WHAT a pre-season for Leicester. Things were going really well for the Foxes after their remarkable relegation escape and the mood was bright heading into the new season.

But in the blink of an eye things went south and rapidly. It started with the leak of the racist orgy sex tape where three reserve team players were filmed engaging in sex acts with a group of Thai women.

The video was damaging enough but the club were in Thailand as part of a goodwill tour and the behaviour of the players was vile and disgusting.

It got worse for manager Nigel Pearson when details emerged that one of the players was his son. The trio, Adam Smith, Tom Hopper and James Pearson were rightfully dismissed from the club but allegedly that did not sit well with Pearson and the club sacked him 13 days after his son was kicked out the door.

The manager in charge of getting them promoted and keeping them up was swiftly replaced by Claudio Ranieri. The ex-Chelsea boss has plenty of managerial experience at the top level but his recent stint with the Greece national team ended in disaster and many feel that he does not have what it takes to take charge of a club who are likely to be in a relegation battle.

Add Esteban Cambiasso to the list of departures over the summer and the Foxes are heading into the season weaker than they finished the last.

Cambiasso, a Champions League winner with Inter Milan, was instrumental to their survival. His ability to roll back the years in vital games will be missed, not to mention his presence and experience in the dressing room.

The positives? There aren’t many. In Ranieri they do have a coach who has worked at the top of the game for over a decade and though nicknamed the Tinkerman for his obsession with changing tactics and players on a game-to-game basis, he is still one of the better managers in the game.

Plus with the way the team finished last season, they showed that they have the talent and mental capacity to get themselves out of trouble.

The problem will be if they cut themselves adrift at the bottom early on and spend the rest of the season playing catch-up.

Their first five games see them play two clubs who were embroiled in the relegation battle last season, Sunderland and Aston Villa, as well as newly promoted Bournemouth.

It is imperative that they take a minimum of seven points from a possible nine which should give them a platform to build in.

And if they can muster up the same resilience that saw them come from behind to beat Manchester United 5-3, then they stand a chance of finishing outside the bottom three.

The squad is still a striker short if they are to get enough goals to stay up, but in Shinji Okazaki, the Japanese signing from Mainz, they have a forward who can help out in front of goal.

Again, it is key that he hits the ground running or his stay or the Foxes could find themselves staring into the headlights of relegation.