BREAKING—”FOXES IN FREE FALL: Double transfer on the cards after latest humiliation – but is it too little, too late to save Leicester from the abyss?”

That Leicester City say they’re striving for a balance between on-pitch success and financial stability suggests they’re achieving one but not the other. However, the league table and the financial books prove they’re not close to either at the moment.

City sit in the Championship relegation zone, threatened with dropping into the third tier for just the second time in their history, having been placed there in part by their financial disarray, which has cost them six points.

Now, they’ve released their accounts for the 24-25 campaign, showing a £71m loss, the third largest in their history.

In those accounts, the club’s ultimate aim was emphasised. It read: “The club is focused on securing promotion back to the Premier League and has not changed its aspiration to compete in the top division, striving to win trophies and compete on the European stage while complying with the evolving football regulatory environment.”

All of that feels a long way away. New chief executive Kevin Davies, stepping up after handling crises as finance director, acknowledged that fans want to see a financially responsible club. But this set of accounts do not show that.

City spent millions on players last summer that did not make the required impact. They went down without much of a fight, recording the worst run of home form in the history of English top-flight football in the process.

What’s more is that those ineffective transfers, and those over multiple years, appear to have hindered this season too.

Because while City do not look to have breached Profit and Sustainability Rules again, they have gone so close to the limit that they were unable to refresh their squad adequately for this season.

After two relegations in three years, City needed fresh momentum. But while they brought in nine players over the course of the past two transfer windows, all were either loans or free agents. Two, maybe three, of the nine, have made a significant positive impact. At the start of this month, City fielded an 11 that included none of those nine players.

So actually, maybe having some spending power would not have made a difference to the quality of the squad, because recent evidence suggests City are not capable of bringing in players who can live up to their price-tags.

It is this mismanagement that needs correcting, so that the performances on the pitch, and the performances in the accounts, look much healthier.

One positive is that City’s wage-to-turnover ratio has been reduced to its lowest level in seven years at 82 per cent, and no longer sits above the 100 per cent mark.

But, they still paid £20m more on wages over the year than a Brentford side that finished in the top half of the Premier League. They still underachieved for the wages they paid out.

The club hope to bring that 82 per cent figure down further, but that will be difficult in the Championship, and especially in League One. Although, thankfully, there are relegation clauses in contracts if the club do drop to the third tier.

As they will not be heading back to the Premier League, it means at least two big-money sales will be required this summer in order to fill the gap of the much-reduced TV revenue outside of the top flight.

Abdul Fatawu and Ben Nelson are City’s most profitable assets and it would be a surprise if either were still at the club at the start of next season, no matter which division they’re in.

These accounts, paired with the on-pitch performance of last season and this, point to a club that is moving further away from their stated ambitions.

The restructuring of the football department and the admission that they need to alter what they do financially suggests they are trying to change the tide.

But swinging themselves around to face the right direction so far looks to be a difficult task. For now, they’re still going the wrong way.