Post-Relegation Blueprint - What Should Our 5-Year Plan Be?

[Ryanlcfc3]

Now that we’ve had time to adjust to life back in the Championship, I think it’s worth asking: What should Leicester City's long-term blueprint actually be?

We’ve seen the danger of drifting – relegation didn’t come from one bad season, it came from years of muddled recruitment, high wages and a lack of clear footballing identity. Martí Cifuentes seems to be laying foundations, but what should the next five years look like if we want real stability?

 

Some ideas to throw in the mix:

• Identity: Do we finally commit to a footballing philosophy and academy pathway, or keep chopping and changing with managers?

• Recruitment: Should we continue with hidden gems/younger players or do we need more experienced Championship-proven signings?

• Finances: How do we manage wages and FFP now – can we afford to keep big earners, or is this a reset moment?

• Ownership and Ambition: Is the aim to bounce straight back to the Premier League, or is it healthier to build slowly and sustainably?

• Fan Connection: How do we rebuild that bond with supporters that feels fractured since the relegation?
   

Personally, I think we need a measured rebuild – smart recruitment, clear playing identity, gradual phasing of youth and a wage structure that stops us being hamstrung again. Quick promotion would be great, but not if it repeats the same cycle.

Curious to hear what everyone thinks – what would your 5-year plan for Leicester look like?

[davieG]

14 minutes ago, Ryanlcfc3 said:

Some ideas to throw in the mix:

• Identity: Do we finally commit to a footballing philosophy and academy pathway, or keep chopping and changing with managers?

• Recruitment: Should we continue with hidden gems/younger players or do we need more experienced Championship-proven signings?

• Finances: How do we manage wages and FFP now – can we afford to keep big earners, or is this a reset moment?

• Ownership and Ambition: Is the aim to bounce straight back to the Premier League, or is it healthier to build slowly and sustainably?

• Fan Connection: How do we rebuild that bond with supporters that feels fractured since the relegation?

You don't plan to keep changing managers but if we need to we should appoint those with similar playing styles

Both youth and experience

Spend within our means

If you want to achieve the above 3 it's significantly easier with the PL £s

Employ football people in management and administration roles.

[Blueman1967]

Depending on current owners, what the finances will be, we have no money, so will it be more on youth, and young players, and up and coming players,  while letting the high wages/ old guard leave, having a manager to uses his ideas, and have a plan, it's is  the vision to be a regular Premier League club, looking for European football, which is what we should be aiming for 

[Chrysalis]

For a chance to survive in EPL, need to spend 9 figures, to be able to do it either needs a plan and balls to breach PSR, or to have spent little to get there, so there is head room in the accounts to spend that much.   

Meaning #1 get expenditure down.

 

Hungry players, younger is better, but also players who have never played in the EPL.  Ideally never played in England.

 

Scrap the Pep clone identity nonsense, this is a massive factor in our problems, it hamstrings managers, and requires a limited set of player abilities.  However there is importance in squad harmony so players should be compatible with each other.

 

Clear long term plan, with the right people to execute that plan, stadium expansion should be a priority with a minimum 1.5x increase in capacity (48k+).   DoF with lots of contacts in the game, lots of analysts supporting recruitment.

 

Audit of the training facilities, do we need 10 million pitches, 5 star sauna conditions, is it good to be so distanced from fans, dont be scared to carry out the audit's recommendations.  

 

Improve quality of the coaching staff, we seem quite bare bones, and reliant on manager's bringing their own in to avoid a skeleton crew.

 

Instead we will do the opposite.

[urban.spaceman]

Seagrave is key. There's no coincidence in that opening in late 2020 and the sheer wealth of very, very players being good enough to break into youth teams years above of their age group. If we can keep bringing through players of the youth and quality of Monga, Evans, Page, Alves, Braybrooke we will be able to both fill our our squad with very high quality players and make some serious cash to help with PSR. Chilwell, Barnes, KDH and McAteer all sold for about £130m. 

[hebangsthedrums]

the bottom two points are the key ones for me, particularly the last one.

I've been away and so missed  both home games so far and not really arsed about going to the next one. 

[fazzyfox]

Re the finances, the stadium expansion was supposed to be a way of increasing revenue, helping the psr issue in future years. The idea that it’s not needed whilst we’re a championship club is short sighted, hopefully we’re a championship club for one season. Nor can you point to empty seats in our last PL season, this was untypical, a lost cause with Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber as our managers, 9 games without a goal and a complete communication breakdown from the club to the fans. 

 

Combined with a blend of homegrown keepable and sellable assets we’ll be on a much stronger footing than 2 years ago.

 

You also need to arrive in the PL with momentum and keep it going, losing our manager and K D-H, then Farawu to injury, even though Cooper wasn’t fully utilising him,  changing style and identity, any momentum was gone. 

[leicesterseddon]

Pretty hard to “build” a team these days given manager churn and the fact anyone decent will eventually be sold/leave.

