But Leicester’s golden era is a distant memory as they face the unpalatable prospect of playing the likes of Bromley, Mansfield and Wycombe next season.
Crashing out of the Premier League in limp fashion three years ago should have been a wake-up call for Leicester’s Thai owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and much-maligned sporting director Jon Rudkin.
But Leicester’s hierarchy were painfully slow to address numerous flaws on the pitch, while the club’s ruinous finances have cost them with a six-point deduction this season for breaching spending rules.
Vardy’s departure at the end of last season severed the last tie with the title-winning squad.
Marti Cifuentes, hired to lead a promotion push, struggled to rebuild an unbalanced and inexperienced squad before his sacking in January.
‘A lack of quality’
Interim boss Andy King was unable to turn the tide and relegation fears began to mount after Leicester blew a 3-0 halftime lead in a dismal 4-3 defeat against Southampton.
By the time Rowett was hired in February, the Foxes were two points from safety and the former Leicester defender has mustered one win from his 11 matches since.
But it is his players who have taken the brunt of the blame, with fans chanting “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” and engaging in an altercation with midfielder Harry Winks after last weekend’s loss at Portsmouth.
The weekend’s result at Fratton Park elevated in-form Portsmouth to 18th on the table, seven points clear of relegation with three matches in hand.
“A lack of fight is something that’s been labelled at the team over the course of a season. I don’t know whether that’s fair, but I think we’ve showed a lack of quality,” Rowett said.
Boardroom blunders have been the defining influence on Leicester’s plummet towards League One.
Srivaddhanaprabha has struggled to fill the shoes of his father, Vichai, who was killed in a helicopter crash at the King Power Stadium in 2018.
Claudio Ranieri, architect of their title-winning campaign, was sacked months after lifting the trophy, with Craig Shakespeare and then Claude Puel proving inadequate replacements.
Brendan Rodgers, who masterminded the club’s FA Cup triumph and two fifth-placed finishes in the Premier League, was dismissed as relegation beckoned in 2023.
Even when Enzo Maresca led Leicester to promotion in 2024, he immediately departed for Chelsea, necessitating the unpopular and unsuccessful appointment of Steve Cooper, who previously managed rivals Nottingham Forest.
Rudkin’s recruitment has been no better, with expensive flops Patson Daka, Oliver Skipp, Jannik Vestergaard and Harry Souttar adding to a wage bill that topped £200 million ($270m) in 2023 and reportedly contained no clauses to reduce salaries upon relegation.
Foreshadowing Leicester’s descent, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said in January: “In almost 16 years, we have won five trophies, we’ve had two relegations, three times in Europe. It’s like a movie. It’s like a super drama on Netflix.
“We grew bigger and bigger and we forgot what we were before. We thought we are here and that is the most dangerous position to be in.”
On the precipice of relegation, Leicester will hope for another against-the-odds miracle, but the bleak reality of their situation is impossible to ignore.