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[WATCH] Drop from the top: Foxes join Blackburn as the only clubs to have gone from Premier League champions to relegation

Voice Sports Team|Published

Bitter Pill: Leicester ace Jamie Vardy

Leicester City, on Sunday, became only the second Premier League winners in history to be relegated.

Fairytale winners in 2015/16, the Foxes dropped down to the Championship alongside Southampton and Leeds at the weekend.

Blackburn Rovers are the only other side to have won the Premier League since its inception in 1992 (when Alan Shearer and his teammates did so in 1994/95) and then got relegated four seasons later.

Furthermore, Foxes ace Jamie Vardy, 36, is the only player from the Leicester squad who has won the league and also tasted relegation with the club, thereby joining Rovers stars Tim Flowers, Jeff Kenna, Kevin Gallagher, Jason Wilcox and Chris Sutton of yesteryear as players who have tasted the sweetness of title glory and the bitterness of relegation with the same club.

Foxes fans were stunned on Sunday when they learned their fate, despite their team doing their part by beating West Ham 2-1 on the final day.

With Everton securing safety with a 1-0 win over Bournemouth, the Foxes were doomed. And coach Dean Smith knows there will be a proper review following their drop from the top.

He says: “When I came here with eight games to go, I thought we probably needed 11 points. We’ve fallen two short of that with nine, and it ended up being 11 points.

Glory: Alan Shearer at Rovers

“I failed on my part, because I felt we needed 11 points. [In the] Leeds and Everton games, two points got away from us... I’m sure there will be a club review but it’s disappointing.”

Captain Johnny Evans adds: “You never know what way the club will see things. We will have to deal with the uncertainty.

“A lot of players are out of contract and I’d guess there will be a lot of changes at the club.”

dailyvoice@inl.co.za

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