Football Daily | Wounded Foxes and an unhelpful FA Cup trip to their Saintly tormentors
In today’s Football Daily: A grim old time of things for Leicester
FOR FOXES’ SAKE
Leicester City have a proud tradition of beating the odds. At the start of the 2015-16 Premier League season, the bookies rated them as no better than 5,000-1 long shots to win the title, only for the Foxes to send shockwaves around the world by doing exactly that in what is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in the history of sport. Five years later, they lifted the FA Cup despite having been priced up at the comparatively miserly – but still hefty – odds of 16-1. Earlier this week they were at it again, somehow contriving to defy the laws of probability by surrendering a three-goal half-time lead at home against Southampton and snatching the most unlikely of defeats from jaws of victory that weren’t so much gaping as unhinged like that of a snake. A capitulation that came just four days after they had been docked six points for financial shenanigans, it left them just one place above the drop zone and staring down the barrel of back-to-back relegations to League One.
A title-winning midfielder with Leicester, Andy King has been in interim charge since the sacking of Martí Cifuentes last month but insists he doesn’t want the job on a full-time basis despite his legendary status at the club. It’s just as well as he probably won’t be offered it after masterminding three successive defeats, but both Steven Gerrard and Sean Dyche have been tenuously linked with the gig. Heavy has been the head that has worn the crown at Leicester since their promotion to the Premier League in 2024. Having proved too weighty for Steve Cooper, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cifuentes, now it seems too much of a burden even for a man named King. “It was a horrible night,” he said of his side’s surrender to Southampton, on a night when home fans told his players they’re not fit to wear the club’s shirt. “[The players] are angry, they share the frustration and they’re working hard to put it right.”
Leicester’s desperation to avoid relegation to the third tier means they could almost certainly do without having to play an FA Cup match, when they could be gadding about at warm-weather training somewhere exotic like so many other third-round casualties, or even cold-weather training in Loughborough instead. Unfortunately their only win in seven games, against Cheltenham Town in the third round, means their players will be forced to try to put that aberration against Southampton behind them at the first time of asking … when they play them again on Saturday. A tie so glamorous it is one of the five of 16 that hasn’t been picked for TV coverage and, even with prices slashed, ticket sales have been predictably slow. For all the talk about the romance of the Cup, this Valentine’s Day encounter is more drunken knee-trembler in a bus shelter than a candlelit dinner at the Ritz.
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Join John Brewin at 7.45pm (GMT) for updates from Hull City 0-0 Chelsea (0-1 pens aet) in the FA Cup fourth round.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It was a bad, bad feeling. I’d never scored an own goal before, especially in this game … when I was sitting on the bench I was like, wow, maybe the fans will destroy me. But when I came into the dressing room, I put up my phone and I just saw good messages. It could have [effed] up my season and derailed me. Instead it was the best feeling” – Nick Woltemade talks about that own goal in an interview with GQ.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Re: your coverage of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s latest comments (yesterday’s Football Daily). Alongside this billionaire’s first move at Old Trafford to cut the tea lady and the lunches, surely ‘Small Sir Jim’ would be a more accurate moniker?” – Nick Phelps.
Congratulations to Big Sir Jim for becoming the first person to put their hat in the ring for the second annual Fifa Peace Prize. A reminder that this worthless piece of junk is awarded annually ‘to reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world’. Sounds like a shoo-in to me” – John Collins.
Your daily email subject line notification came up on my phone yesterday as ‘Sir Jim’s special bra …’ We all know he’s acting like a tit and needs plenty of support, but I think this is going a bit far” – Jonathan Harris.
Long-time readers may recall the Round of Arsenal in Big Cup, where the Gunners inevitably got knocked out in the last-16. However, is the 2020s Round of Arsenal, in fact, their Premier League matches from January to March? How many times can a team ‘Spurs’ itself out of the league title?” – Jonathan Alphonsus.
As a Wolves fan I’m surprised that Leicester fans still get upset at losing 4-3 (Football Daily letters passim). They have a bit of previous. Would you like the ‘throwing away a 3-0 half-time lead’ 2003 classic, or the ‘last-minute winner’ 2019 vintage? Thanks for the memories in an otherwise desperate season for us” – Phil Russell.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … John Collins. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
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