The return of the Premier League is the only certainty in Leicester's murky future | city ​​of leicester

TO The campaign that began with Enzo Maresca insisting his Leicester City players sleep overnight at their sprawling 185-acre Seagrave training base during the first week of pre-season in the name of team-building has ended with its primary mission accomplished , promotion ruled out, the championship crown is likely to follow. Leicester's most memorable and wonderful moment came when they confounded expectations; This time, it was simply a matter of finding them by returning to the first division on the first try.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that surely the most expensive team in the division (its wage bill was the largest outside the Premier League's top six 12 months ago) has sealed that return after Leeds lost at QPR Friday night, but it became a slog after they gave up a 17-point lead. In recent months, his 51-game season has wavered between a sense of collapse and catharsis. “It's been a very long season,” Maresca said with a wry smile this week.

Those days last July allowed Maresca – a disciple of Pep Guardiola in terms of playing style and apparently tailoring (few can pull off a cream-coloured jersey) – to emphasize his possession-hungry mantra, a mantra that has divided opinion among fans even though Leicester are on course to record a century of points, a figure only Burnley, last season, have achieved since City won promotion under Nigel Pearson a decade ago. Few would then have imagined the extraordinary run that followed – the 5,000-1 title, trips to the Champions League, a first FA Cup – but, rather than dreaming of a repeat of those heady days, pragmatism will surely strangle his return to the first division. .

Beyond the golden relief, the smell of champagne, the confetti and the wild celebrations, Maresca joked with Abdul Fatawu in the locker room after the striker's hat-trick in the Southampton midweek defeat it made the promotion almost a formality: there's a disquieting gray tone. Now we finally know which division Leicester will be playing in next season, but if we look beyond that, there is a jarring stream of unknowns. Most of which is due to Leicester's ultimate failure to keep up with the Premier League's elite in the years since Claudio Ranieri did the unthinkable.

So, will the Premier League lift the transfer embargo on the English? Soccer League Was the club fined for breaching profitability and sustainability standards (PSR) in March? If not, what will happen to Jamie Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi and Jannik Vestergaard, among the regulars without a contract at the end of June? Will Leicester be unable to approve the £14.5m deal they agreed with Sporting to sign Fatawu in the event of promotion? “Right now it's complicated,” Maresca said Tuesday. Under the embargo, Leicester cannot re-sign current players or register new ones without EFL approval. Leicester will formally become a Premier League club again at the annual general meeting in Harrogate at the end of June. The league may have some questions for them.

Then, of course, there's the small matter of a potential double whammy on point deductions. Will they materialize and, if so, when? Leicester launched legal action after being accused by the Premier League of allegedly breaching PSR rules for the period ending in 2022-23. Leicester look unlikely to start next season with negative points, and their case is expected to prove protracted because it falls outside the framework introduced last year to speed up decisions.

The club is also expected to exceed permitted financial losses for the three-year cycle ending in 2023-24, unless it can generate significant funds before the accounting period ends on June 30. It seems inevitable that Leicester will consider, if not pursue, offers for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, comfortably their most valuable asset. Leicester have not denied they are at risk of breaching the EFL threshold for 2023-24 and, when they published their latest accounts announcing a £90m loss this month, they admitted they “may not comply with P&S rules applicable for the three-year Reporting Period ending in 2022-23.”

The driver of Leicester's financial headaches is big spending, but they haven't gotten much wrong in terms of recruitment this season. Mads Hermansen, a goalkeeper as comfortable with the ball at his feet as he was with the gloves, was arguably the most important piece of the puzzle. Fatawu, who was sent to Maresca by head of recruitment Martyn Glover, and Stephy Mavididi have been revelations on the flanks and Harry Winks has been tidy and consistent in midfield. Defenders Conor Coady and Callum Doyle, the latter on loan from Manchester City, have not played as much as expected due to the form of Vestergaard, whose transformation is arguably the story of Leicester's season as he spent much of the last training in isolation. The fact that Vestergaard, a 6-foot-6 center back, has taken 4,290 touches this season (more than any other player in the division) illustrates how central he has been to their success and his role in fueling the team's attacks. back to front. Leicester have scored a league-high 86 goals and Dewsbury-Hall has provided 14 assists.

After their wobble, and it was considerable given that before they lost six of their 10 games. beating West Brom last weekend – Leicester deserve credit for getting over the line. Vardy, naturally, has played the role of him. The 37-year-old is Leicester's talisman – he has averaged at least a goal every two games in all competitions this season – and initiated the players' meeting that brought about much-needed change after a shock defeat to struggling Plymouth. “There was a lot of honesty,” said Marc Albrighton, one of those whose contract is expiring. “Sometimes we felt that, especially in the second half of the season, the guys seemed not to want to take certain risks.” Leicester can pay the price of one or two on their return to the top table.