Martí Cifuentes has cleared his first hurdle as Leicester manager. A late header from his substitute Wout Faes completed a comeback victory but for much of a testing opening game against Henrik Pedersen’s Sheffield Wednesday, who took a first-half lead amid fan protests against the club’s ownership, that looked an unlikely outcome. There will be no illusions over how difficult an immediate return to the Premier League will be for Leicester.
“The Championship is a ruthless league,” said Cifuentes, who succeeded Ruud van Nistelrooy this summer. “It was a good lesson for everyone to understand that we cannot take anything for granted.”
For Wednesday, it was an achievement to even be here. Placed under a transfer embargo by the Football League because of late payments, they have only 15 senior first-teamers on the books. The players and staff were paid their outstanding July wages on Friday after solidarity payments from the Premier League came in.
Pedersen stepped in to be head coach after the departure of Danny Röhl at the end of July and the Dane’s tone at full-time here was largely positive. “Very proud feeling from the performance,” he said. “It’s been some tough, tough weeks. To keep the discipline, to keep the motivation … it was a fantastic picture for how you can do this.”
The sold-out away section was sparsely populated at kick-off, the vast majority of Wednesday supporters staying outside for the first five minutes in protest against the Thai owner, Dejphon Chansiri, who is yet to receive an offer for the club that matches his valuation. A banner reading “SWFC for sale – enough is enough” was left on the empty seats.
When Wednesday’s fans arrived, Nathaniel Chalobah almost gave them something to cheer about straight away, chesting the ball down at a corner and sending a bobbling shot across goal that came off the foot of a post. The away end, so quiet for those first five minutes, erupted midway through the first half when Chalobah met Yan Valery’s cut-back and had a low shot deflected into the roof of the net by Oliver Skipp. Chalobah and his teammates set off towards the far side of the stadium, where the noise – a mixture of joy and defiance, of pent-up frustration being let out – only grew as they approached. The celebrations were a picture.
“Our fans are a big, big inspiration for our players,” Pedersen said. “The togetherness with the fans … of course they will go to the fans. They are so thankful for the support they are giving.” The discontent among the home supporters too was evident from the outset. Charged by the Premier League for breaches of profitability and sustainability rules in the 2023-24 campaign, Leicester are still waiting to find out if they will be…
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