If ever a statement proved that Top sees it as King Power FC and not Leicester City FC, that was it. Always been the case and anyone saying otherwise is deluding themselves. The gold never seen before 2010. Parading round the pitch with trophies the team won. Statues despite us having no statues of players or managers. The tone deaf corporate feel to everything.
The statement reads like Brendan Rodgers wrote it. Distracting from the issue at hand. Painting an obviously negative scenario in a positive light. Taking no responsibility. Self-grandeur. Putting the club down with narrative. Saying things that will cause a stir that can’t be corroborated.
I would expect a wholehearted apology, expressing regret for mistakes and implying he’d let the fans down. The fact he has taken this opportunity to divide the fans (in a Rodgers-esque way), is extremely worrying and suggests he has not accepted what went wrong and his role in it. It reads almost like a King talking to his subjects.
I don’t care who you support, it’s laughable for people to suggest our natural place is below Brentford, Brighton, Luton, Bournemouth, Fulham, Burnley. Forest FFS. Yet that negative belief has been constantly reinforced by Rodgers, then the media, and now Top as he paints us the loveable overachievers.
He’s getting credit on here for ‘his family’s work’. That’s not him. His dad had to reinstate Pearson because Top recklessly sacked him without consulting anyone. Top appointed the man who has ruined the club and refused to sack him. There’s ample evidence he was not any sort of mastermind behind the scenes.
A billionaire trying to win sympathy when you’ve allowed a well-supported club to suffer an embarrassing and damaging relegation is a tough sell, but he’s gone for it and it’s evidently worked on some people.