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FOXES FALL

Say what you like about Leicester City’s dismal performances but just don’t say it to Harry Winks when he’s boarding the team coach outside Fratton Park shortly after they’ve lost their 18th Championship match of the season. Last Saturday, the midfielder told travelling fans to “[Eff] off!” ahead of the return leg of their 328-mile round trip to watch their side lose to Portsmouth. Unsurprisingly, Winks was not asked to reprise his role as the club’s public liaison officer after their relegation to League One was confirmed by Tuesday’s home draw with Hull City. It was left to local lad Hamza Choudhury to take on the role of human shield outside the King Power Stadium as his teammates sheepishly slunk away to their cars and made good their escape from the angry mob.

“We are, I think everyone in there is,” he told fans who said Leicester’s players were an embarrassment who should be “[eff]in’ ashamed” of themselves for getting relegated for a second season on the bounce. “Of course we care, of course we care,” he added, before reaching for the phrase a third time like a man hoping that if he said it often enough, it might miraculously become true. Leicester chief suit Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha also fronted up before disgruntled fans, telling them he would do everything in his power to ensure a speedy return to the Championship for a club that has lost £270m over the past four years and incurred a six-point deduction this season for financial shenanigans. “It’s a bad day,” said Top, who it is worth remembering has endured far worse days at the King Power. “I cannot blame anyone. I can blame myself. It’s not right, I tried everything, we all tried. It’s not about who is wrong now, it’s about what’s next. I will try.”

On the plus side, Leicester’s players will be able to prepare for life in League One in their bouji, state-of-the-art £100m Seagrave training ground, described by the club hierarchy as “a beacon of ambition for the future” upon its official opening in 2022. Few present could have envisaged that future including weekly recovery sessions following league matches against such clubs as Exeter City, Bromley and Stockport. Of course in its ongoing quest to seek out the positives in any bad situation, Football Daily would point out that in going down to the third tier, Leicester have at least spared themselves the well-documented ignominy that awaits Tottenham Hotspur – having to play home and away against Lincoln City.

In the past 10 years, Leicester have won the Premier League, played in Bigger Cup, Bigger Vase and Tin Pot, won the FA Cup, been relegated, promoted and relegated again twice. It’s been quite the white-knuckle ride for a club who earlier this week revealed they would be reassembling the legends who won the Premier League title for a 5,000-1 Anniversary Match on 30 May. One suspects the 10th anniversary of this season’s humiliating exit through the second tier trapdoor will be slightly more low key.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Simon Burnton at 8pm (BST) for Premier League updates on Burnley 0-4 Manchester City, while Niall McVeigh will be following the rest of the night’s action in his clockwatch from 7.45pm. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I was in superb form [in 2002-03], a type of feeling I also experienced in 2006 at the World Cup … in those moments it seems that everything is perfectly in order, you feel almost omnipotent, and you have a perception that you are unbeatable” – Gianluigi Buffon gets his entertaining chat on with Donald McRae about getting used to retirement, the decline of the game in Italy and why he blames himself for Zindedine Zidane’s red card.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Liam Rosenior’s six-and-a-half year contract isn’t going to last six-and-a-half months. But then what do I know about football? I’m not a galaxy-brained venture capitalist” – Darren Leathley.

It’s great to see that Football Daily has started crowdsourcing the funny bits – ie the letters section. Of particular amusement was Gumley Slats’s take on the reason players started diving. Oh, how we laughed!” – David Bell (and no others).

The minimum price of a ticket for the Chelsea v Tottenham friendly in Sydney this August is A$154. But if dynamic ticketing applies my sons and I can confidently wait until the price drops to A$20” – Alex Damon.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Alex Damon. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.

RECOMMENDED SUBSCRIBING

Want a newsletter that explains how the World Cup became the cultural, social and political behemoth that it is? Then look no further than The World Behind the Cup, a new email from Jonathan Wilson coming soon. You can pre-subscribe … but please stick with your faithful Football Daily too.

HOWZAT FOR INVESTMENT?

Wealthy superstar footballers increasingly like to Give Something Back by investing in the clubs that made them; and so it is with Jude Bellingham, kind of – albeit in a different sport. The England and Real Madrid midfielder has bought into the Hundred cricket hype by snaffling up a 1.2% holding in the Birmingham Phoenix franchise. Phoenix of course are now 48% owned by Tom Wagner’s Knighthead Capital Management investment vehicle, which also owns Birmingham City, Bellingham’s childhood club who he left for Dortmund six years ago. “I feel like I owe the city something,” trilled the 22-year-old. “I was fortunate growing up I had the option of playing cricket and playing football, but some kids don’t have that opportunity. It’s important that if I can get involved in something like this to shine a light on an opportunity for kids, then even better.”

All good investment synergy and everything but Bellingham’s cricketing credentials aren’t to be sniffed at. He excelled for Hagley CC in his youth, where he was considered as talented a cricketer as a footballer, a hard-hitting all-rounder and sharp-eyed fielder. “If he had focused on cricket, he could have gone far in the game,” Hagley chief suit Mark Baker said in 2024. Instead his journey in cricket has led to his becoming one of the more grounded investors in the English game’s opinion-splitting franchise jamboree.

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

It’s not looking good for Liam Rosenior, who is on the brink of losing his job after Chelsea’s shocking 3-0 defeat at Brighton. “That was unacceptable in every aspect of the game. Unacceptable in the attitude,” he barked. “Something needs to change drastically right here, right now.” Yikes!

An adapted version of the Nations League format is the front runner for a revamp of the men’s European Championship qualifiers, which face an overhaul likely to be implemented after Euro 2028.

Pep Guardiola gave a weary response when asked about criticism of Manchester City’s celebrations after the win over Arsenal. “People can say whatever stupid things they want to say,” he sighed. “They celebrated because they know the value of the opponent … and knew if we didn’t win it would be ‘bye-bye [to the title race].”

Chelsea will play all of their Women’s Super League home games at Stamford Bridge from next season.

Frank Lampard’s Coventry have been crowned Championship champions after a 5-1 evisceration of Portsmouth in front of a joyous home crowd. “It was just a great night,” whooped Lampard. “This is what I really, really wanted because we led the table for so long.”

And Rangers captain James Tavernier has announced he will leave the club after 11 years at Ibrox. “This club will always be a part of me, and I will always be a part of it,” he sniffed. “Once a Ranger, always a Ranger.”

STILL WANT MORE?

“I’m not a PR stunt”: Marie-Louise Eta on making history at Union Berlin. Interview by Nick Ames.

Bernardo Silva’s all-action display against Arsenal captured what has made him indispensable to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Opta’s Oliver Hopkins breaks down the captain’s performance.

What is the biggest football scoreline without anyone grabbing a hat-trick? That and more in this week’s Knowledge.

And Robert Lewandowski won’t get a World Cup sendoff this summer. Jeff Rueter wonders what’s next for one of the greatest goalscorers of all time.

MEMORY LANE

3 April 1976: Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy celebrates at Stamford Bridge after his side’s 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final. The Saints are back in the semi-finals this weekend, when they take on Manchester City at Wembley.

 2032!