Leicester City

Chris Forryan
Fan writer

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Rex Features

If a week in politics is a long time, a week in football can be an eternity.

There was a general feeling of well-being at Leicester City at the start of the season despite all the troubles the club found itself in.

Pre-season under Andy King had looked good with better performances on show, and the players remembering how to pass the ball. We also rediscovered that there were two halves to a football pitch, with the team under Ruud Van Nistelrooy hardly venturing over the halfway line.

New boss Marti Cifuentes arrived with a welcome that even the second coming might not generate, and we went on to beat a top-six Italian side facing European competition this season.

After starting out with an OK performance against a team in more trouble than ourselves, it's all kind of gone wrong. The four-, five- and six-nil predictions that were flying around against Sheffield Wednesday failed to materialise, and we had to come from behind to get the three points.

A midweek Carabao Cup exit to League One Huddersfield followed, then a 2-1 loss at the weekend against Preston North End - a team that were everything we are not, including being a team rather than a group of individuals.

I wonder how those fans that were predicting an easy season for us - even getting promotion with a points deduction - are feeling now?

Reality stings a bit, doesn't it? It is, of course, early doors, but the squad is still full of overpriced, overpaid players who we are unlikely to shift, as basically they are not up to it.

In Marti we trust, but it looks like a long hard season.

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After becoming the Championship's youngest scorer at the weekend, Leicester City teenager Jeremy Monga is being tracked by Barcelona and Real Madrid. (The 72), external

Meanwhile, Harry Winks is being linked with a move back to the Premier League - with Sunderland the latest club reportedly interested in the midfielder. (Sunderland Echo), external

Image source, Getty Images

It might be very early doors but there are worries for Leicester City.

After scraping past 10-man Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day, Leicester then got knocked out of the League Cup on penalties by third-tier Huddersfield Town, despite having named a strong starting XI.

They were then deservedly beaten by a team who survived by just a point on the final day of last season, in Preston.

There was over an hour without a shot on target, highlighting that Marti Cifuentes has plenty of work to do on that training ground to convince people that Leicester can bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Full credit though to Preston, who will want to forget the last miserable campaign.

They scored two cracking goals and with the addition of exciting young Tottenham loanee Alfie Devine in their ranks, could this finally be the year, Preston fans?

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes praised record-breaking teenager Jeremy Monga after the Foxes 2-1 defeat to Preston.

"He deserves the credit, he is a talented boy and we are trying to take care of him because he is very humble and that is very important for me because the way he works on the pitch is excellent," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"He wants to learn, he is eager to improve and he has a lot of talent so I'm happy that he scored his first goal and I'm sure he's going to stay humble as well and I'm not happy only about the goal but the whole performance.

"He is showing character and personality and we're going to try to help him to be the player we think he can be."

Regarding the game, Cifuentes was disappointed in his team's performance as they tasted defeat for the first time in the Championship this season.

"It's not a good performance and it's not a good result and obviously we are disappointed. I know what we can expect with Preston, they are very clear in terms of identity, and the two goals that we conceded were poor," he said.

"Our positioning especially in the first half was not as good as it could have been we didn't cope with the long balls and in behind, we could have done better.

"We improved in the second half got the goal to change the momentum and when we got the draw we got some chances but conceded a goal that we should have coped better with. The tracking back could have been better but it's a good goal from them good quality on the cross and a good finish."

Leicester's 21-year-old Morocco international midfielder Bilal El Khannouss could yet make a £30m move to Leeds. (Leeds Live, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Friday's gossip column here.

Leicester City visit Preston North End on Saturday (15:00 BST) as they aim to recover from their Carabao Cup loss to Huddersfield Town on penalties in midweek.

The Foxes did manage to scrape a win over struggling Sheffield Wednesday in the their opening Championship match though, while Preston earned a point at QPR before squeezing past League Two side Barrow via an own goal in the cup.

