‘You need to be a team’: Rowett urges unity as depleted Leicester show fight

‘You need to be a team’: Rowett urges unity as depleted Leicester show fight Gary Rowett has told his Leicester players to deprioritise ‘individual ambitions’ after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Stoke B y the stage Ben Nelson headed against the bar in stoppage time and then Luke Thomas nodded against the inside of a post, it felt as if Leicester City were missing the chance to move into the promotion playoffs, so dominant had they been in the second half of this absorbing 2-2 draw with Stoke City. Yet after this month’s six-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules, against which they are appealing, Ben Wilmot’s 89th-minute equaliser dropped Leicester back into the Championship’s relegation zone, placing the challenge facing them and their new manager, Gary Rowett, into stark context. Leicester’s problems are well documented but, with 17 players set to leave this summer and protests planned against King Power, their owner, at next weekend’s home game with Norwich, avoiding a second successive relegation now resembles the holy grail. Rowett, a former Leicester player, has been appointed until the end of the season. If Harry Winks, the former England player, and co can galvanise the composure and self-belief displayed in the second half, they are certainly good enough to stay up. Chris Parker, 44, from Chester, blamed the club’s fall on the “complete mismanagement of the team”. “How they got into this financial mess without thinking we’d be charged is beyond me,” he said. “Poor recruitment, poor management overall – we’d take 21st place now.” How effective protests against the club’s ownership can be is a moot point, even if Leicester fans’ frustrations are understandable. Approaching the 10th anniversary of the 500-1 Premier League title triumph, the Srivaddhanaprabha family have invested £420m into the club over their 16 years at the helm, even if the engagement of the chair, Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, has been quest...