JibrinLeicester City understand their spot in the Championship standings would still be “unacceptable” even if the club had succeeded in their appeal.
It’s been confirmed that City’s six-point penalty for breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) will remain after their appeal was rejected this week.
It means their destiny will now be decided by the displays and outcomes of their next five matches.
Manager Gary Rowett is relieved for the certainty the ruling brings, even if it leaves City in the relegation zone. But what of the players? Relegation is a bigger threat because two of the victories they’ve secured have been wiped away.
Rowett believes that even if City sat 19th, as they would be with six points back, it’s not acceptable for the club and for the squad.
“I wasn’t too worried about whatever happened,” Rowett said on Thursday afternoon. “That nothing has changed gives great clarity to the group for the last five games.
“I’m pleased it’s done at this stage rather than two or three games down the line when it might have a material impact on what happens. It’s game on as normal.
“We’ve got enough to concentrate on. I don’t think it’s been a distraction. It would have been a nice excuse to say we haven’t won the games because we’ve been distracted by it, but we haven’t. We’ve focused on what we can focus on. Now that really is a 100 per cent focus.
“If you’re a player, you understand the impact that six points has. You’d see where we’d be in the table with the six points added.
“But the group knows this season hasn’t been good enough. That’s the overarching feeling. I don’t think they can take any solace that we’d be sat in 19th with the extra points. I don’t think that would be acceptable either.
“We have to move forward from that. The first 41 games haven’t been how the team, the club and the fans wanted it to be, so our focus has to be on making these last five games a memorable last five games and step up.
“I’ve not heard anyone saying: ‘If only we had those six points back.’ I think they recognise we’re in control of what we do and we haven’t done that well enough and the focus is to improve that.”
City face Swansea this weekend in their latest attempt to climb out of the relegation zone. To move out of the bottom three, they need to win, and hope Portsmouth and Oxford fail to beat Middlesbrough and Watford respectively.
Jibrin