• Preston North End have failed to win any of their last five league games against Leicester City (D1 L4), since a 2-1 win in September 2009 courtesy of goals from Richard Chaplow and Neil Mellor.

• Leicester City are unbeaten across their last seven away league games against Preston North End (W3 D4), winning 3-0 on their last visit to Deepdale in April 2024.

• Preston have won their opening home game in just one of the last five league campaigns (D1 L3), with that win coming against Sunderland in 2023-24 (2-1).

• Leicester have won four of their last five league games at this level (L1), netting 2+ goals in each victory including a 3-0 success at Deepdale in April 2024.

• On MD1 of the 2025-26 Championship season, Leicester City's Bilal El Khannouss provided more assists than any other player (2), both of which came from dead balls, while no player created more chances than his four.

Image source, Getty Images

Jeremy Monga became Leicester City's youngest ever starter in Wednesday's Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat by Huddersfield at the age of 16 years and 34 days old.

He beat a record which had been held for 59 years by legendary former Foxes and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who made his debut in a 3-0 victory against Everton in May 1966 at Filbert Street at the age of 16 years and 228 days.

Monga was a second-half substitute for Leicester in their opening day Championship win against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday and made seven substitute appearances in the Premier League last season.

However, the EFL Cup tie signalled his first start for the club.

The winger was booked in the 14th minute and played an hour for the Foxes before being withdrawn for Stephy Mavididi.

And, after the match, boss Marti Cifuentes spoke glowingly of Monga and 16-year-old team-mate Louis Page, who also made his first-team debut as a half-time substitute.

"'I'm a big believer in Jez, I'm a big believer in Louis, they are here because they are showing their quality," Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Now, my job is to make sure they are not just here to make their debut but to make sure they succeed in the long term.

"[Wednesday] was a scenario that was not easy because there was a little bit of pressure around him [Monga] around the yellow card and I think that he coped really well with that with his personality.

"We tried to protect him a little bit, that's why we subbed him. In my eyes, he was doing a good job but we want him ready for this Saturday."

Image source, Rex Features

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes believes his side "should have done better" after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Huddersfield at the first round stage.

The Foxes led twice at the Accu Stadium, only to be pulled back by their League One opponents, and the 43-year-old spoke of his frustration after the game.

"Disappointed in the performance, disappointed obviously in the final score and I think we should have done better, Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Unfortunately, I think the first half was poor and we should never have conceded the two goals like we did.

"My feeling in the first half was we were very slow - we spoke about it at half-time that against oppositions that perhaps are not that aggressive on the press we need to make sure that we move the ball quicker.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't move the ball quick and then we went too long.

"Every time we lost the ball we couldn't react quickly enough to regain the ball immediately and that created an up and down game."

Wrexham have registered interest in Manchester City defender Callum Doyle but face competition from Coventry City, Leicester City and Norwich City for the 21-year-old Englishman. (Football League World), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Wednesday's gossip column here.

"He always had that sense of humour about him, he will be sorely missed, you can't think of a stadium announcer at Leicester without thinking of him."

Former Leicester winger Matt Piper joins Owynn Palmer-Atkin and Kate Wattam to pay tribute to Bradley Varnam, who has died aged 56.

Foxes defender Luke Thomas also shared his thoughts after the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.

Listen to the full episode of When You're Smiling and more on BBC Sounds.

Kate Blakemore
Fan writer

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Off the back of one of our most dismal seasons in years, the curtain-raiser against relegation favourites Sheffield Wednesday felt like a potential banana skin, and that kind of expectation weighs heavy on the shoulders of some. Being 1-0 down at half-time felt very ominous.

Leicester have become the pantomime villains of late on the football stage, and new boss, Marti Cifuentes, has some task on his hands to manage the on-field activities amid the deafening noise off it.

We showed glimpses of our potential after a poor first half, and it was really encouraging to see Cifuentes change it at half-time (rather than the orthodox 60 minutes of his predecessors) with the introduction of Harry Winks, who showed exactly why he was such a lynchpin in the Enzo Maresca era.

