Chris Sutton says Leicester City cannot use this as an excuse for their non-existent title defence

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The Foxes’ 2-1 defeat at Sunderland was definitive proof that the Premier League fairytale is a thing of the past.

Chris Sutton has told BBC Radio 5Live that Leicester City cannot use a lack of recruitment as an excuse for their alarming slide down the Premier League table.

The Foxes were always expected to struggle comparatively this season after lifting the Premier League title in 2015/16, although their performances and results have dipped below all expectations in recent months.

Leicester lost 2-1 to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, with West Bromwich Albion, Watford and Hull City also taking three points off the champions this season, leading to inevitable speculation that they could be the first team since Manchester City in 1938 to be relegated the season after winning the title.

However, the decline of Claudio Ranieri’s side has been even more surprising due to the club’s seemingly impressive recruitment in the off-season, with club-record signing Islam Slimani joining German World Cup winning goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler, proven Champions League striker Ahmed Musa (below) and talented enforcer Nampalys Mendy at the King Power.

And Sutton, who won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 only for the club to be relegated four years later, believes Leicester cannot be accused of failing to improve the squad.

“They didn’t stand still in the summer, not like us at Blackburn when we only signed [20-year-old defender] Adam Reed [from Darlington] and Matty Holmes. I don’t think Reed played a single game,” Sutton told Jonathan Overand on BBC Radio 5Live, broadcast at 12:00pm on 4 December.

“Our manager Ray Harford used to say ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, but these are players Ranieri wanted in and the owners have backed him so they can’t use that excuse.

“Leicester have had a go [in the transfer market] so they cannot be accused of not recruiting, just the wrong personnel perhaps.”

Beyond the substandard performance of many of their new signings, Leicester’s lack of intensity – the characteristic that defined their remarkable 2015/16 – is arguably a much more worrying problem.