For the first time in 2025, Leicester City have gone two games unbeaten.
It’s an extremely minor achievement, but it did not stop, and should not have stopped, the big celebrations at the end of Sunday’s draw with Nottingham Forest, which will go down as one of the highlights in a mostly-poor campaign.
Here’s hoping for an even better highlight when Jamie Vardy signs off at the King Power Stadium this weekend. For now, here’s the latest news from around City.
Statement released over Vardy tribute
It’s the big story of the week and potentially of the season: this Sunday, Vardy plays his final match for City at the King Power Stadium.
Everybody associated with the club will want to be the perfect sign-off, and so for Ruud van Nistelrooy and the City squad, it means ensuring the number nine gets as many chances to get goal number 200 as possible.
In the stands, fans will want to pay their tributes, but supporters group Union FS have released a statement saying they will not be able to produce the display they had wanted to.
The group have previously organised tifos in the Kop and around the King Power Stadium, including for Vardy at the end of last season, when it wasn’t clear if the striker would remain with the club.
This year, they say their request has been denied because the club themselves are planning a tribute. A smaller tribute in the Union FS section of the Kop was also rejected, with the fan group feeling the club’s counter-proposal “would not do Vardy justice”.
Announcing their “disappointment”, Union FS said: “We honoured Vardy at the end of last season, when it was unclear as to whether he would ever play for us again.
“But the man deserves unending thanks from us for the memories he has brought to our city since 2012, and we had proposed a full-stand display in the Kop to do just that.
“Our request was rejected on the basis that the club will move forward with a club-funded, agency-provided display to cover the whole stadium. Our position will never change: tifo by fans, not hired hands.”
As well as a display before the match, further tributes are planned after full-time against Ipswich, with the club set to recommend fans stay in their seats to join in the goodbye to Vardy.
Evans overlooked as Page gets England call
The shortlist for the Premier League 2 player of the season has been published and City forward Jake Evans can perhaps count himself unfortunate not to have been included among the eight nominees.
The 16-year-old scored 10 goals in 12 starts in the regular season, with only Chelsea’s Donnell McNeilly, who is nominated, scoring more non-penalty goals. Evans also scored for City in the first round of the play-offs, in their 5-3 aggregate defeat to Southampton.
Perhaps it’s good news for City though, that such an obvious talent is not getting as much exposure as he should be doing for his record at such a young age.
There’s no place for either Evans or Jeremy Monga in the England Under-17s squad for the European Championships later this month, although that’s perhaps so they can remain with City and continue to feature in Premier League matches.
The club will have representation at the tournament though with box-to-box midfielder Louis Page included in the squad. He’s been a regular in the team through qualifying.
England’s first group game is next Tuesday, May 20, against Belgium, with matches against Italy and the Czech Republic to follow. The top two from the group will progress to the semi-finals.
Double success for loaned-out defender Grist
We’re into the thick of play-off season and there are few City loanees involved in promotion showdowns with their clubs.
Hamza Choudhury has booked a spot in the Championship play-off final with Sheffield United while Wanya Marcal played 70 minutes for De Graafschap in their goalless first leg with Dordrecht on Tuesday night. The winger and his Dutch side have to come through three two-legged ties to secure promotion to the Eredivisie.
But one player has already been successful. Defender Ben Grist, loaned to Worksop Town in January, helped the club win promotion to the National League North as they beat Guiseley 2-1 in the play-off final.
They made it a double a few days later, lifting the Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup.
Moment missed
The club have, perhaps unsurprisingly, done very little to promote it, so it may have gone under the radar that City’s player of the season vote is now open.
The last time City were relegated, there was a social media campaign for third-choice goalkeeper Alex Smithies to win the award, even though he’d not played a single minute, but the trophy ultimately went to Kelechi Iheanacho.
Such a protest vote cannot be made this season. It seems the shortlist is limited to those who have made at least 10 appearances, and so current third-choice keeper Daniel Iversen is not on the list.
Jakub Stolarczyk doesn’t make the cut either. He’s on nine appearances, but should get to 11 before the end of the season.
It feels like there are three stand-out contenders for the award, with attacking midfielder Bilal El Khannouss and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen perhaps the best performers, but with the emotional vote perhaps going to Vardy.
El Khannouss is on the six-man young player award shortlist alongside Facundo Buonanotte, Victor Kristiansen, and last year’s winner Abdul Fatawu, as well as Monga and Evans.
There are 10 nominees for goal of the season. The frontrunners look to be James Justin’s excellent volley at Arsenal, the right-back aiming to win the award for the second straight year, and Wout Faes’ surprise effort from range in the FA Cup against QPR.
Votes can be made here, with the deadline at 5pm on Friday, May 16.
Who has impressed recently
It’s a small sample size, and so it may just be a coincidence, but City have now claimed results in five of the seven league fixtures Kasey McAteer has started this season.
It’s two wins, three draws, and two losses when he’s been in the 11. It’s not groundbreaking, but it is pretty impressive for a team that has lost so often. Stretch that record over a full season and that’s a 49-point campaign.
It still feels like he has to deliver more goals and assists if he wants to be a City regular going forward, but he’s constantly looking to make off-the-ball runs, which is not something many other City players do and helps to stretch the opposition.
He does his bit defensively too. Nobody made more tackles for City at Forest on Sunday than McAteer.
Who has a point to prove
At this moment in the season, it’s difficult to single out a player who has a point to prove and can prove that point in the final two games.
Instead, it’s perhaps City chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha who has the biggest point to prove right now.
There’s a key decision to be made over who manages the club next season and the lack of a conversation with Ruud van Nistelrooy over his proposals for the future so far suggests to fans that the urgency isn’t there, even with plenty of names being linked with the job.
Next up
It’s going to be emotional. Ipswich at home this Sunday, May 18, will be Vardy’s 500th City outing and his last-ever at the King Power Stadium for the club.
He needs one goal for a double century, while City as a club are looking for the victory that would send them 18th and put them in the driving seat to finish as the best of the relegated sides, earning them a little more cash too, with around £2.8m in prize money the difference between each position in the table.
Who do you want to see start against Ipswich? Click HERE to have your say.
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