OPINION: Will Premier League champions Leicester City really be relegated?
The club endured the most successful year in their history last season as The Foxes managed to conjure up the unthinkable and were crowned as Premier League champions, with the likes of Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyhad Mahrez becoming key parts in their campaign.
However this season isn’t turning out to be as much of a fairytale as the last, with many thinking the Midlands side could be relegated.
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Hide AdIn fact it’s clear that even Ranieri knows they are in a relegation battle when he refused to sell Leonardo Ulloa to Sunderland as they are a ‘rival’, despite the North East club sitting at the bottom of the table and looking destined for the Championship.
It’s difficult to see why Leicester’s heads have dropped so much in such a short space of time, with only N’Golo Kante departing for Chelsea in the summer. Claudio Ranieri still has mostly the same players that lifted the Premier League trophy back in May, yet they still find themselves 38 points behind current leaders Chelsea.
But if Leicester were to get relegated and return to the Championship, what exactly would happen to this Premier League winning team?
The side that got promoted to the top tier back in 2014 included the likes of Schmiechel, Mahrez, Vardy, Wes Morgan and Danny Drinkwater. These names were unknown to most and they certainly weren’t involved in PFA Team of the Year or even up for the Ballon d’Or at this point.
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Hide AdWith Mahrez and Vardy providing 41 goals and 22 assists between them last season, there is not a football fan in the world that doesn’t know the talent these two men have. Despite neither of them having the best of starts this time round, it is likely that both of them would get snapped up if relegation was inevitable.
As for Morgan and Drinkwater, both have had a very rocky start to the 2016/17 season and things aren’t looking as smooth as this time last year. With both players having played for the club since 2012 and the former turning 33 last month, at least one of them could potentially stay at the club if they were to be relegated from the Premier League.
Despite only registering two wins in their last ten games, Leicester City have today announced that Ranieri has their full backing and their ‘unwavering support’. Whether this will help or hinder the reigning champions we will find out come the end of the season.