2024/25 Premier League Preview - Leicester City

The 97 point winners of the Championship are back in the Premier League at the 1st time of asking, but not with their manager. After only one season, Enzo Maresca has left the Midlands for London and joined Chelsea. His controversial replacement is the former Nottingham Forest manager, Steve Cooper who certainly wasn’t the fan’s preferred choice.

Most Leicester fans appeared to be hoping for Graham Potter, who’s been out of management since his exit from Chelsea in April 2023, and it did appear at one point that Potter was on the verge of being announced, but the club apparently chose Cooper over him. Now that pre-season is firmly underway, it appears that the fans have put their new manager’s Nottingham connections behind them, mainly because there is a bigger problem ahead;

Leicester face a potential record points deduction after a charge for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations in the 2022/23 season. After a lengthy battle in court where the club’s lawyers eventually failed in an attempt to have the charges thrown out, it’s been decided that they will almost certainly face punishment. The total number of points is uncertain at this stage but it is near enough nailed on to be more than what Everton and Nottingham Forest have faced, with a figure as high as 15 points being thrown about. This has caused many Leicester fans to turn on their once loved owners who now have a lot of work to do to see their fans truly happy again.

Aside from all of the off field drama, Leicester clearly showed their quality in the Championship. Every player adapted to Enzo Maresca’s system and they turned in performance after performance. Leicester didn’t actually surrender the top spot for almost the entire season, holding onto it from matchday 8 until they lifted the trophy at the end of the season. Under Maresca, Leicester had the best goal difference in the Championship and averaged over 60% possession but it appears they will be making changes under their new manager.

Steve Cooper will bring in a totally new system to Leicester and will be less focussed on possession and slow buildup and will run tactics centred around fast paced counter attacks, an eerily similar style of play to their remarkable Premier League win almost a decade ago under Claudio Ranieri. This style will suit their pacey wingers and provide last season’s top scorer Jamie Vardy with the best opportunity to find the goals that may see Leicester remain in the Premier League despite what point deductions come their way.

They have a fantastic combination of young and experienced players who helped them dominate the Championship last season but will have to make do without their home-grown central midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who has been taken by Enzo Maresca to Chelsea in a £30m deal. Leicester don’t appear to be rushing to replace him despite his productivity last season which saw him end the season with 12 goals and 14 assists, with links to players in other positions proving to gather a lot of momentum lately;

The Foxes have already completed 4 signings, the most notable being fan favourite Abdul Fatawu joining on a permanent deal after his loan from Sporting Lisbon and Bobby De Cordova-Reid on a free transfer after leaving Fulham. Leicester are also heavily linked with Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson and towering Dutch forward, Wout Weghorst. These do remain as links for now, with no agreements in place at all, but it does show Leicester plan to recruit good, well established players and will not lay down to the challenges they have in front of them.

Steve Cooper and the Leicester players will have a task like no other. There’s every possibility that they earn enough points as a team to keep them in the Premier League but the potential sanctions may have them relegated. Leicester do appear on paper to have the best chance of avoiding an immediate return to Championship football out of the promoted teams, and it would be likely that they will see some good results come their way based on the squad and Cooper's experience. But their place in the table come the end of the season is going to depend on how tough of a sanction the FA decides to impose on them.

League prediction: 17th

Squad grade: C+

Manager grade: C