2003–04 Leicester City F.C. season

During the 2003–04 English football season, Leicester City competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary
Micky Adams had guided Leicester back to the Premiership at the first attempt, despite the club spending part of their Division One campaign in receivership before a takeover safeguarded their future. But he was unable to keep them there, and their relegation was confirmed at the beginning of May. A 4–0 thumping of fellow relegation rivals Leeds United in September appeared to have set the tone for the rest of the season but it was soon followed by a setback of five straight defeats despite promising displays. A run of three wins in five games in November kept Leicester in close contention of survival, with the 2–0 victory at Portsmouth seeing them rise to as high as 12th; however, it all went wrong as, after a creditable 1–1 draw with eventual champions Arsenal, the team went into freefall and endured a dreadful run of only one win in 22 games (though most scorelines were reasonably close and they dropped too many points from 12 games they drew which they could have won). Ultimately, Leicester were relegated in a 2–2 draw at Charlton Athletic, which left them eight points adrift of Manchester City with two games remaining. It was a traumatic end to a season which had seen the club plagued with crises on and off the field, including the La Manga controversy when players Keith Gillespie, Frank Sinclair and Paul Dickov were accused of sexual assault following an alleged incident at a hotel in Spain (all charges were finally dropped).

Final league table

 * Results summary


 * Results by round

Results
Leicester City's score comes first

Squad

 * Squad at end of season

Appearances and goals

 * As of end of season

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Goalkeepers

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Defenders

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Midfielders

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Forwards

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Players transferred or loaned out during the season



In

 * Steve Howey – Manchester City, 5 June, undisclosed
 * Riccardo Scimeca – Nottingham Forest, 24 June, free
 * Paul Brooker – Brighton and Hove Albion, 24 June, free
 * Danny Coyne – Grimsby Town, 3 July, free
 * Keith Gillespie – Blackburn Rovers, 8 July, free
 * Lilian Nalis – Chievo, 11 July, free
 * Les Ferdinand – West Ham United, 11 July, free
 * Ben Thatcher – Tottenham Hotspur, 17 July, £300,000
 * Craig Hignett – Blackburn Rovers, 18 July, free
 * Steve Guppy – Celtic, 13 January, free
 * Peter Canero – Kilmarnock, 2 February, £250,000
 * Lee Morris – Derby County, 2 February, nominal fee
 * Nicolas Priet – Lyon, free

Out

 * Tim Flowers – retired, 7 May
 * Martin Reeves – released, 7 May (later joined Northampton Town on 9 June )
 * Simon Royce – released, 7 May (later joined Charlton Athletic on 26 June )
 * Stefan Oakes – released, 7 May (later joined Walsall on 3 July
 * Nicky Summerbee – released, 7 May (later joined Bradford City on 4 September)
 * Jon Ashton – released, 7 May (later joined Oxford United on 8 September)
 * Matt Jones – released, 7 May (later retired on 4 June 2004 )
 * Michael Price – released, 7 May
 * Darren Eadie – released, 7 May
 * Jon Stevenson – released, 7 May (later joined Swindon Town)
 * Brian Deane – West Ham United, 31 October, free
 * Steve Howey – Bolton Wanderers, 29 January, undisclosed
 * John Curtis – Portsmouth, 2 February, free
 * Gerry Taggart – Stoke City, 26 February, free

Loan in

 * Marcus Bent – Ipswich Town, 1 September, season-long loan
 * Nikos Dabizas – Newcastle United, 1 January, six-month loan
 * Steffen Freund – Kaiserlautern, 30 January, season-long loan

Loan out

 * Tommy Wright – Brentford, 12 September
 * Gerry Taggart – Stoke City, 9 December, two months

Club awards
At the end of the season, Leicester's annual award ceremony, including categories voted for by the players and backroom staff, the supporters and the supporters club, saw the following players recognised for their achievements for the club throughout the 2003–04 season.