How long have we been on a downward trajectory?

[Free Falling Foxes]

3 hours ago, Tielemans63 said:

That match away at Bournemouth was the moment for me personally.  That was the moment I thought we might be in trouble here. There was something about that second half implosion that suggested there might be deeper problems.

I remember posting in the match thread, that if ever there was a case for a manager to be sacked during a match, this is it.

[honeybradger]

The summer of 2019 when we desperately needed a right winger and spent £30mil on Ayoze Perez and £20mil on Dennis Praet to perenially ride the bench.

 

We had a good run at the start of the season but when Ricardo Pereira got injured we no longer had any ability to attack down our right hand side and it all fell apart.

 

The next season we had another run of form when Castagne came in but if we bought in a proper winger we wouldnt have been so dependent on fullbacks to attack down the wing.

Edited 13 February by honeybradger

[Sly]

Outside of 15/16, which was lighting in a bottle and pretty much the greatest story in sports history, Rodgers gave us our two highest placed finishes. In reality I think those two years 
 

It’s been a rollercoaster of 10 years in reality. Football like business isn’t a straight line. 

 

Even post title win, we’d dipped off compared to where we were, as 2017 - 2019 weren’t exactly memorable years. 
 

I actually think for two years, Rodgers had us playing great football and had us punching above our perceived weight. I wasn’t keen on his persona, however we played some great football and let’s be honest, reading between the lines and what we’ve seen since, maybe some of what he was saying about a squad refresh was true. In reality I think the first two full seasons of Rodgers did more to heighten the clubs expectations, than the title win in 15/16 did. He largely became a victim of his own success. 
 

People complain about Perez, however he did a lot of the Okazaki type (dirty) work but in reality, he wasn’t a winger or midfielder. So the role he had with pressing which he did well, went okay. We were better with him in the team, rather than an Tete for example. We were definitely a worse team when we shipped him and Albrighton out on loan. He was very much a system player though. 

 

If you look at our loss ratio by season, then it makes for interesting reading. 

 

14/15 - 42 games. lost 21. 50% losses.

15/16 - 43 games, lost 5. 11.6% losses. 

16/17 - 54 games, lost 24. 44.4% losses.

17/18 - 47 games, lost 17. 36.17% losses.

18/19 - 43 games, lost 18. 41.86% losses.

19/20 - 48 games, lost 14. 29.27% losses.

20/21 - 53 games, lost 15. 28.3% losses.
21/22 - 58 games, lost 20. 34.48% losses.

22/23 - 45 games, lost 24. 53.33% losses.

 

24/25 so far. 29 games, lost 17. 58.62% losses. 

 

Reading between the lines, if we continue at the current rate, I’d hazard a guess and say the feeling of apathy toward the club will start to get worse, as with 14 games left, we could feasibly lose a heavy proportion of those.

 

Even in 07/08 when we were relegated to League 1, we lost 20 games from 51 games. So had a loss rate of 39.21%. 

 

The overall connection to the club for a large proportion of the fan base has not felt so disconnected in the 35+ years I’ve been a supporter. 
 

Whilst you’re winning everyone is happy, people will tolerate more of the King Power FC stuff, Thai influencers, crappy merchandise, dodgy sponsors, lack of January player investment etc, as the more casual fan wants to see us win games.

Drawing games is a bit mundane and boring. 

 

Repeated losses hit morale and sour the mood. It’s as black and white as that.

 

 

I’d raise a counter argument to what many say and basically say if you balance up squad ability, perceived player effort, wages, Top having a pop at the fans, complete disconnect, ridiculous marketing, even more ridiculous sponsorship, cost of attending games and general lack of what feels like awareness or care of what is currently occurring……

 

I’d say we at our lowest point in terms of club to supporter engagement …. ever! 

[Soar Fox]

13th March 2020

[Muzzy_no7]

10 hours ago, filthyfox said:

Since we won the cup

It started before that, winning the FA Cup massively covered over some large cracks. 

[fox_favourite]

48 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

It started before that, winning the FA Cup massively covered over some large cracks. 

I have a vague memory this being brought up at the time, and there being a discussion about it. Im sure it was in the summer after it. 

[sylofox]

13 hours ago, indierich06 said:

I'd say the warning signs and the beginning of the decline started before we won the FA Cup to be honest

Correct.

 

I'd say 2016 when we started paying silly wages and the club getting above itself.

 

Then buying stupid amounts of squad fillers to please Rodgers.

[Kinowe Soorie]

The terrible signings after we won the Prem. High price tags and wages, for the low calibre players.
We should have signed as many younger, highly regarded talents, as we possibly could.

[Sly]

Here, I asked ChatGBT to draw me a graph of the last few years.

 

 

 

[filthyfox]

17 hours ago, Fox92 said:

You mean the same Spurs that have won it 8 times?

Not for a long, long time

[LFEFox23]

It started from the final whistle after the FA Cup final.

[Glasgow fox]

Don't mean to be controversial and have great sympathy but I would say since Vichai died.  We lost a man with great dignity but with a ruthless streak when needed.  No way would he have stood by and watched the incompetence of the staff below him.  Top is a nice guy but waits far too long to wield the axe and works alongside people who are simply not fit for the roles they are in.

