Most English clubs would kill for Leicester's problems. They are the defending league champions; they are in the top four in this season's Premiership; they have suffered only one defeat at the halfway point in a tough European pool; and they have a brand spanking new stand. A bleak Sunday in central France might have raised nagging questions in the minds of their supporters but it rarely pays to dismiss a wounded Tiger.
It is, however, undeniable that England's most successful club of the past two decades are enduring a lean spell, and that a great deal rests on Saturday's fixture against Clermont Auvergne at Welford Road. A chastening 40-30 defeat by the French team on Sunday was the Tigers' fifth straight away loss. The last time that happened in one season was in 1983-84.
Never before has a Leicester side shipped 40 points in a European fixture. Without three slightly fortuitous tries in the last 10 minutes, after Clermont had sat back on a 35-9 lead to light a collective cigar, it would have been a pasting to rank alongside the 33-0 humiliation by Ulster at Ravenhill in 2004 which hastened Dean Richards' demise as director of rugby.
The situation now is subtly different. Pinning the blame on Richard Cockerill would be harsh, given that the head coach - who celebrates his 39th birthday tomorrow - is serving a four-week ban from match-day involvement. There is also the small matter of Clermont's €10m (£8.9m) wage bill, compared with Leicester's salary cap of £4m.
"The French clubs can put a big squad together better than the English clubs in the present climate," said Peter Wheeler, the Tigers' chief executive, yesterday. "It's an obvious difficulty. I also don't think there's a bigger test in European rugby at the moment than Clermont away. Even with all their subs on they're still a pretty formidable side and they got into us pretty early. Mind you, it's not often Clermont concede 30 points at home, either."
The former England hooker, who has been around Leicester long enough not to panic prematurely, also pointed out that the Tigers' squad has been ravaged by injuries .The club captain, Geordan Murphy, the Lions Tom Croft and Harry Ellis and England's Julian White, Dan Hipkiss and Richard Blaze were missing at the weekend.
"We had virtually our strongest back line but most of them have been out injured recently and they'll need two or three games together," said Wheeler.
Other personnel issues refuse to go away. Jordan Crane is big and strong at No8 but at the highest levels he is not yet a dynamic, match-turning force, or an obvious strategic giant. The same is true of the lock Louis Deacon, while on the flank, Lewis Moody cannot win games on his own every week, particularly against sides who switch the point of attack as expertly as Clermont. In their pool matches against Les Vulcans and the Ospreys, Leicester have conceded an average of 36 points per game. They are leaving themselves an awful lot to do.
Even more worrying, however, would be a worsening of the economic situation, just when the club have stretched themselves to build the Caterpillar Stand.
"It was built at a difficult time in the economy but we're making it work," said Wheeler. "The stand is there forever and will be a benefit forever but it's been built for big European Cup games and you want to be playing in that competition for as long as possible."
The unspoken message is clear. Should the Tigers fail to qualify for the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup or falter in the Premiership, the financial knock-on will be real enough. Consequently, the English champions could do with underlining the Heineken Cup's reputation for producing results which seemed barely conceivable in advance.
"You can get some pretty big turnarounds," said Wheeler. "When we suffered that 33-0 defeat in Ulster we beat them 49-7 the following week. The pool's not finished yet."
There is also no suggestion of team spirit ebbing away – tonight, for example, sees the launch of Ben Kay's testimonial year at a ladies' night with a Stars in Your Eyes theme. Keep an eye out, girls, for an English World Cup winner dressed as Elvis and another current international forward doing an uncannily good Rod Stewart impression. Also available to raise funds is a naked calendar, in aid of Help for Heroes, with strategically-placed headgear protecting the players' modesty. Crisis? What crisis?
