Tuesday's 4-0 thumping of Bromley followed a 2-1 win over Doncaster, which eased some of the external noise around Leicester City. Head coach Russell Martin has been a polarising figure with fans, who criticised his style and ability after a 17-game spell at Rangers last season. Anger had mounted after two wins in eight left the Foxes 17th in League One, a point above the relegation zone. Home defeats to Burton, Oxford and Peterborough were a world away from the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid in 2017.
BBC Sport can reveal the club operated under a five-week transfer embargo over the summer. It stemmed from the EFL's Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP), with an independent Club Financial Review Panel ruling that future Premier League distributions could not be used to increase Leicester's spending capacity. The club could not sign players until it brought money in, though this only disrupted the order of summer business. Jeremy Monga and Abdul Fatawu were not sold until mid-July, and only after Monga left for Manchester City on 11 July could Conor Chaplin and Alex Mc Carthy be signed five days later. Four of Tuesday's starting XI signed on deadline day, and 66% of the players joined after the season began.
Martin inherited a broken, expensive squad that had lost the faith of supporters, along with a dressing room where egos got in the way and work ethic was lacking. In the summer, 34 players left the club and 16 arrived. Sources say the atmosphere has now markedly improved. Martin has introduced strict discipline: a blanket ban on mobile phones in the canteen, with rule-breakers made to run rather than pay fines. Players and staff, including Martin and his senior staff, must run the length of the pitch and back in 35 seconds, three times, for lateness or other breaches.
The club also faces a need to show rather than tell fans about progress. Calm and focus now prevail behind the scenes, with the appointment of James Mc Carron as sporting director and Martin viewed as providing strong leadership. Fan frustration remains, however, particularly towards chief football officer Jon Rudkin, who has been at the club since 1998 and whose policy of not speaking to the media left an information vacuum until this month.
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing