We talk about Leicester City all the time, and yet we still don't talk about Leicester City enough.
In age of increasing stratification across European soccer and England in particular, this team got promoted to the Premier League, were bottom of the table come Christmas, avoided relegation with an incredible run in the second half of the season, immediately fired the manager who led them on that incredible run, hired a new manager and ... immediately won the Premier League.
Somehow, that's only, like, a third of the story. The next season, they cashed in on the Premier League Player of the Year as N'Golo Kante joined Chelsea, finished 12th, fired their manager and still managed to reach the Champions League quarterfinals. The next year was a relatively tame one by Leicester standards: They dropped into the relegation zone by Christmas again, fired the coach that brought them to the CL quarters and ultimately finished ninth. They exchanged their best attacker (Riyad Mahrez) for some $60 million that summer, and then a couple months later, their owner died in a helicopter crash at the stadium.
Somehow, that's only, like, another third of the story. A few months after the passing of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, they hired another new manager: Brendan Rodgers. Despite moving on from their best defender (Harry Maguire) for close to $100m the following summer, they had all but locked up a top-four spot by February, before a global pandemic hit and the Premier League season stopped for a couple months. When play resumed, they completely collapsed and missed fourth place by four points. Then, once again, they transferred out their best defender (Ben Chilwell) for tens of millions of dollars, and again, they had a top-four spot all but locked up by February -- before completely collapsing again and missing fourth, this time by one point.
Which brings us to where we are today: After finally producing a forgettable season last year, Leicester are now dead-last, with one point from six matches. They've gone from perennial top-four contender to a favorite for relegation in a little over a year. What the heck happened?