The midfield is a problem area with only Winks being a likely starter, following the departure of Wilfred Ndidi.

But with the cloud of PSR and a possible points deduction looming overhead, any spending must be shrewd. Cifuentes will likely have to look to the club's hot young talent, such as Jeremy Monga, Ben Nelson, Will Alvez and Louis Page.

It may be that these three points are on the board only temporarily, before the EFL takes them from us, but it was important to get off on the right foot.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but Cifuentes has a bit of a conundrum on his hands as to which building blocks to use - coupled with the affordability of the ones he wants to buy and the ones he doesn't need.

One thing is for sure, it's never dull in the Leicester City camp.

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Leicester City manager Marti Cifuentes said his side must be "more clinical" after their comeback win against crisis-hit Sheffield Wednesday.

The Foxes tallied 27 shots in total during their Championship campaign opener on Sunday, 13 of them on target, but required a late goal from substitute Wout Faes to down their 10-man visitors.

Faes's 87th-minute winner came via Bilal El Khannouss' delivery from one of Leicester's 13 corners, with the sought-after Moroccan playmaker also assisting centre-back Jannik Vestergaard from a free-kick for the equaliser earlier in the second half.

Admitting his new side were "slow" in their ball movement during a first half which saw them fall behind, Cifuentes said the second period showed more promising signs in terms of both player positioning and pace on the ball.

"From there we created many clear goal chances, and we need to get better at being more clinical on those ones," the Spanish coach added.

Image source, Getty Images

But Cifuentes lauded Leicester's "mental capacity" to come from behind and the "fantastic impact" of his second-half introductions including Faes and Patson Daka, who also came close to finding the back of the net late on.

When asked about both goals being scored by defenders at set-pieces, he told BBC Radio Leicester: "I don't have any big preference on the way we score, as long as we score. It's important that we have different tools to create chances.

"The important thing is that we score, no matter if it's the centre halves or the strikers."

On his appreciation for Leicester's fans following his arrival last month, Cifuentes added: "Hopefully we can build something very strong together.

"We're going to try and work as hard as we can to give them good evenings, good afternoons, good results, good football, and hopefully they will appreciate that.

Leicester are next in action against League One side Huddersfield Town in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, followed by a league trip to Preston North End on Saturday.

"The amount of new managers coming into the league this year, I have never seen anything like it".

Aaron Paul and Jobi McAnuff are joined by special guests Tommy Smith and Alex Bruce to preview the 2025-26 Championship season.

They discuss a range of topics including assessing chances of sides coming down from the Premier League, who the contenders might be for the top six and take a deep dive of each of the sides promoted from League One.

Listen to the full episode of 72+ and more on BBC Sounds.

The 2025-26 Championship opening weekend concludes with an intriguing encounter between Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday afternoon (16:30 BST).

The visiting Owls have been in the midst of a financial crisis, with key players departing and threatening strike action, leaving the English Football League to wonder if Sunday's game will happen at all.

It hasn't quite been so bad for Leicester but their pre-season hasn't been all plain sailing either, with a lot of confusion surrounding the managerial position finally being answered by the appointment of former Queens Park Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes.

• Leicester City are unbeaten across their last three league games against Sheffield Wednesday (W2 D1), last enjoying a longer undefeated run against the Owls between August 1967 and October 1981 (six games).

• Sheffield Wednesday have lost three of their last four away league games against Leicester City (W1), conceding 2+ goals in each defeat.

• Leicester are unbeaten across their last six opening games of a league campaign (W3 D3), since a 2-1 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford to start the 2018-19 season.

• This is the fourth time in the 21st century that Sheffield Wednesday are starting a Championship season against a side relegated from the Premier League the previous campaign – they lost 2-1 against both QPR (2013-14) and Southampton (2023-24) but beat Aston Villa 1-0 (2016-17).

• This will be the 69th time that Leicester will start a league campaign with a home match, with only Everton having more opening matches on home soil across England's top four tiers (72).