Yahoo Sport 
How Leicester City’s magic carpet ride spiralled into a spending rules nightmare
When Leicester City lifted the Premier League title in 2016, as 5,000-1 long shots, the magic carpet ride of memories did not stop there.
European excursions in the Champions League, an FA Cup triumph for the first time in their history, Leicester were the club who constantly upset the odds and punched above their weight. For years, they were regarded as the beacon for similarly-sized clubs such as Brighton, Brentford and Southampton.
Their success was built on shrewd recruitment and mid- to long-term planning, which enabled them to absorb the sales of key players.
And then, last season happened.
Relegation was when the brakes slammed down hard on the rollercoaster, ending a glorious nine-year period in the top division. It is that season, the 22/23 campaign, which now leaves them facing a crisis as they bid to secure promotion out of the Championship.
Leicester have been charged by the Premier League with an alleged breach of the Profitability and Sustainability Rules and the gloves are off. Usually a quiet, private club, Leicester are furious.
This is not a crisis of finance, with Leicester’s owners King Power remaining fully committed, but an issue of compliance with the rules. When their accounts are released next week, it is expected that Leicester will have overshot the permitted £105 million losses by some distance.
Sanctions are expected, while the Premier League is also frustrated at what it alleges is a failure to submit financial information.
Quite simply, Leicester feel they are being punished for daring to show ambition. For years they disrupted the established elite. Relegation last season was never expected, or budgeted for. Why would it have been? In the three previous campaigns, they had finished fifth twice and then eighth, while also reaching a Europa Conference League semi-final.
Yet it was their decisions in the summer of 2021 which have ultimately resulted in the charge now. In that pre-season, Leicester made the bold decision not to sell a star player, for the first time since winning the league in 2016. Before then, N’Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Harry Maguire and Ben Chilwell had departed for nearly £260 million in fees.
Ahead of the 2021/22 season, Leicester moved away from that model to give Brendan Rodgers the best possible chance of progress. More than £50 million was spent on Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Vestergaard.
Their costs rocketed, with the wage-to-turnover ratio rising to 85 per cent. It felt risky at the time, and was thoroughly dependent on the club thriving. Rodgers was also on a contract worth around £8m a year, and last April the club had to agree a settlement when he was sacked.
Jon Rudkin, Leicester’s director of football, is likely to come under renewed scrutiny from supporters.
Despite the sales of star players in previous years, Leicester have struggled to shift other big earners. It has proved an annual problem.Youri Tielemans, Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu all departed as free agents. Too many other players stayed for too long, on huge wages. Admittedly, the after-effects of Covid on the transfer market were very damaging for them.
It was in January this year when the warning lights first started flashing. On the 19th, Enzo Maresca was caught out when Chelsea exercised an option to recall Cesare Casadei. The midfielder received an email at 4.30pm that afternoon informing him to return. It still gave Leicester sufficient time to find a replacement on the basis of another outgoing.
On deadline day, Leicester moved to sign Inter Milan midfielder Stefano Sensi. A day of drama and disappointment followed.
Sensi flew into England on Thursday morning and passed a medical in London. All the paperwork for his loan move, with an option to sign permanently, was signed. Then, around an hour before the deadline, it is alleged that Inter sent back the loan arrangement with a number of changes. Leicester could not meet the requirements of the new terms.
The deal was dead. Sensi returned to the office of his agency in the capital and jetted back to Milan on Friday morning, bewildered by the events of the last 24 hours. Leicester had somehow managed to make themselves weaker, raising more scrutiny on their off-field operations.
Ipswich signed four players in the winter window, while Southampton secured a coup with the addition of Bournemouth’s David Brooks on loan. It only underlined how tight Leicester’s finances were, and are. Two months before the window opened, it emerged that the EFL’s reporting unit had recommended the club be placed under a business plan amid concerns over their accounts.
The EFL may still pursue further action but, for now, it is the Premier League which occupies Leicester’s thoughts. With nine games remaining, it is a distraction they can do without. Promotion now appears a priority. It is not hyperbole to suggest that what happens in the next two to three years depends upon it.
Leicester will be under pressure to sell players before June 30, regardless of the charge. The big question now is which division they will be in next season and the impact a potential points deduction would have.
We can all debate the inconsistencies of PSR, and the delay over Manchester City’s 115 breaches, but this is a very worrying time for Leicester.
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