Leicester City boss Marti Cifuentes has appealed for patience as he works to change the culture at the King Power Stadium, with his side sitting 12th in the Championship and still dealing with the fallout from relegation and Profit and Sustainability constraints.
City’s start to the season has fallen short of supporter expectations, with the club in mid-table after roughly a third of the campaign.
Results have been affected by factors away from the pitch, with the impact of relegation still being felt and PSR issues limiting what business could be done in the summer window.
Cifuentes is also tackling the legacy of a group that has been involved in 2 recent relegations, and accepts that reconnecting the fanbase with this squad will take time.
🦊 #LCFC | Marti Cifuentes applauded the fans before and after the game.
This was his first competitive match at King Power Stadium.
🗣️ He values the support from the fans who headed to Filbert Way earlier on 👇 pic.twitter.com/P1DV73bYGD
— BBC Sport Leicester (@BBCRLSport) August 10, 2025
Cultural Shift Will Bring Ups And Downs
The Spaniard was encouraged by the late fightback in the comeback win over Norwich City, especially after defeats to Millwall and Blackburn Rovers where he felt the team slipped back into bad habits and appeared to accept defeat too easily.
He is clear that 1 result cannot flip the mood on its own, but sees signs that some of the traits he wants are beginning to show more regularly.
“I am happy for the group. Cultural changes take more time. What we are trying to implement here, we will have some ups and downs and it will take some time. We cannot be complacent because we won.
“There are things we still want to get better at. We will try to work as much as we can on the pitch and build on the last 2 games I would say, because some of the things I want to see from the group were definitely there.”
One of Cifuentes’ priorities is to repair the relationship between the supporters and a squad that has been through a difficult period.
He sees the club as still being in a healing phase and accepts that a single comeback victory will not be enough to fully shift the mood.
Welcoming Martí Cifuentes as our new Manager 🦊
— Leicester City (@LCFC) July 15, 2025
Cifuentes Targets Mindset Change For Squad And Supporters
Cifuentes stressed that his remit goes beyond tactics, with the psychological side of the job central to his work at Leicester. He referenced his successful survival mission at Queens Park Rangers, where he took over a team 8 points from safety, as another example of a club needing time and patience to reset.
“I am aware that 1 of the bigger tasks I have as a manager here is to change the mood. It is very easy to have this negativity around the team and the club because of the last couple of relegations.
“This takes time to heal, for all of us, for the supporters and for the players.”
Drawing on his experience across 5 different countries, Cifuentes insisted he remains confident that Leicester have the tools to meet their season targets if everyone pulls together.
“I think being a manager is a high percentage of understanding the psychology, not only of the players but also the place. Every club and every situation has its own challenges. I have always achieved the club targets.
“In that sense, I am completely convinced we have everything we need as a club to meet the targets we want to achieve. It is not going to be perfect.
“Life is not perfect.”
