On Christmas Eve 2020, Leicester City made the move they believed would cement their place among England’s top clubs.
A new £100million training ground, built across 180 acres at Seagrave in rural Leicestershire, that took the breath away. There were 21 pristine pitches, hotel-style rooms, canteens that felt like Michelin-starred restaurants, a hydrotherapy pool, an enormous indoor pitch, spectacular gym facilities and even a nine-hole golf course.
Never mind the best training ground in England: this was one of the best in the world. Clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich, not to mention Inter Milan and AC Milan, would have looked on with envy.
‘It elevates the club’s offering to its players and staff to an entirely new level and is a key component in making our progress of recent years sustainable,’ said chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha.
Yet the bare facts are these. When they moved into Seagrave, Leicester were second in the Premier League. As they approach the six-year anniversary of the move, the Foxes are 18th in League One and the club is up for sale.
On Saturday they take on Stockport at Edgeley Park, after losing their last match 4-0 at home to Oxford.
Five games in, boss Russell Martin is already facing an uphill struggle to convince supporters he can turn things around.
Five games in, boss Russell Martin is already facing an uphill struggle to convince supporters he can turn things around
The Foxes are 18th in League One and the club is up for sale. On Saturday they take on Stockport at Edgeley Park after losing their last match 4-0 at home to Oxford
The former Southampton boss already seems to be feeling the heat. He interrupted the BBC local radio reporter more than once during a post-match interview following the Oxford loss and appeared to be pinning the blame for the result on the players.
Seagrave has undoubtedly helped the club develop some of the best academy talent in the country but for the first team, it has had the opposite effect. Based on first-team results alone, we can look at Seagrave and see a monument to decline.
If only the training ground were the sole problem. Instead, there has been mismanagement at every level. When Leicester won the Premier League title 10 years ago, it was a miracle. Given Leicester’s current plight, just returning to the Premier League feels even less likely than that did.
WILL THE CLUB BE SOLD?
In mid-August, Leicester’s owners authorised US investment bank Citigroup to produce an eight-page sales booklet, valuing the club’s assets alone at about £222million. The message to the market seemed clear.
Yet as is often the case with Leicester, is everything as it seems?
When he was hired as manager in June, Martin says he was not told of these plans. It is understood Martin has still not been informed of the full picture.
As sketchy as Leicester’s communication has been to various managers in the last five years, this would take the biscuit. How can a club entrust someone with rebuilding the team and give no hint of the direction of travel?
Daily Mail Sport understands that while there is interest in Leicester, prospective bidders confess to difficulties in finding the information they need. What, for example, is the club’s level of debt?
Then there is the squad, which has dropped in value dramatically after two consecutive relegations. Is this reflected accurately in the overall sale price?
Caleb Okoli (left) has a ‘book value’ of £8m. But what club will pay that price for a player who has suffered a double relegation?
It is the same for Harry Souttar: book value about £6m, but who is paying that for a 27-year-old League One centre back?
For example, the ‘book value’ – the price attached to a player for accounting purposes – of defender Caleb Okoli is nearly £8m. But what club will pay that price for a guy who has suffered a double relegation? It is the same for Harry Souttar: book value about £6m, but who is paying that for a 27-year-old League One centre back?
Supporters welcomed the news that chairman Srivaddhanaprabha was looking for a buyer but until something definitive happens, they will not raise their hopes.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE TRAINING GROUND?
‘Like a holiday camp,’ was one player’s verdict on Seagrave during that fateful 2022-23 season, when the slide really began.
Players and staff had their every wish granted. Finger-print recognition was installed at doors so they did not have to carry ID cards – too great an inconvenience, apparently, for a group of highly-paid adults.
At one stage, staff realised that players were doing so little for themselves that they were asked to dispose of their own plates and cutlery after eating, rather than leave them for kitchen staff to tidy. If players are asked to take such little responsibility in daily life, what will happen on the pitch?
We have our answer now. Some of the stories from Seagrave are mind-blowing. Even in the latter days of Brendan Rodgers’ tenure, turning up on time for treatment or meetings was considered optional rather than necessary by players. Senior executives were mocked openly by squad members.
Then there was the former Premier League player who, believing he still deserved to be in the top flight, would stroll around defiantly during training last season, to the extent he was sent indoors by then-boss Marti Cifuentes.
Players preferred to have long commutes to training, sometimes of more than 100 miles, rather than consider relocating. When asked to stay overnight occasionally in one of the sumptuous rooms at the training ground, some would simply refuse.
Leicester City’s £100million training ground, built across 180 acres at Seagrave in rural Leicestershire, takes the breath away – but is a monument to decline
It has undoubtedly helped the club develop some of the best academy talent in the country but for the first team, it has had the opposite effect
The worries about Seagrave were called early. ‘Too shiny,’ said one senior figure soon after the club had moved in. Others worried the togetherness and earthiness of the club’s previous home at Belvoir Drive, closer to the city centre, would be lost. How right they were.
With strong leadership, such cultural problems are stopped at source. Without it, though, they multiply like weeds.
