Today the club published their numbers for the 2024-25 season. Leicester City posted a pre-tax loss of £71.1m during their single season back in the Premier League.
We warned everyone during Brendan Rodgers’ early years. The financial strategy in place at that time was potentially disastrous. The owners and management closed their eyes and backed The Big Head, starting to sign players far above value. The board turned their head away from the real world. They supported the former warehouse worker, who just demanded millions to buy more players, without making enough revenue on sales.
Brendan Rodgers possibly had a point. He believed that bringing Champions League football to this club consistently needed a stronger structure. However, he did not understand how to keep a club like Leicester steady in the Premier League. He thought it was necessary to have 30 players on heavy wages.
If you buy a player for £25million or more in football, make sure you have a plan for him. Without a plan, you will get in trouble. You might not use him, but you still expect him to perform whenever called into action. The other part is that a player purchased should be one fitting the pattern of play, not the total opposite.
Some signings done under Brendan Rodgers were massive flops. These signings involve wages and contracts that should never have been given. The amount of transfers done in and out over the last 10 years indicate the risk taken. If a player does not perform, your investment will fade.
Our financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2025 have been published today.
— Leicester City (@LCFC) March 27, 2026
Read more: https://t.co/RxGancy6YS pic.twitter.com/cuHN0mTdyO
The financial statement released, shows that club management and board haven’t fully grasped the situation. The statement say little or nothing about how to solve these problems going forward.
Leicester as a club can not ignore these facts, if they do, they could soon be out of business. The fixed costs at this football is so stupidly build up, without bringing in enough income, this will in itself be a massive problem.
The new training ground employs many people. This work, cutting grass, holding security and other ground keeping, does not drive revenue. In the end, you will have to spend massive amounts on things a football club should keep to a minimum.
This will reduce the money you can use on transfers. In reality, Leicester, if they decide to continue in this pattern, their only recruitment arena will be the academy.
Khun Top has made a huge investment in Seagrave. This should and hopefully will nurture more talent than ever before. There are a lot of talented players at the club at the moment. However, the Seagrave generation is not yet ready to build the backbone of a first team at this football club.
Jeremy Monga, Louis Page and Lorenz Hutchinson are three young players with a special future. However, younger players at this football club do not really see Seagrave as their final destination. Trey Nyoni left the club at the age of 16, with little or no compensation, to continue his progress at Liverpool. Leicester fans never got to see him perform in the first team.
We have been supportive towards Khun Top and still believe he can get the club back on track. However, there is currently more disarray. The current manager, Gary Rowett, shows little or no willingness to try and test the younger players. Instead, he play players who are more or less finished at this football club. You start to wonder if it could be a year or two too early for the new generation of talent.
Ben Nelson, Sammy Braybrooke, and Will Alves were all talked up as potential Premier League players. However, to date, they have never shown that in any form or capacity. Nelson struggles to get things correctly at the bottom level of The Championship. Alves and Braybrooke are on loan at lower league clubs, Huddersfield and Chesterfield.
We believe this struggle will just continue. To get this football club back on track, you need a more fundamental change. Without cutting massive cost, or being funded in a different way, you will never get the revenue needed, outside Premier League, to get this club back in balance. Premier League is of course the answer to it all, but you will never get a promotion without a transfer budget. Leicester could be forced to sell property to survive. Running Seagrave at Championship or League One level looks a heavy burden.
We do not understand the planning in place, with the heavy losses this club manage to bring forward. If the ownership had established a healthy funding, depending on the revenue gained each year, this would never have happened. This shows that King Power as an owner do not act as a balancing part, just possibly being a guarantor. The club are operating independently, and depending on heavy loans from foreign banks. In our view, this looks deadly and dangerous.
Player sales could be a short-term solution to the problem. Without money to invest in new players, the club might face challenges. We hope that discussions are on to set the club up for sale. This should be a priority at this point. This club deserves much better. It should not ever again be seen in this situation. This is a big shame. Hopefully, someone will come forward with a plan to see this club survive and get back on track.
