The five stages of grief, as proposed by Elisabeth
Kübler-Ross, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance,
sometimes known by the acronym DABDA. Originally used to identify the series of
emotions experienced by terminally ill patients, these have been extended to
cover bereavement, divorce (particularly as experienced by the children of a
marriage), the loss of a relationship and substance abuse. It might seem
fatuous to suggest that a similar range of emotions can be experienced by
sports fans, but I think it is a theory that holds water. Viewed from afar, the
range of emotions experienced by fans of Leicester City certainly could fit the
Kübler-Ross model.
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| Leicester City celebrate their shock Premier League title last season. |
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| The league table does not lie. This is where Leicester now find themselves. |
For many fans of teams who look like they are relegation
candidates, their journey starts with Denial,
as in "We're too good to go down." It is a phrase heard commonly in football, and
having won the Premier League in 2016, Leicester fans could have been forgiven
for thinking that at the start of this season. But as any football fan will
tell you, the history of the game is littered with clubs who everyone thought
were either too big or too good to get relegated, but when the final table is
totted up, it is only points, not reputations nor the quality of the football
you've played that determine whether or not you stay up.
Then comes Anger
- Having seen their side slip to defeats to the likes of Hull City and
Sunderland, there will be some supporters who are angry. Angry that the club
allowed a player like N'Golo Kanté to move to Chelsea; angry that the players
that swept Leicester to the title last season have under-performed so abysmally
this campaign; angry that the club have not signed players to address the slide
and angry that their team finds themselves where they are in the table.
Next is Bargaining
- Leicester remain in the Champions League for now and there are probably
desperate supporters offering trade-offs - "I'd happily see us out of
Europe if it meant staying in the Premier League," that sort of thing.
This stage is also marked by feverish calculations of what will happen if other
clubs around them in the table win or draw and exactly how many wins are needed
for survival. It's the sort of desperate straw clutching experience that
deludes fans into thinking that despite having won only five out of the first
thirty games, the team can win five of the last eight.
Then Depression
sets in - There will be those who can see no possibility of staying up, so they
give up hope: they may still go to the games or watch them on TV, but do so
with a sense of futility - "I don't know why I bother, I know they are
going to lose."
Finally, Acceptance
- There will come a stage when relegation is unavoidable, or while mathematically
still possible is so unlikely that it might as well be. Perversely, this is
when - with the pressure off - teams suddenly start performing well and win a
game or two. The fans, meanwhile have accepted their fate and started planning
their trip to Cardiff instead of Manchester next season.
But as miserably as Leicester fans might view their future -
and for supporters of the clubs below them it looks more miserable still - they
can at least console themselves that the only real difference next season will
probably be the division they find themselves playing in, and that they have
the very real prospect of bouncing straight back up into the top flight. For
some of English football's basket case clubs, both the present and the
immediate future look bleak: for one in particular, relegation may be the least
of their worries.
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| Coventry City fans protest about Sisu, the club's owners. Photo: Coventry Telegraph |
Coventry City fans may have a trip to Wembley in the much
maligned and much boycotted Checkatrade Trophy to look forward to, but
relegation from League One seems to be a racing certainty as they sit nine
points from safety. Fans have frequently protested against owners Sisu, whose
stewardship has seen the club endure rows over unpaid rent (which resulted in a
temporary move to Northampton), frozen bank accounts and transfer embargos.
Next season Coventry will likely be playing league games in the same division
as Morecambe, who were bought - somewhat improbably - by 35-year old Brazilian
businessman Diego Lemos last September. Lemos has been seen rarely and as is
fairly common in these sorts of cases, there are tales of unpaid wages, unpaid
bills and the spectre of closure.
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| Photo: The Insider |
But if you really want to see a club that are a basket case,
just look to East London and Leyton Orient. In the 2013–14 season, Orient lost
the League One Play-Off final at Wembley to Rotherham United on penalties. Owner Barry Hearn sold the club to Italian
businessman Francesco Becchetti, the club were relegated to League Two and now
look likely to drop out of the league completely as they sit second from bottom
having won just once in their last ten games. Becchetti's tenure has seen the
appointment of eleven managers including four alone this season, which is one
manager more than there have been home wins. The term 'Manager of The Month'
has a totally different meaning at The Matchroom Stadium. Tales of Becchetti's
interference in team matters and the alienation of long-time club employees
abound and from the outside it is difficult to decide whether this stems from
incompetence or deliberate and wilful actions aimed at taking the club out of
existence; whichever is the case, the future of the club is clearly in
jeopardy.
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| This season has seen four managers but only three wins in East London for Leyton Orient. Photo: Evening Standard. |
It gives me no pleasure to see the miserable decline of
Leyton Orient - after all I was a season ticket holder for over ten years, saw
them first in the old Second Division, fall to the Fourth and win promotion, so
I have a great deal of affection for them - but on the other hand, I do not I
feel that I'm being unfair in describing them as a basket case. It comes to
something when, by comparison, I feel blessed with the club I support now (if
you want to know how and why I now support them, see http://rulesfoolsandwisemen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/romford-1-manchester-united-0.html),
even though Romford do not own their own ground, nor play in the town that they
are named for, do not have a playing budget and consider themselves fortunate
to attract a crowd of more than 150.
The Leyton Orient faithful have almost certainly gone
through all of Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief this season - many
simultaneously -with anger and depression particularly prominent. So concerned are the Leyton Orient Fans Trust
(LOFT) that they have even acknowledged the possibility of setting up a phoenix
club a la AFC Wimbledon[1].
Leicester City fans dismayed at the prospect of relegation to the Championship
might like to remember - scant consolation though it might be - that there's
always someone worse off than yourself.
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