Football Daily | Are Leicester tumbling towards a painfully awkward anniversary party

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Out there in the extended WhatsApp metaverse, an exclusive group of footballers send each other memes, jokes and probably much else besides. What goes encrypted stays encrypted but it was only last week that Christian Fuchs, reliable left-back turned Newport County manager, revealed his appointment to the Welsh club had set the notifications buzzing on the ?Champions? group, made up of the 2015-16 Leicester City players. Ten years ago today, a Riyad Mahrez hat-trick at Swansea sent the Foxes to the Premier League summit. Jamie Vardy was denied a goal but had just completed a record-breaking streak of scoring in 11 consecutive matches. The following Monday, a 2-1 win over Chelsea sent Jos? Mourinho through the Stamford Bridge door marked Do One. ?I want to stay and I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay because I want to stay,? squealed Jos?. ?All at Chelsea thank Jos? for his immense contribution ?? came the reply.

That season, everyone trailed in the wake of a Vardy, Mahrez and N?Golo Kant?-charged wrecking ball. Next summer there will doubtless be a 10th anniversary celebration. Their story continues to defy belief. No tactical manual or chalkboard wonk ever divined the sheer inspiration of Claudio Ranieri?s ?dilly ding dilly dong? motivational techniques. The problem with football is that you can never truly bask in the past. Just look at Manchester United?s constipations or the deleterious fall of Liverpool, actual champions whose performances have turned even the cheeriest Anfield fan into a Samuel Beckett tragicomedy. Though if you are mining for misery look no further than Leicester in 2025. There is the possibility that the 10th anniversary party will take place in League One.

Did the downfall begin the very next season? Where did it all go wrong, Mr Vardy? An opening-day loss at Hull, a team with no manager, was soon followed by Ranieri?s defenestration: dilly ding, dilly gone. Since then, there?s been tragedy in the 2018 helicopter crash that killed Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the club?s owner. And good money thrown after bad: Leicester have walked a financial tightrope that may lead to docked points soon, plunging them into the Championship?s relegation zone. When Vardy departed for Cremonese last summer, the last of the immortals departed the tower. The doom has doubled. Ruud van Nistelrooy?s failure to find any fight against relegation last season has been replicated by Mart? Cifuentes.
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