

Chris Wood never really fulfilled his early potential when he joined Leicester in 2013, as he struggled to break up the strike partnership of Vardy and David Nugent.

But he has shown Leicester what might have been, scoring nine times in 17 games against his former employers, including three this season, two in the Nottingham Forest win at King Power Stadium and putting Forest ahead with a diving header again at the City Ground. 

Rating the manager’s season out of 10

I’d give him a three out of 10. The honeymoon period lasted two games and Van Nistelrooy was unable to make any meaningful difference, though there have been more positive signs since relegation.

The issue that will dominate the summer

Recruitment, starting with who will be the manager. A massive overhaul of this squad is required but under what circumstances or conditions? The EFL will be scrutinising Leicester’s every move and every pound spent. 

This time next year we’ll be saying…

Returning to the Premier League isn’t going to be as easy as two years ago. But we knew that.

(Top photo: Ruud van Nistelrooy by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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