What has caused City’s change in fortunes?

JUST what is happening at Leicester City? Last season, against all the odds, they won the Premier League. No other team came close. This season, they plunged into the relegation zone. Claudio Ranieri, last season’s Manager of the Year, was sacked by the club’s owners, shocking the football community. Craig Shakespeare, one of his assistants, was given the manager’s job on a temporary basis, and three wins followed. An unbelievable transformation has been highlighted by their defeat of Sevilla, one of Europe’s leading clubs, which takes Leicester into the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Is the appointment of Shakespeare the reason for this? This is still the team Ranieri built. He hadn’t changed his tactics, training and coaching; why did he find it so hard to replicate last season’s form? The blame is on the players. I believe the turnaround is due to Ranieri’s sacking. His shocking dismissal must have shaken the players, and made them consider their woeful recent performances. Shakespeare has the backing of the Leicester supporters, but they won’t forget their success under Ranieri. PETER GODDARD, Hook, Hants. I CAN’T have been the only one to wince at the description of Leicester City footballers who reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League as ‘heroes’ (Mail). These footballers waged the worst title defence in Premiership history, securing the sacking of a successful manager. The word ‘hero’ is overused today. A true hero was someone like my late father-in-law, who fought in World War II. The Leicester City footballers are just men kicking a ball around. They aren’t heroes. Their patchy performances this season suggest they are anything but.

STEVE ROBERTS, Christchurch, Dorset.