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Marti Cifuentes says he “gave everything” during his time at Leicester City and hopes blooding young talent is seen as part of his legacy.
The 43-year-old Spaniard left the King Power last month after six months in charge, with the Foxes sitting in the bottom half of the Championship, well adrift of the play-off places, following their relegation from the Premier League last season.
But Cifuentes’ part in Leicester’s slide is only a sliver of a sharp decline for the club, with former Foxes striker Matty Fryatt telling BBC Radio Leicester issues go beyond who their manager is.
One person who works closely with Cifuentes said the Spaniard had been doing the job “with one hand tied behind his back”.
The reason? A lack of money put into rebuilding the side for another Championship
Cifuentes left QPR to take over at the Foxes and the demands and expectation on him were high from the outset, with this season marking the 10-year anniversary of their stunning Premier League title win of 2016.
When Cifuentes was named as Ruud van Nistelrooy’s replacement in July, he spoke of wanting to bring a brand of “fearless” football back to the King Power.
There was a sense of that
The five-hour round trip away to Wrexham on Tuesday was exactly as you’d imagine on a cold, wet night in January.
Football is supposed to make those kind of trips worthwhile, but sadly it just added to the misery of the evening.
The fans were muted for the most part, likely stunned into silence by what they were witnessing and have witnessed from our performances these past few months.
The
The result means Leicester will sit 12th in the second-tier table at the start of 2026, a year in which the club mark the 10-year anniversary of their astonishing Premier League title win – a sporting triumph in which the 5,000-1 outsiders confounded expectations to gatecrash their way to English football’s biggest prize.
While Leicester are six places adrift of the play-off spots, and there remain loud grumbles of
Marti Cifuentes: ‘There is no excuses, we need to do better’ Audio, 5 minutesMarti Cifuentes: ‘There is no excuses, we need to do better’
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It was five months ago that Cifuentes took the Leicester job after his protracted QPR exit had him see out last season on gardening leave.
The Spaniard reportedly helped get his summer move over the line by personally contributing half the compensation fee, external that the Foxes needed to pay QPR to sign him.
A stuttered run of results in the early months of the campaign had Cifuentes battling
The lunchtime win lifts Leicester to 11th and above Derby, who slip to 13th ahead of the weekend’s remaining games.
The first league meeting of these regional rivals for almost 12 years pulled into sharp focus the wildly different fortunes they have had since 2014.
This is a season in which Leicester City celebrates the 10-year anniversary of their Premier League title win.
The FA Cup was collected, Champions League
Wow, just wow.
Just when you think you can’t sink any lower, the players go and put in a performance like that first 45 minutes against Sheffield United.
For fans of Scooby Doo, will we pull off Marti Cifuentes’ mask and find it’s Ruud van Nistelrooy underneath all along?
Here is a guy who, if he looked at our record last season, would see that we lost 17 consecutive matches
There have been optimistic moments in the early months of the season, with Cifuentes pointing to back-to-back wins against Norwich City and Stoke earlier in November.
There was even “encouraging things” in the second half against Sheffield United as they pulled two goals back from 3-0 down – through Stephy Mavididi and Jordan James – to set up a tense finish.
Cifuentes, though, admitted “the bar wasn’t very high” after
