Leicester City Women's Team: Rebuilding After Relegation
When Leicester City dropped out of the Women's Super League in May, the fall hit hard and fast. Relegation to WSL 2 triggered exactly what many feared: an exodus.
Fourteen players have gone in the summer window. Nine of them were on the pitch for that painful play-off defeat by Charlton Athletic. The spine of the side has been ripped out.
Goalkeeper Janina Leitzig has joined Manchester United. Hannah Cain, Noemie Mouchon and Jutta Rantala – Leicester’s brightest attacking sparks – have all moved to Everton. For a club trying to haul itself straight back to the top flight, it leaves a gaping hole.
What it doesn’t leave is a vacuum of leadership.
Tierney stays as others walk away
In July, as departures stacked up and uncertainty swirled around the women’s project, captain Sam Tierney went the other way. She signed a new deal until 2028.
The 27-year-old is Leicester’s longest-serving player, with 151 appearances and a front-row seat to almost every high and low of the past few years. She could have walked. She chose not to.
"I'm not the type to want to jump ship. Since I've been at Leicester, I've created a genuine connection with the club," she told BBC Sport.
"I wanted to succeed and we've had a good number of years where it's been up and down, but I feel like now we're at a point where we can rebuild."
Leicester’s reputation has taken a battering. Relegation for the women. Relegation for the men, who slid to League One. Questions over ambition, over investment, over whether the club truly values its women’s side.
Tierney pushes back on that.
"I think it's difficult because Leicester, at the minute, gets a bit of a bad rep. The club is fantastic and so are the people.
"It's a family kind of club and we're just going through a change. I am very proud to play for Leicester."
A season to forget – and a reset
The numbers from last season are brutal. Two wins from 22 league matches. A goal difference of -41. A side that struggled to score and struggled even more to keep the ball out of their own net.
That kind of collapse inevitably raises alarms. Would the women’s team be moved away from King Power Stadium? Would the budget be slashed? Was this the start of a slow fade?
The club’s response has been decisive. Players who wanted to leave were allowed to go, and Leicester have banked valuable fees to reinvest in the squad. It is a reset, not a retreat.
Whether it is enough to power an immediate return is unclear. Tierney, though, sees an opening.
She talks about building a new Leicester, one that will "make people jealous" in the years ahead.
"When I first joined Leicester, we were training on one of the local parks. We weren't at Belvoir Drive where the men were. The progression is incredible," she said.
"I want to make sure people want to play for Leicester. I want people to stay at Leicester. I want people to be jealous of Leicester.
"I know that's the potential of this club and hopefully we'll get that."
From yo-yo fears to long-term vision
Tierney arrived from Sheffield United in 2020. Since then, she has played under seven managers. She has helped win promotion to the WSL in 2021 and reach the Women's FA Cup semi-finals in 2024. She has also lived through the instability that comes with constant change.
She knows the danger: become a yo-yo club, bouncing between divisions without ever truly settling.
The aim now is the opposite.
The midfielder accepts that the transformation she wants "won't happen overnight" but speaks repeatedly about sustainability – about going up and staying up.
"The type of person I am means I'm not happy if I don't feel like I'm finished somewhere," she said.
"The direction the club want to go in and the change that needs to be made to do that, I'm on board with."
"Ultimately, my biggest thing is to make sure people feel the same connection that I have to the club and they want the club to progress.
"The moment that I leave, I want Leicester to be in a better position than when I started here."
Signs of a different Leicester
Pre-season has already offered a glimpse of what this new Leicester might look like. They beat Rugby Borough, drew with Manchester United and lost to Liverpool – a mixed set of results, but against varied opposition and with a rebuilt squad.
Six new signings have arrived. Three more players have joined Tierney in renewing their contracts. The churn has been dramatic, but not chaotic.
As Leicester gear up for their WSL 2 opener against Sheffield United on 6 September (14:00 BST), Tierney senses something shifting.
"You can see there's been a reflection period, there's been a review and you can see the direction we want to go in. We can feel that. We've changed," she said.
"Players change all the time, every team goes through that, but it's important that everyone coming in has the same drive and desire to commit to it.
We've got those people and it has been quite refreshing. We want to be a different Leicester and it's time to change the narrative on who we are and how we're seen."
Playing without the weekly fear
For Tierney personally, this season offers something she has not had for a while: the possibility of playing without the constant shadow of relegation.
Those survival fights take a toll. On form. On confidence. On the dressing room.
"It's hard as a player. You're trying to give it your all but things just aren't going right," she admitted.
This year, Leicester want to be known for something else.
"We want to be an exciting team, we want to be a team on the ball, we want to be a team that's difficult to beat and we want to surprise some people.
"Of course the aim is to go up. But it's got to be done in a sustainable way because if I sit here this time next year and we're in a worse position, then there's no point.
"We're going to make sure we're ready to challenge at the top of this league, get promoted and stay in the WSL for years to come."
The clear-out has happened. The captain has nailed her colours to the mast. Now Leicester have to prove that this rebuild is the start of something permanent, not just another turn on the yo-yo.