DISSECT TOP AND RUDKIN
Jon Rudkin must be one of the only executives in football for whom relegation also means promotion.
Rudkin has been at Leicester for 30 years in various roles and was director of football from 2014-26. Yes, he was there in the good times but that does not mean much when his contract and transfer deals have played such a part in Leicester’s decline.
Yet Rudkin has Top’s unconditional trust. When Leicester appointed James McCarron as sporting director in March, it was the perfect chance to move Rudkin aside. Instead, he was made ‘chief football officer’ – a bigger job and better title even though Leicester were en route to a second straight relegation. It was an astonishing decision.
Daily Mail Sport has spoken to several sources who say Rudkin remained front and centre of transfer dealings this summer – even though he is not, shall we say, the most skilful operator here.
Hamza Choudhury’s move to Sheffield United in January 2025 was a classic example. Leicester wanted a loan with an obligation to buy, the Blades with an option. After sticking to his position throughout the window, Rudkin relented in the end. Valuable time wasted over a player unwanted by the management at the time.
Top’s love for Leicester should not be doubted. He was determined to carry on the legacy of his father ‘Khun’ Vichai Srivaddhanaprbha, who was killed in a helicopter crash outside King Power Stadium in October 2018. He too, though, has been undone by dithering.
He took too long to sack Brendan Rodgers, waiting until April of the 2022-23 campaign. Once he had done so, it was clear Leicester needed an experienced boss in place for the home matches against Bournemouth and Aston Villa.
Top left caretakers in charge for those games, Leicester lost both and were relegated by two points. With decisive action then, much of this story might have been different.
In March, Jon Rudkin was made ‘chief football officer’ – a bigger job and better title even though Leicester were en route to a second straight relegation
Hamza Choudhury’s move to Sheffield United in January 2025 was a classic example of Rudkin’s dithering
UNFORCED ERRORS
Leicester’s Premier League title winners are immortal in the eyes of fans – so why are the majority not involved today?
In an interview with Daily Mail Sport in March 2026, Marc Albrighton revealed: ‘We all say that if we could have a job at any of our former clubs, we’d choose Leicester.
‘I would have thought there must be some way we could pass on our experience and try to get that culture back. There has never been any contact with me from the club regarding this.’
Skipper Wes Morgan left to join Nottingham Forest as a scout and now works as an agent. Hugely popular former boss Nigel Pearson could offer valuable advice at a time like this. It is baffling that Leicester would not make these moves.
The 5000-1 fixture on May 30, which marked 10 years since the title win, should have been a key priority for months in advance. Perhaps it was, but if so, that was not how all of those involved saw it, with some not informed of plans until mid-April.
Even against the backdrop of relegation to League One, this should still have been a cause for celebration. Instead, it is understood that some of the key figures left the event feeling dissatisfied.
These are one-off mistakes but there are many others that were repeated again and again. Players’ contracts were allowed to run into the final year far too often. Managers were left scratching their heads when the role did not develop as had been advertised to them. Some senior staff have even wondered privately whether Top always knew their roles at the club.
Baffling decisions are being made to this day, like offering three, four and even five-year contracts to new players – a rarity across the EFL and certainly in League One. Will they ever learn?
Leicester’s Premier League title winners are immortal in the eyes of fans – so why are the majority not involved today?
WHAT NEXT?
Seagrave might have been kryptonite for the first team but it has helped the academy thrive. Jeremy Monga joined Manchester City this summer after breaking into the Leicester side aged 15, while Louis Page is wanted by Manchester United.
Academy products Bade Aluko, Will Alves and Sammy Braybrooke have all played along with Page this season, while Ben Nelson would have been central had he not sustained a serious knee injury.
It was alarming to hear Martin call out these youngsters after the Oxford debacle as it is crucial their confidence is not destroyed. They are vital to the club’s future, both on and off the pitch.
Since the 2018-19 accounting period, Leicester’s cumulative losses are about £323m. The income in League One is dwarfed by what the Premier League and even the Championship generate, and Seagrave is hugely expensive to run.
Leicester need to get back up to the second tier this term and to stay above water in the years to come, they will have to keep selling. They need Aluko, Alves, Braybrooke, Page and others to develop rapidly. Academy players have accounted for 43 per cent of all playing time this term, and 11 graduates have made first-team squads.
Academy products such as Sammy Braybrooke (left) and Jayden Joseph have played a part this season
Martin tries to galvanise his players but his possession-heavy style is already turning off many fans
Leicester are trying to restart. Fourteen players have arrived since the end of last season; 34 have left, and there has been a significant reduction in the wage bill.
Supporters do not want to hear that this team needs time, but it probably does – although Martin’s possession-heavy style is already turning off many fans.
Is Top truly serious about selling the club, though? Or is it like the elderly relative who has little desire to move home but puts their property on the market to appease worried family members? We will soon see, but decisive action is needed. Supporters deserve it.
Sadly, we have been saying these things for far too long. It gives no pleasure to write it, but things may become worse before they improve. League Two does not bear thinking about.