We have all seen the interviews with Khun Top. He says he will turn this around. However, belief in this man is fading with the recent statement of these horrible numbers.
We have seen certain branches of the Leicester fanbase protesting. This is just negatives, and will make the burden even larger. This just put more fuel to the fire should not be done in this way as it certainly affects results and player performances. Without offering a solution to the current situation, acts like this do not really help much and looks looks silly. You are either supporting the club or just doing something else.
Hopefully, we will see a shift and willingness to bring new investors on board. This may bring in potential funding. It may also provide a substantial business plan. These club should also incorporate a standard that makes it possible to always be in line with rules and regulations. Such a strategy will avoid challenging the system in a way that will hurt the club long term.
We believe a change to happen. This hopefully will occur before the club faces an even more critical situation. Khun Top could be part of the new solution, giving other investors a proper share. Alternatively, he could sell everything and hand the club over to a totally new ownership.
In the year running we will of course be hoping to see some sort of improvement. But to believe in a more settled situation without Premier League football, will be heavy and very challenging. The sales of Mads Hermansen, James Justin and Kasey McAteer last summer is not in these accounts. The current transfer confirmed from Stuttgart regarding Bilal El Khannouss will be of ease. Abdul Fatawu is also expected to depart the club this summer, regardless of which league Leicester will be playing in. Wout Faes also looks a player who will be leaving for a substantial fee. Jordan Ayew, Patson Daka, Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Jamaal Lascelles, Ricardo Pereira and Asmir Begovic are other players out of contract. This is, of course, something to take into account. However, if you add this up and are still outside Premier League, you will have massive struggles to get to zero, with heavy amounts to pay out on fixed cost. These payments includes property handling, staff and player salaries. To be depended on massive player sales, season in and season out, to keep your head above water is a major risk taking and can never be part of a healthy plan to grow the day to day business.
The fundamentals of this football club will never change. Geographically Leicester as a city being were they are, give them limits. They should act inside these premises. Leicester as a club do have a certain value. Financially, they cannot fight with the bigger clubs on revenue. Competing with them must be done smarter and in a way that will not risk their existence.
Since the Thai owners took over, we have seen their efforts to incorporate their culture. They have initiated player recruitment and interchange with this country in the far east. Looking at it in perspective, it looks very strange, and not really working as it was supposed to. Leicester as a club does not have a massive following over there. From a Leicester fanbase point of view, we have not noticed any special activity or support. Thailand has a population of 65.8 million, but not really a football related country.
Japan is the major force in football in the far east, having South Korea as a good number two. To recruit players from these countries could rise support to a good level. This depends of course of the quality of the players recruited. Yuki Abe and Shinji Ökazaki are the two Japanese players to have played for Leicester. The club have never recruited a player from South Korea. The Thai relations have just seen some interchange in the development department. Thailand are a nation with no proper professional football traditions.
Thailand and Japan are very strong partners and have enjoyed a long, cordial relationship for over 135 years. They are major economic allies. Japan is Thailand’s top foreign investor and a critical partner in the automotive and electronics industries. This relationship is often described as one where Japan is “unmissable” to Thailand. Using Japan as a base for recruitment could enlarge the club’s fanbase. Their culture and history could support this growth. We have not seen a growing fanbase from the far east. Looking at the different forums, fan channels, and other following.
With the current model of financial funding, depending on loans from banks abroad, you have a massive challenge. The new management recruitment and business plan does not rely on financial growth. To say it depends on massive player sales to balance the books. This scenario looks like nothing more than a train waiting to be stopped at the next station. Currently Leicester City is a sporting organization still living a life as if they were playing Premier League football.
Despite this financial negative news, you do not need a mob of fans to protest. Financial reports like the one we faced today will surely ask questions about the current ownership structure. This looks very similar to what we did see at Sheffield Wednesday last season. Inquires about the club’s business model should be put forward. Additionally, property sales and downsizing the club’s fixed costs, looks to be the route out of a negative spiral.
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