Until the summer of 2007 Leicester City was one of only 9 English football league teams not to grace the level of the games third tier hierarchy. Up until this time the East Midland based club who began life in 1884 As Leicester Fosse, had a proud and successful history which was recently boosted by Martin O'Neill's tenure as manager in the late nineties.
O'Neill installed a work ethic within his side and pulled a few unknown quantities out of reserve and lower league teams such as Muzzy Izzet, Matt Elliott and Neil Lennon turning them into well respected international footballers. His man management skills and touchline enthusiasm grabbed everyone's imagination around the City and helped turn the club into a promotion chasing Division One side to a top 8 Premier League outfit expecting European football after only 4 and a half years work.
After the Play-off final success at Wembley against Crystal Palace in 1996 Martin O'Neill's Leicester took the Premiership by storm and in his four seasons in charge at the penultimate level of English football Leicester finished in the top 10 consistently. Added to this impressive record O'Neill took the club to three League Cup Finals where two of them ended victoriously. Expectations at Leicester City soured toward the end of the twentieth century and due to the clubs success Martin O'Neill became a man in demand with bigger football clubs.
The inevitable happened at the end of the League Cup Winning 1999/2000 season and after O'Neill, who had previously turned down the high flying Leeds United, was eventually lured by the pull of Scottish giants Celtic.
In the summer of 2000 his predecessor was named and Peter Taylor was installed as the new manager of Leicester City. Taylor had been a successful coach for the England under 21s and had impressed during his spell at Gillingham. It was an appointment met with great optimism as Taylor had inherited a confident winning side looking forward to another European adventure in the Uefa Cup. Taylor managed to guide his inherited side to the top of the Premiership in October and building up to the Christmas break had an FA Cup Quarter Final in his sights against lowly Wycombe Wanderers.
With O'Neill moving on to pastures new it inevitably meant certain players would follow him out of the exit door. Neil Lennon namely the biggest loss, left for Celtic in early December. After the opening season success and cup fever hitting the city this was the time for Taylor to add his direction to the football team and ensure his new additions filled the boots of the departures and drive the club on to more success.
Due to the recent achievements and the 11 million pound sale of Emile Heskey to Liverpool, Peter Taylor had a kitty at his disposal that no manager in the history of the club had ever dreamt of having. Big losses could now be compensated with this commodity.
Dennis Wise was signed for 1.6 million, the ageing liability was put on a huge salary and was later sacked for assaulting a team mate. Adi Akinbiyi was snapped up from Division One rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers for a club record of 5 million pounds, he was later to be dubbed Akin-bad-buy' by the Leicester faithful. More lower league players were added, Junior Lewis, Gary Rowett, Trevor Benjamin, Lee Marshall. Taylor was building his empire on players unproven at the top level of the game, a highly risky and potentially damaging method.
These players came into a big club with big price tags, big wages and more importantly big expectance. It wasn't fair on the likes of Akinbiyi who had been enjoying his free scoring days in the First Division to be brought into a new club with the pressure and price tag Taylor had put on his shoulders. The likes of Lennon and Izzet were holding Leicester's Premiership status in the first half of the 2000/2001 season but slowly Taylor was erasing the attitudes, players and style Martin O'Neill had brought to the club and by the start of 2001 this was a very much new look Leicester.
Wycombe pulled off the shock result in the Quarter Final as trial list Roy Essandoh headed Leicester out of the FA Cup and the Peter Taylor era really began to take shape. Leicester came out of that disappointing and now historic game in March 2001 with a disastrous April losing all 7 games of that calendar month. The FA Cup defeat had a real effect on Taylor's men as they finished the season in 13th place, there lowest since bouncing back into the big time, winning just one of their last ten league outings.
The year 2001 saw the beginning of the foreseeable demise of Leicester City Football Club. The great success of recent years was rapidly disintegrating as Peter Taylor's signings and ridiculous contract deals began draining the club of its assets and the crisis was there for all to see as they began 2001/2002 season with a 5-0 home defeat to newly promoted Bolton Wanderers.
It wasn't too long after that result the Peter Taylor era came to end but unfortunately the damage he had caused over his 15 months at the helm ran far too deep for a quick fix. The problems didn't just lie on the field now, the revenue he began with that was gained over them 4 and a half years of success was misused so badly on long term high salary packages that eventually the club would find themselves in Administration a couple more seasons down the line.
Leicester City was relegated in the 2001/2002 season. The achievements and hard work of Martin O'Neill's spell in charge were ripped apart in well under half that time. The repercussions on Taylor's financial dealings though were far more concerning to the club. Six years later and no less than TEN managers down the line after a brief season back in the Premiership along with Administration and two relegation seasons, Leicester City now play there football in the third tier of the English game.
It's taken 204 years for Leicester City to sink to this level of English Football, and it is almost certain in my mind this proud record would have been sustained if it wasn't for the poor management and transfer handlings of one man.