Since Sunday, it has been clear that Leicester City will join bottom-placed Southampton in being relegated from the Premier League. For club legend Jamie Vardy, the season has been ‘nothing short of miserable.’
With five games to go, Leicester City is the second team to be relegated from the Premier League – the second relegation in three years after the Foxes secured immediate promotion last season. With a meager 18 points from 33 games so far, the unwanted return to the Championship is now inevitable.
“I don’t even know what to say. No words can describe my feelings of anger and sadness about how the season has gone. There are no excuses,” Jamie Vardy wrote in an emotional and honest statement on his Instagram profile on Monday, the day after relegation was confirmed. Since Sunday, since the 0-1 defeat against Liverpool FC, survival is also mathematically out of reach.
“As a collective, we the players and the club, we have failed,” said the 38-year-old striker, who was also part of the sensational championship-winning team in 2016, summing up his feelings. ‘There is no hiding and I refuse to consider any attempt to do so.’
Vardy’s seven goals go up in smoke
Vardy has been playing for the Foxes since 2012, and in that long time, he said, “we’ve experienced so many highs and successes — and this season has unfortunately been nothing but miserable and, for me personally, a total embarrassment.” Vardy himself was Leicester’s top scorer with seven goals, but the club scored just 27 goals in total, conceding 73. They have only managed four wins and six draws, compared to 23 defeats.
“It just hurts,” Vardy concluded in his message to the fans, ‘and I know you feel the same way.’ The club legend’s contract expires at the end of the current season, and a decision on his future has not yet been made, but talks between the two parties are ongoing, as coach Ruud van Nistelrooy recently revealed. However, it remains to be seen whether Vardy will embark on another mission to get Leicester back into the Premier League.