How Leicester City's 'fairytale' turned into a 'nightmare' amid dismal Championship form and FFP fears

Leicester City’s Championship campaign has catastrophically descended to chaos both on and off the pitch.

Enzo Maresca’s men fell to a dismal 1-0 loss against Millwall on Tuesday, but still somehow clung on to the Championship’s top spot by virtue of Leeds' goalless draw at home to Sunderland and Ipswich’s stalemate at home to Watford.

But despite their place at the league’s summit, an instant return to the Premier League looks far from certain for Leicester. The Foxes were 17 points clear at the top just three months ago. They are now hovering a mere point ahead of the play-off spots. So what happened?

“To start as imperiously as we did - it all seems to have imploded,” Premier League productions anchor and Leicester fan Manish Bhasin told SPORTbible. “I’ve watched Leicester from day one and we’re in a really curious season.

“We started like a train. Nobody could work out our wingers, Harry Winks was brilliant, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was excellent and through a combination of strikers, we were picking up win after win after win.

“But I was watching scratching my head thinking how were we ever so far ahead of the pack. It felt like were almost in a false position to begin with.

“We play on the edge. We play with a high line. If you turn us around you’ll get the better of us. Our wingers have been a revelation but are now being doubled up on.

“Suddenly we’ve wavered and we’re hanging on. We’re crawling across to that finish line.

“I cannot confidently say we will finish in the top two. We challenged for the top four in the Premier League twice and it never quite happened on both occasions. - we finished fifth. I have primed myself as a fan for ultimate disappointment and it might have to be the play-offs.

“Nerves are starting to kick in for all three. The screw is turning. They know how big the prize is at the end of the season and it’s getting to them.”

It’s been a tumultuous period for Leicester both on and off the pitch, with the club having been charged last month with breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules over a three year period ending in 2022-23.

The Foxes responded by releasing a statement to confirm they have opened legal proceedings against the Premier League and Football League and have since posted their account for the 2022-23 campaign, revealing a loss of £90million.

Bhasin said: “It feels like the ultimate fairytale has become a nightmare almost overnight. From what happened in 2015/16, the elation, the Champions League football that followed, then winning the FA Cup and then relegation.

“And now we’re looking at a possible points deduction no matter which division we’re in next season. It’s almost too much to fathom as to how much has gone wrong.

“I can’t think about a points deduction. I can’t think of which division we’ll be in. I just want to get through to the end of this season. That’s where we’re it.

“It feels like the stakes have been heightened after all that’s gone on and to give us a chance financially to be on a more even keel we’ve got to get back in the Premier League.”

Manish Bhasin presents Premier League football to over 700 million fans every week in his role as lead presenter at Premier League Productions. He can be followed on Instagram and X.