 

Given PSR, the only route for clubs like us is to gradually increase revenue from matchday/commercial so we can sustain a higher wage bill

 

Rather than what we did, which is massively increase wages over a short period off the back of overperformance and player sales, which was never going to last, then crash when we inevitably regressed to the mean 

[MPH]

I think we went in too hard after the league win and champions league campaigns. All the top top young players in the world should have seen us as a stepping stone to the top 5 teams in the world and we should have been ok with that. It would have been a great ride seeing such exciting young players and we almost developed that reputation. We could have become an absolute beast team at doing that but he success went to our head and we starting shelling out too much on players who didn’t quite have the ability or potential to be in those top 5 clubs,

Edited 7 September 2025 by MPH

[sm1]

The most important part of the blueprint has to be to get rid of Rudkin and get a competent person in as DoF.

[Lambert09]

I felt like last time, other than the coady signing we turned a corner. It felt like we got our reset and had something to build from.  The problem, was that when we got promoted all the bad habits were back. 
 

I fail to see a different reality if we return. The only real approach for me if we do get promoted, would be to focus on building for the future and sustainable growth. if we don’t survive, we just need to be in a stronger position until we can click it all together.  this is a tough viewpoint because it involves patience that I’ve not seen from the club. 

[OntarioFox]

1. Stick with a manager for more than a season - we've had no stability since it became obvious the board had no long-term plan beyond Rodgers. They also naively assumed Enzo would stick around I think, which was partially out of their control but once again showed this club's allergy to thinking more than one step ahead.
2. Stick with a style - even if that means we have to grit our teeth and accept we'll remain a possession-first club for the time being. I think many of us would like to see something a bit more direct, but we can still reap the rewards if the man in the dugout can at least get the pressing intensity out of players who are clearly capable. Any signings absolutely MUST fit this style. No more Cooper-type windows.
3. Clear out the deadwood. This has thankfully started, but the job is nowhere near complete. 
4. Build around the youth. We have some brilliant prospects coming through, now for God's sake play them. By the end of the season I'm hoping the likes of Aluko, Nelson and maybe a returning Alves can join Page and Monga in breaking into the first team.
5. Accept that we need to cut our cloth and completely reset the wage structure - even if that means a few seasons in the Championship or (god forbid) lower.
    

All of this is based on a working assumption that there is going to be no movement at boardroom or ownership level. I'd still rather they all buggered off, or that we at least get a new DOF with some semblance of competence and vision, but I can't see that happening unless point 5 gives them all a collective itchy arsecrack and makes Top finally consider selling up.

 

Edited 8 September 2025 by OntarioFox

[murphy]

I think we need to learn from past mistakes.  That means that we stop offering huge, inflated contracts to journeymen for a start. 

 

We should also return to the pre-Rodgers recruitment model that sets out to unearth gems rather than known quantities and plodders like Ayew.  Identify hungry young players with high ceilings on the way up.  Players with resale value and extend our scouting network globally rather than relying on agency recommendations. 

 

Continue to develop youth, we have the set up and this seems to be the one area of the club that has remained successful. 

 

New DoF.  We have continue to make the same mistakes over and over.   I don't think we can change unless we change our personnel.  The infamous internal review was an embarrassment and changed nothing. 

 

Finally, I don't think we can afford to build gradually as op suggests.  The gap will simply widen and we will drift. 

 

 I am beginning to think that the way to bridge the gap is that a promoted team should simply bank the money, don't waste it trying too compete.  Expect relegation then take a second bite at the cherry.  Getting promoted a second time with previously banked funds, might allow a decent enough war chest to compete. 

 

 

Edited 8 September 2025 by murphy

[mozartfox]

18 hours ago, Ryanlcfc3 said:

Now that we’ve had time to adjust to life back in the Championship, I think it’s worth asking: What should Leicester City's long-term blueprint actually be?

We’ve seen the danger of drifting – relegation didn’t come from one bad season, it came from years of muddled recruitment, high wages and a lack of clear footballing identity. Martí Cifuentes seems to be laying foundations, but what should the next five years look like if we want real stability?

 

Some ideas to throw in the mix:

• Identity: Do we finally commit to a footballing philosophy and academy pathway, or keep chopping and changing with managers?

• Recruitment: Should we continue with hidden gems/younger players or do we need more experienced Championship-proven signings?

• Finances: How do we manage wages and FFP now – can we afford to keep big earners, or is this a reset moment?

• Ownership and Ambition: Is the aim to bounce straight back to the Premier League, or is it healthier to build slowly and sustainably?

• Fan Connection: How do we rebuild that bond with supporters that feels fractured since the relegation?
   

Personally, I think we need a measured rebuild – smart recruitment, clear playing identity, gradual phasing of youth and a wage structure that stops us being hamstrung again. Quick promotion would be great, but not if it repeats the same cycle.

Curious to hear what everyone thinks – what would your 5-year plan for Leicester look like?

You missed -   Appoint new Director of Football.

[sphericalfox]

Should probably ask ChatGPT....