Johnny Phillips: Failing Foxes took their eye off ball for too long

Last season the East Midlands club finished eighth in the Premier League and reached the Europa Conference semi-finals, losing to eventual winners AS Roma.

It is easy to forget just how rosy the garden was in such recent history now that the club is teetering on the brink of relegation to the Championship.

At half-time last Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, the players trudged over to the dressing rooms in the corner of Craven Cottage faced with the task of turning around a three-goal deficit.

Six minutes into the second half that tally became four, before a late rally gave the scoreline less of a scandalous appearance.

The Foxes eventually lost 5-3 before dropping into the bottom three after Everton’s heroics at Brighton.

There are plenty of good players still out on the pitch for Leicester. Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes will not be short of suitors this summer.

Even the individuals in the back four that shipped so many goals will be targeted by others looking to strengthen.

Some would say Leicester have been sleepwalking into this crisis but the scene was set last summer when Brendan Rodgers was given no support in the transfer market.

Kasper Schmeichel and Wesley Fofana were allowed to leave without being replaced by players of the same calibre.

Schmeichel, in particular, was a huge presence off the pitch as well as being at the centre of organising the team’s defensive structure. Vocal, sometimes to the point of being annoying, he cared deeply about the fortunes of the club.

So many of the transfer market problems were down to Financial Fair Play constraints but chairman Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha and the club’s senior management must shoulder responsibility for that, not Rodgers.

But there was also a longer term issue that had crept up on the club’s hierarchy.

Those responsible for the recruitment strategy had taken their eye off the ball.

Eight players are out of contract this summer. To have that many in the squad with one eye on their futures elsewhere is careless.

If only subconsciously, there will always be a loss of focus out on the pitch when job security is up in the air.

Rodgers was one of the most successful managers in Leicester’s history and remains one of the most respected coaches in the game.

His ability to improve individual players whilst lifting teams to their maximum potential was evident at Swansea, Liverpool and Celtic.

His four-year stay at the club brought silverware and European football – he led the side to two campaigns on the continent out of just six in Leicester’s entire history.

The decline began under his watch but in some respects Rodgers was fighting against the tide.

Many of the players have been looking to the exit door for some time, believing they have achieved all they can with the club.

Schmeichel’s absence and Jonny Evans’ injury problems have left a lack of leaders out on the pitch.

Perhaps the players needed a new voice but there are few who believe the team has improved under Dean Smith.

It was an opportunity too good to turn down for a manager who was dismissed from Championship Norwich earlier this season, but the evidence at Craven Cottage pointed to a side lacking in direction.

“You’re not fit to wear the shirt” is a familiar terrace refrain at this time of year.

Leeds fans had been singing it loudly a week earlier and now it was the turn of the travelling support on the banks of the River Thames.

Khun Top may not like to admit it but surely Leicester was a safer bet to avoid the drop with Rodgers at the helm.

Maddison tied himself in knots after the Fulham game, admitting the players were not hungry enough, before having to put the comments into clearer context in a Twitter post when they were seized upon and twisted by angry supporters.

The players are finding the collapse this season difficult to deal with.

They are not accustomed to failure like this. Jamie Vardy may have been the only title winner out on the pitch on Monday but many of the players have enjoyed some great times at the club.

To be associated with the side which gets relegated from the Premier League will be a major blot on the CV.

By this afternoon Leicester may well have slipped a further place down the table. All eyes will be on Sam Allardyce’s Leeds United.

A win – even a draw – for the Whites will heap more pressure on the players ahead of Monday night’s home fixture against a resurgent Liverpool.

For a time it looked as if Leicester’s was the model to emulate for sides hoping to establish themselves in the upper reaches of the table.

How quickly it has all unravelled. These players who have become so accustomed to challenging for honours now have three games to save their season.