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On the day that one of the most sensational spells in any club’s history ended, many of the Leicester City squad and staff inevitably discussed “how it had come to this”. There was a general feeling that a wider malaise had afflicted the team, affecting “confidence and belief”. Some were more direct. “Brendan.” Questions can be asked of Brendan Rodgers but it still feels wrong to put so much on a manager who lifted the club to the first FA Cup win in their history and successive fifth-place finishes. That really just illustrates how thin the margins can end up being for those outside the mega elite, and how even “model clubs” can quickly become examples of something else entirely. There is even a lesson here for a club as brilliantly run as Brighton. Both of Leicester’s fifth-place finishes came in Covid seasons, as the wider game itself lost so much money, and the club’s owners suffered huge losses from the immense impact on their duty-free business. Had either of those campaigns brought Champions League football, and the greater prize money it produces, they might well have had enough to prevent the deep drop-off that has now seen them drop down to the Championship. Many with knowledge of the club ultimately put it down to a lack of investment to build on the fine team they had. Uefa’s new financial sustainability regulations actually meant they had to go in the opposite direction, to bring down a huge expenditure-to-revenue ratio. Others from the industry argue that it goes even deeper, and beyond the money spent. It was how it was spent. The recruitment that had served them so well for half a decade has actually been “woefully inadequate” for at least five windows. As an example of that, Rodgers badly needed a ball-playing centre-half after winning the FA Cup, in order to pin his tactical idea together but also bring the team on. Leicester instead signed Jannik Vestergaard for a fee understood to be around £16m, even though he had one year left on his Southampton contract. The Dane was just never a fit, and it meant that Leicester couldn’t go back into the market in the same way. It was quite a difference from so seamlessly replacing Harry Maguire and shows why Leicester have now fallen so far. It also proves something else, separate from the club. The idea of buying low and selling high is the obvious model for so many of those outside the elite due to the economic stratification of the game, but it is still asking so much to get it right continuously. In some cases, one slip can cause you to fall much more quickly. Leicester were wealthy enough to be insulated from that but not from the reality that it is statistically impossible to keep that going indefinitely. It was this that deepened the concerning mood within the club in the summer, even if there is a fair argument that the Rodgers era was already going “stale”. That does happen, but what happened here was that the effect got worse. Leicester needed a change. The club instead hung on, in part due to the finances. Rodgers himself didn’t have the same brightness about him. It all got rather dull, and began to cascade. The brutal truth for the players is that none of this is a sufficient excuse for where they are. Their starting line-up was stronger than half the teams in the Premier League. That will be emphasised by so many top-six clubs coming in for their players. James Maddison is expected to go to Newcastle United. Aston Villa look favourites for Harvey Barnes, but they will now have considerable competition. Youri Tielemans has been looked at by almost every one of the wealthiest seven clubs. None of these players should have been in this situation, no matter how bad it was getting. That is summed up by the fact that, before you even get to the fees that will be paid this summer, this is one of the best-paid squads to ever be relegated. The wage bill was one of the highest in the Premier League. In going down, Leicester have actually defied the economic realities of the sport in the same way they did in enjoying one of the sport’s greatest peaks. The dream they have lived has had the most abrupt wake-up. Appropriately, there remains the sense they just “sleepwalked” into this situation, “too good to go down”, all of that. In some ways, the speed with which it all unravelled ensured no one really grasped what was actually happening until it was too late. If an era has now been consigned to history, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is entirely negative for the future. Leicester have to sell but still have so many advantages over the rest of the Championship. They did use the sensational Premier League success of 2016 to build a new infrastructure, landmarked in their hugely impressive Seagrave training ground. They could well come straight back up. There is also something else to be recognised here. Over the last seven years, Leicester have enjoyed more glory and deeper emotion than most clubs have in their entire history. They had the most sensational title win of all. They then won the FA Cup at last, having previously lost four finals and had that heavy weight over the club. And that’s only when you consider the successes. This is also a club that had that great escape, the nature of Nigel Pearson’s departure, Claudio Ranieri’s surprise appointment and shock sacking and their club legend’s wife getting involved in a media circus. Tragically in the true sense of the word, and in something that really warrants a solemn separate recognition, there was the death of the owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and those who were travelling with him. That is almost too much to even register. It is little wonder that Dean Smith said after this game he couldn’t explain how this happened. And yet it is traceable. It’s also something other clubs can look at. One of the most remarkable Premier League stories of all naturally has a few lessons. Read More Leicester’s unexpected twist provides reminder of football’s new reality How the final day played out as Everton survive and Leicester relegated with Leeds Gary Lineker congratulates Everton but ‘gutted’ as Leicester suffer relegation Doucoure the saviour, Spurs at a crossroads: 6 final day talking points Leicester’s unexpected twist provides reminder of football’s new reality How the final day played out with Everton surviving relegation fight

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Days after the US Supreme Court struck down race-conscious university admissions, civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit targeting so-called “legacy” admissions at Harvard University. The lawsuit, alleging widespread discrimination at the college in violation of the Civil Rights Act, is the latest challenge to the practice of prioritising university admissions for the children of alumni. “There’s no birthright to Harvard. As the Supreme Court recently noted, ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ There should be no way to identify who your parents are in the college application process,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the complaint on 3 July. “Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations?” he said in a statement. “Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.” The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network. Last week, the conservative supermajority on the nation’s highest court ruled that private and public colleges and universities may not consider race as a factor in admissions, striking down the precedent affirmed in the 2003 ruling in Grutter v Bollinger. Civil rights advocates and justices who supported the decades-long precedent, intended to promote racially diverse college campuses, derided what they argue is the court’s ongoing perversion of the 14th Amendment and the foundational concept of equal protection. The latest lawsuit points to Harvard data finding that 70 per cent of the college’s donor-related and legacy applicants are white. So-called “legacy” applicants have a roughly six times greater chance of admission, according to records, pointing to a “custom, pattern and practice” that is “exclusionary and discriminatory” and “severely disadvantages and harms applicants of color,” plaintiffs argued. The complaint calls on the US Department of Education to initiate a federal investigation into Harvard’s application process and for the federal government to declare such practices illegal. “Harvard’s practice of giving a leg-up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni – who have done nothing to deserve it – must end,” Lawyers for Civil Rights litigation fellow Michael Kippins said in a statement accompanying the complaint. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden urged universities to reconsider their legacy admissions, which he said “expand privilege instead of opportunity.” The Independent has requested comment from Harvard. Read More Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Biden reveals ‘new path’ to student debt relief after Supreme Court strikes down president’s plan Pence ‘doesn’t believe’ racial inequality exists in schools as he celebrates SCOTUS affirmative action ban

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