Bold claim: Leicester City should never be written off to drop into League One. That is the real message from Jordan James, who insists the idea of the Foxes slipping to the third tier defies logic and argues the club’s players are focused on climbing the Championship table.
After back-to-back losses to Southampton and Sheffield United, during which Leicester conceded three goals before halftime in both games, the club find themselves just six points above the relegation zone. Yardsticks look tight: 16th place Leicester remain closer to the playoffs than to safety after 18 games, with Bristol City in sixth just five points ahead.
Speaking on BBC Radio Leicester, the 21-year-old Wales international stressed that any notion of League One is a non-starter: “If you think Leicester can be in League One, then you have lost your mind. The players we have are Premier League players and it will show. I genuinely believe that.” He added that neither he nor the dressing room will permit relegation and that leadership within the group will push the team upward. “We are only looking up. It can change very quickly.”
Off-field turmoil remains a factor, with Leicester embroiled in a legal dispute with the Premier League over potential spending-rule breaches. Yet James says the off-field issues do not distract the squad from their on-field targets: “We don’t really think about the points deduction; we are focused on where we are now, how many points we have now, and how many points we need to reach our goals. If the deduction comes, we’ll deal with it then. For now, it’s out of our control.”
On the pitch, James has been a bright spot since joining on loan in the summer, supplying moments of quality and reliability. His stoppage-time strike against Sheffield United offered a glimmer of hope as Leicester chased a result, after Stephy Mavididi had pulled one back earlier. Ultimately, United held on for a 3-2 win, underscoring the challenge facing Foxes boss Marti Cifuentes.
James defended his manager, describing the second-half display as proof of unity within the squad. “We are focused on three points as a team and for him, because he deserves it. The first 10 minutes of that game were not good enough, and we apologized to the fans. At half-time we said, ‘this is not who we are, this is not who we want to be,’ and we showed a different fight after the break. We know the fans are frustrated; we can feel it. It’s our job to change that.”