Edited 13 February by Glasgow fox

[brookfox]

Winning the FA Cup for me. The win gave Rogers the rubber stamp to continue his input on transfers, the summer after was a particularly poor window. We should have also sold Tielemans at the time. From memory it was our first summer of not selling a big player and reinvesting. This then spiralled out of control, wages went up, players left on frees, new signings were poor.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

47 minutes ago, Glasgow fox said:

Don't mean to be controversial and have great sympathy but I would say since Vichai died.  We lost a man with great dignity but with a ruthless streak when needed.  No way would he have stood by and watched the incompetence of the staff below him.  Top is a nice guy but waits far too long to wield the axe and works alongside people who are simply not fit for the roles they are in.

Absolutely this. This is when it can be traced back to. We lost a strong person with acumen about building a business empire and he was replaced by his son - like some sort of medieval kingdom.
 

I think we held it together for a bit after that, but there were signs before the cup final with certain players running down contracts etc. I think the window where we lost Fofana, didn’t sign Lookman, but then signed Faes late on, reflects everything that’s gone wrong with strategy, decision-making and recruitment. 

[FoxesBraun]

9 hours ago, Soar Fox said:

13th March 2020

This was it for me. After that 4-0 Villa game I think we'd have cruised to a Top 4 finish. Covid killed any momentum we had and killed us even more financially from which we have never recovered. 

Edited 13 February by FoxesBraun

[Parker Pen]

When we won the league!

Unfortunately we had no plan after winning it and invested in the wrong players and wrong type of players and started inflating contracts coupled with not having a plan for bring youth players through to the first team and still don’t! We have wasted most of the player sales on sustaining bang average players inflated contracts.
A good example could have been the progression of Calvin Bassey who is doing well at Fulham. Loaning Ben Nelson this season instead of playing him after he did well when called upon last year in the Championship another example of not using what we have!

[The Year Of The Fox]

2 hours ago, brookfox said:

Winning the FA Cup for me. The win gave Rogers the rubber stamp to continue his input on transfers, the summer after was a particularly poor window. We should have also sold Tielemans at the time. From memory it was our first summer of not selling a big player and reinvesting. This then spiralled out of control, wages went up, players left on frees, new signings were poor.

And he had the audacity to claim he hadn’t been backed 😂

[OadbyBlue]

Losing to Villa in the league cup semis.

[indierich06]

On 13/02/2025 at 05:37, sylofox said:

Correct.

 

I'd say 2016 when we started paying silly wages and the club getting above itself.

 

Then buying stupid amounts of squad fillers to please Rodgers.

Rodgers first couple of seasons were, on the face of it, successful and he was definitely a shot in the arm for us after Puel, Shakey and Ranieri - but you just look at it and you can see in reality he should have done better and the signs that the mentality was crumbling were all there. We were lucky to win that FA cup in his second season, and we bottled top 4 (which would have massively increased our revenue) by losing three of the last four and missing out by a point. That was when the alarm bells should have started ringing.

 

The start of the season after that was when we went into free fall. I remember watching us play West Ham in the second game of the season and we couldn't lay a glove on them, it was absolutely pathetic stuff - displays we've seen all too often since. That was the tipping point for me, but you could see it was coming. I don't think the mentality has ever recovered. 

[Guy]

Probably easy to say but I think it was downhill all the way after we won the Prem. starting with 2016-17 season once Kante left for Chelski on the cheap which affected the whole team and players who'd shone the season before were then a shadow of the players they had been during the following season for one reason and another! While the less said about the transfer window that close season (Slimani, Hernandez, Musa....!), the better! After then, after a bit of an improvement under Rodgers in his first season or two then as others have also said ... Covid and the re-start in 2020 massively affected matters for us thereafter...to date.

Edited 14 February by Guy

[sylofox]

21 hours ago, indierich06 said:

Rodgers first couple of seasons were, on the face of it, successful and he was definitely a shot in the arm for us after Puel, Shakey and Ranieri - but you just look at it and you can see in reality he should have done better and the signs that the mentality was crumbling were all there. We were lucky to win that FA cup in his second season, and we bottled top 4 (which would have massively increased our revenue) by losing three of the last four and missing out by a point. That was when the alarm bells should have started ringing.

 

The start of the season after that was when we went into free fall. I remember watching us play West Ham in the second game of the season and we couldn't lay a glove on them, it was absolutely pathetic stuff - displays we've seen all too often since. That was the tipping point for me, but you could see it was coming. I don't think the mentality has ever recovered. 

Depends how you look at his first two seasons. I don't feel they were successful. Both season we squandered 4 and 5pt leads in the last four games. When we was playing football we could beat anyone. But no both seasons he made us play keep ball and we blew it.

 

We didn't have the players to play that game at that level. Then ultimately he took us down doing it. Look at the success Man C have had doing it. But within that game they also know to hit teams on the break when opportunities arise. We just kept banging our heads against the wall doing the same thing.

 

Yes that game worked for Enzo but at a lower standard. But even he didn't have the sense to change it up once teams sussed out how to beat us and we limped over the line whe we should have strolled over it and had towels on sun beds with 4 or 5 games to go.