‘No pressure’ to go up? That really feels like a world away
THERE is no pressure on Leicester City to get promoted this season. That was Enzo Maresca’s message in his first pre-match press conference of the campaign, prior to the win over Coventry.
“I feel no pressure,” he said. “The only pressure is to see the team improving.
“There is no pressure from the club saying ‘We need to get promoted.’ Nobody said ‘This is the only target we have.’”
That kind of talk feels a world away now.
Such are City’s concerns around the Profit and Sustainability regulations that failure to go up this season could see the team stripped back to its bare bones to avoid potential breaches in the future.
But still, nobody from the hierarchy has emphasised to Maresca just how important ascent to the Premier League is.
That’s not to say he doesn’t understand.
“For sure I think the promotion can help the club in terms of the economic situation,” the manager said last week.
“For sure we’re going to try to help the club to come back into the Premier League.
“But they didn’t mention to me that we need to get promoted.
“But we can understand that,
where we are now, we’re going to try to bring this club where it was last year. Hopefully we can do it.”
City at least know that only their own form matters now, with the EFL unable to deduct points from them this season, even if an independent commission finds the club guilty of a Premier League financial regulations breach.
Rather embarrassingly for the
league, they had to admit they didn’t know their own rules last Friday and were forced to backtrack on EFL chief executive Trevor Birch’s plans to apply a Premier League sanction on City this term.
Reacting to that news, Maresca said: “The statement was very good news for us. Hopefully now we can win the last four games, finish well, and reach our target.”
Scouting changes as Southampton spotter recruited
Not too long ago City were advertising for new scouts in their recruitment department and it seems there has been a reshuffle.
Henry Brown, who has been a first-team technical scout at the club since 2019, has now stepped up to become lead UK scout.
Meanwhile, the excellentlynamed Adam Fox has swapped his role as a technical scout to become the club’s senior emerging talent identifier for players aged 17 to 21.
Elsewhere, a new face has been brought into the club.
Last month, Peter Thompson joined City as a recruitment data scientist from promotion rivals Southampton.
City’s head of recruitment Martyn Glover worked at the Saints before moving to the King Power Stadium.
Vardy tifo planned to celebrate striker’s potential final season
Jamie Vardy’s contract ends this summer and, with City under an embargo amid financial concerns, it’s not yet clear if he will be offered an extension.
If this is to be his final season at the club, fan group Union FS are hoping to make sure he goes out with a celebration of his incredible career at the King Power Stadium, and with an acknowledgement from supporters of the joy he’s brought to them over the past 12 years.
They’re in the process of organising a tifo (choreography) for one of City’s remaining home matches, and have crowdfunded more £4,600 – surpassing their £3,000 target – to make it.
However, they’re still waiting on confirmation from the club that it can go ahead.
They said last week: “Thank you to everyone for the generous donations.
“We have worked hard to source material at short notice and prep work is well under way.
“There has been limited communication from LCFC so as of yet there is no confirmation of a date for the display to happen.”