Ex-Jamaica Skipper Speaks Out Over Dilemma for English Champions
Winner Morgan Aims to Stop Rot at Leicester
Wes Morgan, yet to play for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz under Theodore Whitmore’s latest stint, has admitted that Leicester City’s squad have held emergency crunch talks.
The burly defender, who captained Leicester to their improbable English Premier League title last season, is aware that the side are in a relegation dogfight for the second time in three campaigns.
After Morgan lifted the crown with Leicester last May, and followed it up with Jamaica reaching the Gold Cup final, it has been a downward spiral for the British-born 33-year-old.
With former head coach Whitmore back in charge of the Boyz, albeit in an interim role, all European-based players have been overlooked in favour of home-grown talent and those who ply their trade in North America – although part of the reasoning behind this is purely down to finances of the Jamaica Football Federation.
With no international call-ups for the past three matches and the February 16 friendly against Honduras, Morgan’s form has dramatically nose-dived and he has been at fault for numerous goals conceded by Leicester.
Uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the squad has left the defending EPL champions facing a confidence crisis as they lie just one point above the relegation-threatened trio of teams who face the drop.
Morgan, who admitted that the Leicester squad held crunch talks last week in a desperate bid to stop the rot, explained: “We have to be realistic, we’re not in a good position and we can’t dwell on the past success.
“We have to turn it around sooner rather than later. We lost 2-0 at Swansea and it’s a bad result, but there are still points to be won with 13 games – and we need to start winning.
“We had a big week talking, trying to put things right to build up the team spirit so that we can get ourselves out of this mess.”
Leicester don’t tackle another EPL match until title hopefuls Liverpool are the visitors on 27 February, by which time the Foxes could be propping up the table. And Leicester go into that contest, televised live around the globe, as the only team in the top four divisions yet to score a goal in 2017.
Italian Claudio Ranieri, the recently crowned FIFA coach of the year, takes his Leicester troops into two important ties before league action. These will be a welcome distraction as well as an opportunity to shake things up at the troubled club where players are going from hero to zero.
Leicester travel to English League One outfit Millwall for a tricky FA Cup 5th round contest on Saturday followed by a tough trip to tackle Sevilla in the 1st leg of the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Morgan, expected to be rested for the FA Cup tie to be fresh for the midweek tie in Spain, added: “We can’t keep a clean sheet in the league and it seems that we concede at the worst times. At the moment we just can’t bounce back.
“We’ll remain positive and we still have games so we must remain focused.”
Leicester must come up with a swift solution otherwise they could face the ignominy of becoming the first defending top-tier champions to be relegated since Manchester City slipped up during the 1937-38 campaign.
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