Conor Coady says that he is “devastated” by Leicester City’s relegation, the first of his career. But while he accepts that it is deserved, he is convinced that the gap between the Championship and Premier League can be bridged – if lessons are learned.
“I could talk to you about this all day because I have got opinions on it and I see other people’s opinions and I agree with some and I do not agree with others. But I just think that as clubs coming up, we can prepare ourselves better. I really do believe that.
“We have not been good enough. That is the be-all and end-all. I take responsibility. But for the best possible chance to do well, if the club find themselves in a situation they probably did not expect, we have got to adapt to that. And we have not done that well.”
That is a reference, in part, to the fact that Leicester came up from the Championship having won the title under Enzo Maresca. They had boasted 62.2 per cent possession that season, playing with a distinct style, a clear idea established under the Italian.
But when Maresca departed for Chelsea in the summer, it seems that the idea departed with him. The appointment of Steve Cooper saw a shift in approach, one that might be viewed as pragmatism, but one that Coady seems to suggest left them playing catch up.
“We had a way of playing last season in the Championship that everybody understood and they knew what they were doing. And then, obviously not by the club’s choice, the manager leaves in the summer. And then you have kind of got to start again a little bit.
“You have only got six weeks then to prepare for what is the greatest league in the world, with the greatest players, the greatest managers. Six weeks to prepare for what is coming. Now, some people might say that is enough, you are professional footballers.
“But you have got Pep Guardiola in the league, you have got Unai Emery in the league, you have got Eddie Howe in the league, managers who have been building for years and years to get to this point. It is really tough and I think we have felt the effects of that.”
Coady speaks from experience as the last man to captain a team to promotion from the Championship and then qualify for Europe in the following season. He did that with Wolves in 2018, the team that Leicester face in the Premier League this Saturday.
Wolves’ points total as Championship title winners was only two more than Leicester, although Nuno Espirito Santo’s side did invest heavily upon promotion, bringing in Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez among others. “A big part of it is money,” accepts Coady.
“But I honestly think, when we did it previously with Nuno, the one thing I take from it, and the one thing I take from clubs who have done it in the past and stayed up, they never ever changed what they were doing, what they built on in the Championship.
“That was their foundation, what got them out of the Championship. They did not need six weeks in pre-season to build a foundation, they had built it during the previous nine months and then used that in the Premier League. That really helped us at Wolves.
“It helps when you have had a full season to work on that, like we did with Wolves, like Sheffield United did under Chris Wilder when they finished ninth, and Brentford did when they came up, Fulham did when they came up. That feeling is already there.
“I think as a footballer, it helps when you have a certain way, an identity, and an identity that you really believe in and you really trust and you understand like the back of your hand. We kind of lost that in the summer and were preparing under a new manager.”
It is worth pointing out that Leicester were not in the relegation zone when Cooper was sacked in November. Their record under Ruud van Nistelrooy has been worse. Coady knows too that supporters will see the players, him included, as part of the problem.
He acknowledges that the example of Southampton runs counter to his theory. They stuck to their principles under Russell Martin and floundered, nevertheless. It can go the other way. “Of course it can,” he says. But Coady is a student of this game.
“I look at Bristol City, for example. I watch their games and I think they are top drawer, a back five every single game. I love watching back-five teams, how the manager is going about it, not changing. Coventry have an identity under Frank Lampard, who I know well.
“Having an identity going into the Premier League is huge. If you saw how Leicester played in the Championship, we never ever changed. At Wolves, the idea was simple for the players going into the Premier League, they believed in it and that was massive.”
Once that belief started to disappear, Leicester’s plight went from bad to worse. Nine consecutive home defeats is bleak enough but nine consecutive home defeats without managing to score a goal is almost inexplicable. But that is the reality for this team.
Confidence has evaporated. “It does happen, believe me, because we are still human beings, at the end of the day, we are not robots, and so you see it with our play when there is an opportunity to go and beat a man but they turn and go back,” Coady explains.
“That is just because it is easier to go back. That is not because they are a bad player. It is because they are struggling and thinking, ‘I do not want to go forward in case I lose it.’ So what happens is they end up coming back because it is a confidence thing.”
At Molineux, they face a Wolves side that have won five in a row. “Look at someone like Matheus Cunha. Wolves have been fighting with us this year, and they have Cunha. All I am reading is that he is going to leave for £60m. It is crazy where these leagues are.”
Proof of the size of the task Leicester were facing all along? But Coady maintains his mantra. It could have been different. “We have not been good enough. It is devastating, mate, honestly. I cannot tell you how gutted I am with the situation,” he concludes.
“But what do we do now? Do we feel sorry for ourselves? Or do we go and show 32,000 people at the King Power, or two or three thousand when we travel away, that we are still fighting and we are trying to put this club in the best possible place for the summer?
“It is about senior lads standing up, speaking up, and being a real driving force in the dressing room. But it has also got to be about your own individual pride. This is what you sign up for as a professional footballer. It is not all roses, everything fantastic.
“You sign up for life as a professional footballer and that means when things go bad, you have to bounce back, you have to show yourself even more. Things are going really bad right now and we are not enjoying it. It is not something that any of us want.
“But when it happens, what are you going to do? Are you going to hide and not be a part of it? Or are you going to stand up and be counted? Do not look at your own situation. Look at the football club and where you can help put it come the summer.
“Because this club is in a situation it should not be in.”
