Leicester's King Power Stadium will host Premier League football next season. Photo: John Mallett/ProSports/Shutterstock
A campaign that began with Enzo Maresca insisting that his Leicester City players sleep overnight at their sprawling, 185-acre Seagrave training base in the name of team building during the first week of pre-season has ended with them completing their primary mission and conclusion of promotion. the championship crown will likely follow. Leicester's most memorable and wonderful moment came when they confounded expectations; this time it was a matter of simply meeting them by returning to the Premier League at the first attempt.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the most expensively assembled squad in the division - their wage bill was the largest outside the Premier League top flight 12 months ago - sealed that return after Leeds lost at QPR on Friday night, but it turned into a slog after they had given up a lead of 17 points. In recent months, their 51-game season has oscillated between a sense of collapse and catharsis. "It's been a very long season," Maresca said this week with a wry smile.
Related: Leicester were promoted to the Premier League after Leeds' heavy defeat at QPR
Those days last July saw Maresca - a disciple of Pep Guardiola in terms of playing style and apparent tailoring (few can pull on a cream jersey) - underline his possession-hungry mantra, a mantra that divided opinion among supporters despite Leicester being on course to record a century of points, a number only Burnley managed last season since City gained promotion under Nigel Pearson ten years ago. Few could have imagined the extraordinary run that followed - the 5,000-1 title, Champions League trips, a first FA Cup - but rather than dreaming of a repeat of those heady days, pragmatism will see their return to the highest division will certainly stand in the way. .
Beyond the gold embossing, the smell of champagne, the confetti and the wild celebrations - Maresca jived with Abdul Fatawu in the dressing room after the striker's hat-trick in the midweek defeat to Southampton made promotion all but a formality - there is a disturbing shade of gray . Now we finally know which division Leicester will be playing in next season, but look past that and there is a shocking flood of unknowns. Most of these stem from Leicester's ultimate inability to keep pace with the Premier League's elite in the years since Claudio Ranieri did the unthinkable.
The story continues
So will the Premier League lift the transfer embargo that the English Football League imposed on the club in March for breaching the Profitability and Sustainability (PSR) rules? If not, what happens to Jamie Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi and Jannik Vestergaard, among the regular players without contracts at the end of June? Will Leicester be powerless to sanction the £14.5m deal they agreed with Sporting to sign Fatawu in the event of promotion? "Right now it's complicated," Maresca said Tuesday. Under the embargo, Leicester cannot re-sign current players or register new players without EFL approval. Leicester will formally become a Premier League club again at the annual general meeting in Harrogate at the end of June. The league may have a few questions for them.
Then of course there is the small matter of a possible double points deduction. Will these become reality, and if so, when? Leicester have taken legal action after being sued by the Premier League for allegedly breaching the PSR rules for the period ending 2022-2023. It seems unlikely that Leicester will start next season on negative points, with their case expected to take a long time as it falls outside the framework introduced last year to speed up decisions.
The club is also expected to exceed allowable financial losses for the three-year cycle ending 2023-2024 unless they are able to generate significant amounts before the accounting period ends on June 30. It seems inevitable that Leicester will consider or even not seek a bid for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, their most valuable asset. Leicester have not denied they are at risk of breaching the EFL's 2023-2024 threshold limit and when they published their latest accounts announcing a £90m loss this month, they admitted they "may not be in compliance will be found to be in compliance with the applicable P&S rules for the three-year reporting period ending in 2022-2023".
The cause of Leicester's financial problems is high spending, but they have not done much wrong in terms of recruitment this season. Mads Hermansen, a goalkeeper as comfortable with the ball at his feet as he is with his gloves, was perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle. Fatawu, who was referred to Maresca by head of recruitment Martyn Glover, and Stephy Mavididi were revelations on the flanks and Harry Winks was neat and consistent in midfield. Defenders Conor Coady and Callum Doyle, the latter on loan from Manchester City, have not played as much as expected due to the form of Vestergaard, whose transformation may well be the story of Leicester's season as he spent much of last training in isolation. That Vestergaard, a 6ft 4in centre-back, has had 4,290 touches this season - more than any other player in the division - illustrates how central he has been to their success and his role in fueling back-to-back front attacks. Leicester scored 86 goals in the league, with Dewsbury-Hall contributing 14 assists.
After their wobble - and it was significant considering they lost six of their 10 games before beating West Brom last weekend - Leicester deserve credit for getting over the line. Vardy has obviously played his part. The 37-year-old is Leicester's talisman - scoring at least one goal every other game in all competitions this season - and he initiated the players' meeting that led to a much-needed turnaround after a shock defeat to struggling Plymouth. "There was a lot of honesty," said Marc Albrighton, one of those whose contract is expiring. "We sometimes had the feeling that the boys, especially in the second half of the season, did not want to take certain risks." Leicester may pay the price for one or two players on their return to the top flight.
