Leicester City Women: Sam Tierney's Commitment Amid Relegation

When the final whistle blew on Leicester City’s season and relegation from the Women’s Super League was confirmed in May, the collapse was swift and brutal. The drop to WSL 2 triggered an exodus. Fourteen players gone. Nine of them had started that decisive play-off defeat to Charlton Athletic.

Janina Leitzig left for Manchester United. Hannah Cain, Noemie Mouchon and Jutta Rantala – Leicester’s brightest attacking sparks – all headed for Everton. A core ripped out in a matter of weeks.

What remained looked less like a squad and more like the shell of one. A rebuild was no longer a choice. It was a necessity.

The captain who stayed

In the middle of that churn, one decision cut through the noise. Sam Tierney, Leicester’s captain and longest-serving player, signed a new contract in July, tying herself to the club until 2028.

At 27, with 151 appearances behind her and the option to walk away from a relegated side in flux, she chose the opposite.

"I'm not the type to want to jump ship. Since I've been at Leicester, I've created a genuine connection with the club," she told BBC Sport.

Tierney has lived every version of Leicester City: the early days training on local parks, the rise to the WSL, the fight for survival, and now the fall. She has seen the instability up close – seven managers since joining from Sheffield United in 2020 – and still believes this is the place to invest her prime years.

"I wanted to succeed and we've had a good number of years where it's been up and down, but I feel like now we're at a point where we can rebuild," she said.

Leicester’s reputation has taken a hit. Two wins from 22 league matches last season, a -41 goal difference, and a limp relegation that mirrored the men’s team’s drop to League One. Questions followed. Would the women’s side keep playing at King Power Stadium? Would the budget be slashed? Was this the start of a slide?

Tierney rejects the idea that the club is broken.

"I think it's difficult because Leicester, at the minute, gets a bit of a bad rep. The club is fantastic and so are the people. It's a family kind of club and we're just going through a change. I am very proud to play for Leicester."

From park pitches to ambition

To understand why she stayed, you have to go back to where Leicester started.

"When I first joined Leicester, we were training on one of the local parks. We weren't at Belvoir Drive where the men were. The progression is incredible," Tierney said.

That journey – from park pitches to a fully integrated professional set-up – is central to her loyalty. She has seen the infrastructure grow, the standards rise, and she is not ready to walk away from that work.

"I want to make sure people want to play for Leicester. I want people to stay at Leicester. I want people to be jealous of Leicester.

"I know that's the potential of this club and hopefully we'll get that."

This is not blind optimism. Tierney knows how fragile Leicester’s top-flight status has been. Promotion to the WSL in 2021, a Women’s FA Cup semi-final in 2024, but never a sense of true security. Too often, Leicester have looked like a yo-yo club.

She wants that label gone.

"The type of person I am means I'm not happy if I don't feel like I'm finished somewhere," she said. "The direction the club want to go in and the change that needs to be made to do that, I'm on board with.

"Ultimately, my biggest thing is to make sure people feel the same connection that I have to the club and they want the club to progress.

"The moment that I leave, I want Leicester to be in a better position than when I started here."

Clearing the decks, starting again

Leicester’s response to relegation has been decisive. Players who wanted to move on were allowed to go, with the club banking valuable fees and reinvesting in the squad. The mass departures, painful as they looked from the outside, were part of a reset.

Six new signings have already come through the door. Three more players, alongside Tierney, have renewed their contracts. The churn is obvious, but so is the intent.

Pre-season has offered an early glimpse of the new Leicester. A win over Rugby Borough. A draw against Manchester United. A defeat to Liverpool. Mixed results, but Tierney is more interested in the feel of the place than the scorelines.

"You can see there's been a reflection period, there's been a review and you can see the direction we want to go in. We can feel that. We've changed," she said.

"Players change all the time, every team goes through that, but it's important that everyone coming in has the same drive and desire to commit to it.

"We've got those people and it has been quite refreshing. We want to be a different Leicester and it's time to change the narrative on who we are and how we're seen."

Changing the narrative

Last season left scars. Week after week under the threat of relegation. Performances that never quite clicked. A squad that could not turn effort into points.

"It's hard as a player. You're trying to give it your all but things just aren't going right," Tierney admitted.

The mental toll of that kind of campaign is rarely spoken about in detail, but Tierney hints at it. She calls this year a chance to restart, to breathe, to build something rather than constantly firefight.

On 6 September, Leicester open their WSL 2 campaign against Sheffield United, the club Tierney once captained. Kick-off is at 14:00 BST. It is an early test, but also a neat symbol: past and present colliding as she leads a very different Leicester into a very different season.

She is clear about the style of team she wants to captain.

"We want to be an exciting team, we want to be a team on the ball, we want to be a team that's difficult to beat and we want to surprise some people."

The ambition is not subtle. Promotion is the target. But Tierney is wary of repeating old mistakes.

"Of course the aim is to go up. But it's got to be done in a sustainable way because if I sit here this time next year and we're in a worse position, then there's no point.

We're going to make sure we're ready to challenge at the top of this league, get promoted and stay in the WSL for years to come."

Relegation stripped Leicester back to their basics. Tierney’s decision to stay, and to lead, suggests those basics still matter. The question now is not whether they can return to the WSL.

It is whether this time, when they get there, they are built to stay.