'We will be back' - Leicester City chairman releases statement following Premier League relegation

Now Leicester City's story of title triumph captivated the world but in less than 10 weeks they will be playing their first game back in the championship. Relegation from the Premier League was confirmed despite a 2-1 win over West Ham on the final day. Attention now turns to the future and who might remain at the club for next season. Kirsty Edwards is at the King Power Stadium. Firstly Kirsty, the club have released a statement haven't they? Yeah it's more a message from their chairman, the man they affectionately know here as top. So there isn't anything in terms of details of a rebuild, what will happen with the manager etc but as I say a message from him and the key message from him is we will be back. He talks about the fact that when his family took over this club in 2010 they had an ambition, ambition to get the club up to the Premier League because they were in the championship at that time. It took them four years to do it. He talks about all the highs and the lows that they've been through since then and he also goes on to say he's had a lot of messages, some of them hurtful from fans but also a lot of positivity. He thanks them for that and he goes on to say that we want to thank you and let you know that we will still have the same ambition for Leicester City that we had 13 years ago. I'm with Ian Bason who's from the Foxes Trust. Ian you've had a chance to read through that message from your chairman, what do you think? I think it's a pretty good message. I'm glad he's done it, it's been issued fairly quickly so he's got a message to the fans because I think we wanted to hear from the owners so I think that's a good thing. I think it's a I think you need to be careful what you wish for for some fans saying that they want a change of ownership. I think that's totally wrong because he's always had the best interest of the clubs and his heart has had his dad previously so I think that's sad but we do need to rebuild and I think you've got to get behind what his message is which is we'll come again. What was your overriding feeling yesterday here at the King Power when you finally realised it would be back to the championship? It was obviously one of disappointment. I mean you think for the squad that we've got that we shouldn't really be getting relegated but I think that's been also part of the problem mentality wise that I think we believe that we're too good to go down and you get some of the messaging that was coming out from Brendan Rodgers previously and some of the players occasionally perhaps not realising the seriousness of the situation. So it was one of disappointment but then at the same time as the final whistle was blown I was also thinking back to what happened when we won the Premier League and when we won the FA Cup and that's something probably I would never have dreamed of in my lifetime doing both of those things. So you've got to look at those positives which also the owners and the people around the club delivered to us. There's a lot that needs to happen now. First of all you need to sort out the manager situation. Dean Smith only here on that seven-week contract. We don't know what will happen with him now whether the club wants to keep him, whether he wants to to stay on. What are your thoughts? I don't know. I mean I'll leave it up to the club to decide. I think all we need to do is get behind whoever the manager is for next season. That could be Dean. They may choose to run with him or they may go for perhaps a up-and-coming manager that's doing well in another club and bring them across that way. So I think we've just got to get behind whoever the club decides to choose and then wait and see what the rebuild is and see if it's more of a different format of playing or whether it's more in the style of what Brendan was doing previously and take it from there. You talk about the style of playing in terms of the players you'll have here for that. Obviously there are a number out of contracts now the likes of Uri Tillermans can go for nothing. It looks likely you'll lose the likes of James Madison, Harvey Barnes. Are you concerned about all of that? To a degree but I think you've got to then look for those replacements and that's what the summer's all going to be about and obviously as you mentioned with Tillermans and Madison going there's the vast majority of creativity gone from the side in the midfield so we've obviously got to find a creative midfielder along with many other changes and I'm sure there'll be other players that go financially. They may want to go or the club may want to sell them and reinvest the money in a different squad. So obviously there'll be salary reductions might mean players want to go so I think when we turn up on August the 4th here if it's a home game we'll probably see as many more new players than existing players so it'll be a whole restart refresh. There's been a lot of negativity we heard the chairman saying he's had a lot of that in related to him in messages. We've heard people talking about worries about the finances and how much money you will actually have from parachute payments to go on players that kind of thing but you seem very positive. Why is that? Why the positivity? I think you've got to have a positive mindset. It's no good going to the start of the next season and being all doom and gloom. I think you've got to just get behind the club and build. I don't think as far as parachute payment is concerned yeah a lot of that I think may already have been taken to buy players at the end of this season so you've just got to rebuild with a different mindset and a different level of player for the championship really. I mean they're not going to be on the same salary. You may find some players in league one or the championship that we can take and build again and start again. I suppose it's because I've been a fan of the club for so many years. I've gone through it before. We've been in the one season in league one so I've seen it before. The disappointment is we thought we may have been an established premiership club that we're going to stay there for a long while and we haven't achieved that. So championship football next season. Do you hope this club, do you think this club can make an immediate return? Dean Smith talked about all the facilities you have here, that incredible training ground, this stadium. Do you need to be back in the next season? I mean I know Birmingham just achieved it this year but often clubs don't come straight back up and there's a lot of good size in the championships. I don't think we can bank on it but given the resources we've got and the training ground and when you're attracting players I think the training ground will be an attraction to bring players in. So I think there is an advantage to that but I don't think we can guarantee that we'll definitely go up next season but of course we'll all want that. Well thanks Ian. As I mentioned there, championship football next season. We've got the league one playoff of course this afternoon. Whoever wins that will be here at the King Power next season. They will and thank you very much indeed Kirsty.