On the bus to Bromley with Leicester City fans: Win or lose we're all miserable now New York Times (Online) Rob Tanner It is 2pm on a wet and windy Tuesday afternoon and, as the travelling fans gather outside King Power to embark on their latest away day, the weather is symbolic of the mood of a huge amount of Leicester City fans. It is utterly miserable. Ten years ago, Leicester fans were travelling in their thousands to Copenhagen to cheer on the champions of England in the Champions League. It was the best of times. On this damp autumnal afternoon there are 825 hardy souls standing in the rain about to begin the four-hour, 138-mile coach trip to south-east London to watch the current crop take on Bromley in League One. Some will return to work the next day despite not getting home until 2am. It is just the latest sobering reminder of how far their club, currently 10th in League One after three losses in their first 10 games, has fallen in a short space of time. This season alone there have been humiliating home defeats to Burton Albion (1-2), Oxford United (0-4) and Peterborough United (1-3). Last Saturday's home win over Doncaster Rovers was Leicester's first home league victory on a Saturday afternoon in 2026. “When we lose it's truly and utterly embarrassing, and when we win it's thoroughly underwhelming,” says season-ticket holder Iain Wright. “Anyone enjoying League One for the new grounds has absolutely lost their mind.” On the eve of Leicester's first trip to Bromley, a club that was playing in the National League — the fifth tier of English football — when Leicester were taking on the cream of European football, Leicester were included in the first-round draw of the FA Cup for only the second time in their history (Premier League and Championship clubs don't enter the FA Cup until the third-round stage). The 2021 FA Cup champions were drawn away to Oxford City, a semi-professional club in National League North (the sixth tier). The reality is, Leicester were playing Bromley on merit. The London team have brilliantly risen from non-league football and, though second from bottom of the table, are deservedly on a divisional par with the former Premier League champions. After back-to-back relegations, for many Leicester fans the shocking fall from grace has been too much. In the past two seasons there have been fan protests , anger which has built up over many years. Some even want a change of ownership and for the Srivaddhanaprabha family, headed by chairman Aiyawatt 'Khun Top', to sell up. Some have even walked away, vowing not to watch the team until the club is sold. There are others, however, who can't go that far. “Like a lot of fans, I'm just a bit numb to it all,” says Steve Potter, a fan who challenged Khun Top outside King Power Stadium after relegation last season. “It's very hard to feel anything but disappointment over how it's all fallen into place.” Despite the divisions of opinions and perceptions, Leicester fans still travel in numbers and have sold out all their away allocations so far this season. At the back of the coach, a group of fans debate the merits of head coach Russell Martin, a man who, to put it mildly, divides opinion and has overseen just five wins from his previous 32 league matches. His possession-based style of play is perceived as boring and ineffective. One fan said that there are those who feel so desperate for change that they willingly want the team to lose. “Someone who sits at the end of our row in King Power Stadium is always booing and shouting at the players and last week, when we scored (against Doncaster Rovers), he slammed his seat down, uttered 'f*** it' and walked out,” says Amy Ginnetta, who travels home and away. “I can't imagine not wanting my team to win.” Martin has been the first appointment under the new sporting director James McCarron, who has overseen a summer of huge change. Over 30 players have left the club since the end of last season, while 16 new players have arrived. Such a transformation was always going to need time, but time was something Martin was unlikely to be afforded. “Martin's insistence on playing out from the back is an issue. If the players could pass out from the back they wouldn't be in League One,” says one fan, who did not want to be named. “Still, some of us remember it being worse,” adds another, more senior, supporter. “It isn't as bad as it was under David Pleat. I would have rather had a seat looking out over the car park than the pitch back then.” There is such a broad spectrum of views that it could be explained as not only being a difference of opinions but of generations, too. “A lot of the fans who were 15 or 16 when we won the title are the more vocally disgruntled ones now,” says Tom Sensicall, who remembers Leicester entering administration in 2002 and being in League One in the 2008-09 season. “The title-winning season is their first real big experience and now that's where they expect them to be. They've not had the bad times of League One before.” “Ten years ago we were in Copenhagen but I think the problem is some fans are still there,” adds Linda Ginnetta. Outside Bromley's CopperJax Community Stadium before the game, Dan King has had the same conversation with his 16-year-old son, Hayden. “All he knew was the success and he asked me, 'Why aren't Leicester top of the league anymore?' I replied, 'It doesn't work like that son!'” John O'Brien has been a fan for 66 years and described himself as “stoic” about the club's decline. “We seem to have a poor understanding of the modern game and our relative place in the pyramid,” he says. “But I was here before them (the management and owners) and, barring death, I will be here after them.” But it would be too simplistic to split the fanbase and their feelings solely based on age. The unifying sentiment among fans The Athletic travelled with was that there is a commitment to following the club through thick and thin, no matter what. Most had taken time off work to be in Bromley on this typically cold and wet October night. Some took leave, others will work back the time. “I will have to make up the hours I take off to watch Leicester play in away night matches,” says Darren Thompson. “I spend about ￡2,500 per year watching Leicester play and that's without my boys who go to matches as well. “But I wouldn't swap my hobby for anything and I'm waiting for the good times to come back, although it may be a long wait.” As it turned out, this was a good night — a straight forward 4-0 win which made it back-to-back league wins for the first time since August 2025. For now, Martin seems to have tempered his more patient approach with a faster, direct style. There were even a couple of chants of “Russell, Russell give us a wave” from the travelling fans. Fortunes can, indeed, change very quickly in football.