Leicester City: A New Chapter Under Russell Martin
Leicester City know all about history. They just don’t want to be chained to it.
A decade on from that 5,000-1 title miracle and three years removed from lifting the FA Cup, the club that once rattled the Premier League’s elite now finds itself in League One, picking over the wreckage of back-to-back relegations. Into that landscape walks Russell Martin, a manager with his own reputation to repair and a clear message: judge this Leicester on what comes next, not what came before.
“We have to find our own way and then be judged on that,” he told BBC Radio Leicester. “Hopefully I'll be judged on the job I do here and not on my previous job and all that stuff.”
A manager rebuilding as a club resets
Martin’s arrival at King Power Stadium is not just another appointment. It is the first big call made since James McCarron stepped in as sporting director last season, slotting beneath chief football officer Jon Rudkin in a hierarchy that has taken heavy fire from supporters during the club’s slide.
Martin comes with contrasting chapters on his CV. He took Southampton up to the Premier League a little over two years ago, showcasing a possession-heavy style that split opinion but delivered promotion. Then came a bruising, 123-day spell at Rangers that ended abruptly and left questions hanging over his methods at the highest-pressure end of the game.
Leicester offer both risk and opportunity: a fallen heavyweight in the third tier, a club with expectations that still feel Premier League-sized, and a fanbase that has grown tired of hearing about the past while watching the present unravel.
Martin insists he will not waste time passing judgment on the people above him.
“There was real honesty about what's gone on, but now there's real honesty and openness and willingness to move forward,” he said of his conversations with the hierarchy, including Rudkin and owner-chairman Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha. “I can't judge anything that has gone on before because I've not been here. You watch it from the outside, and people will make assumptions, but I've been really open to being surprised since I got here and people have been great.”
The scars of recent seasons remain visible. So does the ambition.
Promotion or bust
No one has tried to dress up the target. Leicester have spent just one previous season in the third tier in their 142-year history. They do not plan to linger.
“It's to get promoted, first and foremost,” Martin said. Then he went beyond the basic objective. “[And] to play in a way that everyone understands and believes in, feels connected to and makes the fans proud.”
That is where the tension lies. Promotion is non-negotiable. Identity matters too. Martin wants a side that plays with clarity, that supporters can recognise and buy into, not just a functional group grinding its way out of the division.
At the moment, though, the squad looks more like a sketch than a finished drawing.
A clear-out, a points penalty and a thin squad
Leicester’s summer has been defined by exits. Some were inevitable, some painful, all shaped by the club’s struggle to stay within spending rules after a points deduction for historical breaches last season.
High earners and big names from the double-relegation years have been ushered out. Jannik Vestergaard, the Denmark international, agreed a mutual termination. Harry Winks, once an England midfielder and briefly a symbol of Leicester’s push to stabilise in the Championship, departed for Cagliari. Abdul Fatawu’s move to Ipswich Town brought in around £20m.
The belt-tightening has not stopped with senior pros. Leicester have also cashed in on some of their brightest young talent, including 17-year-old Jeremy Monga, who has joined Manchester City. For a fanbase used to seeing academy products blossom in blue, it is a jarring but unavoidable consequence of the financial reality.
An end-of-season clear-out of 10 out-of-contract players left the squad startlingly light in key areas. Most starkly, Leicester finished that process without a senior striker on their books. Patson Daka and Jordan Ayew were among those to leave, stripping the front line bare.
So far, the rebuild has been cautious rather than spectacular. Conor Chaplin, once the leading scorer for Ipswich Town when they climbed out of League One four seasons ago, is one of only two signings since relegation. His arrival offers goals and know-how at this level, but Martin knows he cannot be the only answer.
Searching for goals – and the right characters
“Ideally, we'd have two or three strikers,” Martin said. He does not just want numbers. He wants variety.
“We don't just want one of the same, and it's the same with wingers. Whatever we are looking at, whatever profile it is, it has to be right for us. They need to be desperate to come here and play, they need to be desperate to help us to be successful.”
That word – desperate – matters. Leicester’s recent squads have been full of players with Premier League résumés and hefty contracts. Now, Martin is chasing hunger as much as talent. He wants forwards who bring different weapons: one who runs in behind, one who links play, one who bullies centre-backs. Options that allow him to tweak the plan without tearing it up.
The financial constraints mean this will not be a galáctico rebuild. It will be targeted, probably opportunistic, certainly scrutinised. Every signing will be measured against that simple, unforgiving benchmark: does this player get Leicester out of League One?
A club stepping out of its own shadow
Strip away the noise and the story is stark. Leicester City, champions of England in 2016 and FA Cup winners in 2021, are starting again in the third tier. Their manager is a man trying to prove he belongs back in the conversation at the top end of the game. Their hierarchy is under pressure to show it has learned from years of drift.
Martin is not asking for sympathy. He is asking for a clean slate.
He cannot erase the title win, the cup triumph, the relegations or the points deduction. He cannot control the anger that has built up around the boardroom. What he can do is shape the next chapter: a team with a clear style, a dressing room full of players who want to be there, and a season that ends with Leicester climbing out of a division they still feel is beneath them.
History made this club. Now it will test whether they can escape it.
