“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leicester City can pretend not to have heard.
Jamaal Lascelles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jakub Stolarczyk wants continental football; whether Leicester City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Oliver Skipp falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamaal Lascelles is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Harry Winks was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leicester City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leicester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Divine Mukasa, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Jamaal Lascelles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Skipp is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leicester City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jakub Stolarczyk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Add another name to the list: Stevenage have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lorenz Hutchinson. The answer from Leicester City has not changed — yet.
The offer from Crystal Palace for Jannik Vestergaard was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cundo did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Jamaal Lascelles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Northampton Town have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Cundo. The answer from Leicester City has not changed — yet.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Leicester City
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdul Fatawu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michael Simmons has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdul Fatawu and Leicester City agree another 5 years.
Jamaal Lascelles was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Shrewsbury Town have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Josh King. The answer from Leicester City has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Leicester City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Skipp is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leicester City, and it is not being withdrawn.
169 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Jordan James was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.