Qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League secured, Claudio Ranieri sent a second string team to Portugal for Leicester's final game of the group stages against Porto.
The Portuguese side still had qualification for the next stage to play for. They played like it, destroying the Premier League champions 5-0.
Ranieri had been hoping his fringe players would want to ingratiate themselves ahead of an important period of fixtures for the club. They played like that was an irrelevance.
On ITV's Champions League highlights show, Roy Keane said that signs of diminishing desire from the Leicester players have been there for months. European form may be good but domestic form is not - they currently sit just two points outside of the relegation zone.
The warning signs have been there for the last few months with their league form and to me, the basic fact is they have lost their hunger. The hunger they had last year. They have had a bit of success and in a sense it is hard to be critical of them, but you look at their manager, and he seems to be a very placid man. He looks really frustrated. He must be scratching his head, him and his staff.
I think his players are trying. It’s not like they have downed tools or anything like that, but their real desire not to get beaten has all gone out the window. We saw them last year at set pieces, that desire not to get beaten, that's all gone out the window.
Football is all about good habits and they have lost all track of what they should be about. Their DNA last year, their work rate, it’s gone.
After a momentous title-winning season, Leicester players were rewarded with lucrative new contracts. Keane believes that this could be a factor in their poor form.
Over the last few months, we see a few of their players getting rewarded with new contracts. The financial rewards are fantastic and that can destroy a club. Too much money too soon for some of these players and they take their eyes off the ball and they are in big trouble.
It's a massive challenge for everyone at the club. They had all the plaudits last year, fantastic. Now you've got to dig in and see what you're really about.
