Purslow nailed Leicester City truth - Premier League rules killed the dream

A decade on, City sit in 13th place in the League One table. While a 4-3 away win over Stockport County on Saturday lightened the mood, it’s still a far cry away from where the club were.

The question of where it went wrong over the last five or so years has been asked countless times, and in truth, there are so many different factors. There has been chronic mismanagement from the top. Amid the talk of a takeover, it feels like the best solution all around.

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Speaking on The Football Boardroom Podcast, former Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow gave his thoughts on where it has gone wrong for City. “I think it’s a cautionary tale, people and personalities aside, this is Icarus flying too close to the sun,” he said.

“They're a cautionary tale of a club that dared to dream, that the closer they got to being one of the big boys, spent more and more. Rules forced them to balance the books and selling your best players and replacing them with less good players on similar wages, often ends badly.

“This is an extreme example, but not the first example of challenging clubs ultimately being defeated by the process of forced selling of best players, just how hard it is in the end to keep replacing your best players.”

There’s no doubt that the Premier League’s financial rules have had a big impact on City’s situation. Brendan Rodgers spoke about the need for a refresh in the summer of 2022, but City were restricted with what they could spend due to the Profitability and Sustainability Rules.

City had finished in eighth place in the table the previous season. It followed two fifth-place finishes and an FA Cup win.

City wanted to kick on, but the financial rules meant they couldn't. Ultimately, a poor transfer window the previous summer came back to bite them.

Unlike previous windows, the club decided to keep hold of their key players, such as Youri Tielemans, and spent out on additions including Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Vestergaaard.

This is where the fairness of the rules comes into question for me. Yes, the City hierarchy should be questioned for a lot of their decisions, and they should have seen the situation coming sooner and planned ahead for what could happen.

But one poor transfer window created a domino effect, which has ultimately led to the club now being in League One. City had to take a risk to try to take the next step, and it simply didn't pay off.

If you look at Chelsea, for example, a poor transfer window means that they try to fix it by just spending hundreds of millions more in the next window, without breaking the rules. They don't have to take the risk that clubs like City do; how is that fair to clubs trying to compete?

Aston Villa are one of the clubs having to cope with the disparity of breaking into the upper echelons of the table, and the financial gulf between clubs. Sales of Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins among others in the transfer window has seen a massive overhaul in the squad, all while trying to compete in the Champions League as well as the Premier League. The club currently sit in 19th place in the table, having got one point from their opening four games.

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To get it, it's a simple one-two punch.

If they have to cash in, even with the Champions League money coming in, just to comply with the rules, how are clubs with aspirations of breaking into the competition meant to do it?

City should have been cleverer and planned much better for the scenario that was quickly heading their way. Ultimately, that’s why I believe now is the right time for a change of ownership as they look to rebuild again.

But the unfair Premier League rules played a massive part in the club’s downfall. It’s something that other clubs now in a similar situation could easily fall foul of too.