Leicester City’s return to the Premier League at the first time of asking feels fitting given all they achieved in the decade since they last won the Championship, although chances of an immediate climb back to the tables’ higher reaches look set to be stymied by the League’s profit and sustainability rules.
When the Foxes last won promotion in 2013/14, not one fan would have believed what was to come: a Premier League title and Andrea Bocelli serenade, Champions League football among three European campaigns, an FA Cup, and expectations that saw their hierarchy begin to budget for regular top-half finishes.
Their gradual decline under Brendan Rogers and ultimate relegation after Dean Smith’s rescue job failed put a sombre bookend on that magical spell, but this year Enzo Maresca’s rejuvenated side managed always to stay fractionally clear of one of the sizeable chasing Championship pack to earn promotion with a game to spare.
‘They had a phenomenal start to the season, winning week after week, some fans thinking this was easy’, The Athletic’s Leicester correspondent Rob Tanner told Box2Box.
‘But they hit the blip around mid-February, back-to-back defeats at Millwall and Plymouth, two games they were expected to get something from. Their enormous lead was then eroded by Leeds and Ipswich, then Southampton coming up on the rails as well. People started to get nervous, players started to get nervous.
‘Jamie Vardy called a meeting after the Plymouth game. They all sat down, forty-five minutes, all had their say and basically, galvanised themselves. They got over the line as rivals started to falter; they only won it by one point but it doesn’t matter, they’re back in the Premier League and the club is saved.’
Frustratingly for the club, the return can’t be considered a completely fresh start as they’re still to face sanction over the financial management of their relegation. Potentially in breach of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, Maresca’s Leicester look likely to kick-off the new season in August six-points in arrears of the starting post.
‘Having achieved what they’d achieved, finishing fifth, fifth and eighth, they were budgeting for European football. They had the seventh highest budget in the Premier League… then finished eighteenth, lost £30million in prize money, and the cost of sacking Brendan Rogers and his staff led to quite a significant loss, nearly £90million for the second season.
‘You’re only allowed a £35million [loss] in the Premier League per season, £13million in the EFL, so I think they’re going to start with a six point deduction. [But] At least they’re there with a chance, they’ll know what they have to do, unless they get hit with a second charge like Everton and Nottingham Forest.
‘As it is now, the EFL have put in place a registration embargo that means they can’t register any players, they can sign them but can’t register them to play, and that includes players out of contract. Now they’ve been promoted that will be lifted, so they can sign Jamie Vardy, who will stay another year.’