There is particular interest from Everton supporters as, a decade on from their shock Premier League title win, Leicester City have been relegated to League One
Many Evertonians took a keen interest in Leicester City’s relegation to the third tier of English football given that the Foxes’ previous legal threats to the Blues, but there was also a huge sigh of relief with the feeling of: “There but for the grace of God go I.”
There was what now seems like a gargantuan sliding doors moment, some 1087 days earlier. With only the even bigger basket case, Sheffield Wednesday, who have won just once all season below them, Leicester’s 2-2 draw with Hull City at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday night condemned them to the drop with two games to spare in the Championship and even without their six-point deduction, they’d still be in the bottom three.
Yet on May 1, 2023, there was another battle for survival that appeared to be going their way. Despite Dominic Calvert-Lewin putting second bottom Everton ahead with a 15th minute penalty and Sean Dyche’s side dominating the first half for long periods, strikes from Caglar Soyuncu (22) and Jamie Vardy (33) had somehow put the Foxes 2-1 up against the run of play.
The Blues should have been back on level terms, but Calvert-Lewin missed an open goal from two yards out and then they lost Seamus Coleman through injury some four minutes into first half stoppage time with their inspirational captain defiantly punching the air as he was stretchered off. Then Leicester were awarded a penalty after Michael Keane handled a cross from Harvey Barnes, but Jordan Pickford held his nerve.
For all the incredible saves that the England number one has made for Everton, flinging himself athletically all around his six-yard box, this crucial one was all in the mind rather than the body as he simply stood still in the middle of his goal. Pickford’s trusty water body with opponents’ penalty-taking tendencies did the trick with the instructions: “Maddison: Stay centre.”
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His Three Lions international team-mate had gone down the middle with 60% of his efforts from the spot and after feigning to go left and right, Pickford stood his ground and was rewarded with a simple catch. Maddison, who once bizarrely revealed: “When I go for a roast dinner with my family, I like to be the main man,” was instead left feeling as sick as someone at a carvery whose eyes are bigger than their belly and have piled up their plate too high.
For his part, Pickford told Sky Sports: “I did my homework. I called it this morning where I would go.
“He is a good player and he would’ve expected me to move, but I double-bluffed him and got one up on him. “Madders needs to learn his lesson, don’t play poker. It was a big moment and I’m happy to save it – it’s what I’m there for.”
Jordan Pickford saves a penalty kick from James Maddison in the game between Leicester City and Everton at the King Power Stadium on May 1, 2023
Jordan Pickford saves a penalty kick from James Maddison in the game between Leicester City and Everton at the King Power Stadium on May 1, 2023
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Thankfully for Pickford and Everton, the save was not in vain as Alex Iwobi struck a 54th minute equaliser to earn the visitors a 2-2 draw on the night. However, even with that precious point – which also took two off Dean Smith’s side in the battle against the drop – the subsequent 5-1 romp at Brighton and Yerry Mina’s last-gasp equaliser at Wolves, on the final day of the season, with Harvey Barnes having put Leicester ahead against David Moyes’ West Ham on 34 minutes and the Foxes remaining in the lead for the rest of the day and ultimately triumphing 2-1, the Blues were heading for a first relegation in 72 years until Abdoulaye Doucoure’s wonder strike against Bournemouth on 58 minutes.
Despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in their history, Everton stayed up and Leicester went down. That was the first of four consecutive seasons that the Foxes have now changed divisions.
Inspired by a dozen goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who is now a fans’ favourite at Hill Dickinson Stadium, they came straight back up in 2024. Then, despite breaching the Premier League’s PSR rules – by a lot more than Everton and Nottingham Forest who were both punished – they escaped a points deduction by exploiting a massive loophole.
Leicester got off by the sharpest of technicalities because after going down in 2023 the club extended their accounting period to 13 months to bring it in line with the rest of the business and having handed in their Premier League shares after relegation, they therefore could not be bound by the top flight’s rules.
Under PSR rules, clubs cannot lose more than £105million over a three-season period. So, in essence, Leicester were in a position in which they were heading for a breach for all but the last of those 156 weeks, having fallen outside of the Premier League’s jurisdiction on handing in their shares earlier that month and there was no attempt to sell players during the extension.
As this correspondent wrote at the time, the Foxes displayed more brass neck than C-3PO. They spent a couple of years threatening to sue Everton over PSR breaches, and only once they were relegated, moving their accountancy period around, did they back off, along with other clubs, given the reality was that the same fate could happen to them very quickly.
But then the Foxes went down again from the Premier League in 2025 and have now suffered back-to-back relegations having tumbled into League One with a star-studded squad that had been widely tipped to come straight back up. The side that failed to beat the Tigers included high-profile, highly paid names such as Harry Winks, Patson Daka, Oliver Skipp, Jamaal Lascelles, Jannik Vestergaard, Ricardo Pereira, Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Jordan Ayew.
They also fielded former Everton goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, and as one of football’s good guys, a gentleman and model professional, you can only feel for him being caught up in this almighty mess. Even though the event will raise funds for the foundation named after their late owner who was killed in a helicopter crash in the King Power Stadium car park, the club have also been widely criticised for what seems like a tone deaf announcement of a match on May 30 to mark the 10th anniversary of their 5,000/1 odds shock Premier League title win, some 24 hours before the game that condemned them to the drop.
A decade ago, Leicester enjoyed the glorious day when they got to lift the trophy after manager Claudio Ranieri invited compatriot Andrea Bocelli to sing Nessun Dorma to the crowd. Their team ran riot against Everton, winning 3-1, but in truth the scoreline could have been much worse as the visitors, with Roberto Martinez in charge for the penultimate time, were ran ragged like the stooges who turned up as token opponents for the Harlem Globetrotters to toy with in basketball exhibitions.
Now though, after following Nottingham Forest in 1978 as the most recent first-time champions of England, the Foxes have followed another of their East Midlands rivals, Derby County, in becoming the second-quickest team to fall from lifting the title to dropping into the third tier (the Rams took just nine years between 1975-84). As football finance expert Kieran Maguire pointed out, 10 years ago, Bromley FC were playing in front of 865 fans at Gateshead in the National League but after winning promotion from League Two, next season they’ll be gearing up for their visit to the fallen champions’ 32,259 capacity home.
With Leicester heading down, my former ECHO colleague Matt Jones of BBC Sport and the Blue Room offered a tantalising teaser of a question on X (formerly Twitter) to his fellow Evertonians when he asked them, which team’s last decade are you taking? (The Foxes of course also lifted the FA Cup for the first time in this period in 2021). Even if some Blues chose the glory option, the thought of the club operating outside of the Premier League at Hill Dickinson Stadium still sends a shudder down the spine.
That’s also a warning to Tottenham Hotspur as they currently teeter on the brink of losing their top flight status at their magnificent new stadium, haunted by the prospect of what would be the biggest relegation since Manchester United went down some 52 years ago. Everton are hurting right now following their latest Merseyside Derby heartbreak, but they should also count themselves fortunate that they’re still getting to face neighbours Liverpool twice a season because given the off-the-field chaos at the time, if they’d gone down, it doesn’t bear thinking about where they might be now.