The Official Leicester City thread

[Bonefish Blues]

Indeed, I guess he does, but it struck me as a world away from the Billy Big-bks football manager syndrome IYSWIM.

[Robertj21a]

Just shows what happens when the football industry is faced with a decent man. Presumably, it's such a rare event that they don't know how to handle it and would rather get rid of the 'problem'.

[BlackLabel]

From the BBC football page....

Beeb said:

#bbcfootball
Posted at 16:21
Ivan Strakhov: If Chelsea draw/beat Swansea today, Leicester mathematically cannot retain the title.

[so called]

Leicester Loyal said:

Very classy statement from Claudio, a top bloke, but let's not pretend the owners have kicked him and his family out onto the street, he's been given a 3 million pound pay off!

Our owners have been better than we ever expected and I trust them to make the right call.

Maybe you would trust my great uncle John Reginald Christie too.

[Robertj21a]

Perhaps that nice Tony Blair could come along and tell us, yet again, where we all went wrong without him in charge of........well just about everything. I'm sure he would have Leicester back as champions in no time at all.

[smn159]

Robertj21a said:

Perhaps that nice Tony Blair could come along and tell us, yet again, where we all went wrong without him in charge of........well just about everything. I'm sure he would have Leicester back as champions in no time at all.

Tony Blair can be blamed for a lot of things but I'm not sure that Leicester being st this year is one of them

[Leicester Loyal]

so called said:

Maybe you would trust my great uncle John Reginald Christie too.

Funny.

Owners sacked Sven, got Pearson in, got us to the Prem, sacked him, got Claudio (much to the humour of the press) and then we won the league.

They've also written off over 100m worth of debt and purchased our stadium for us.

[Trabi601]

Leicester Loyal said:

Funny.

Owners sacked Sven, got Pearson in, got us to the Prem, sacked him, got Claudio (much to the humour of the press) and then we won the league.

They've also written off over 100m worth of debt and purchased our stadium for us.

You've become the kind of club you used to hate.

[Hackney]

technodup said:

If Ranieri had got you 15th last year and 15th this, you'd be hailing him as bringing stability, good base for a push, all that stuff. He's got you a Championship, last 16 of the CL and you're not in the relegation zone. If you want/expect more than that it is you guys who are out of touch. By a country mile.

Absolutely. Leicester have found their level (struggling around the relegation places) but because they had an incredibly good season some fans and the players expect them to be top four year in year out.
They're deluded.

[Sparkyhd]

Not sure if I agree with this or not but it's an opinion.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/02/leicester-rig...

It's hard sometimes to work out who should get the credit

Ranieri had bought Cech and Lampard and appointed Terry as captain for Chelsea so effectively built our legendary spine, then Mourinho rolls in and takes all the credit. Leicester were on a roll at the end of Pearson's reign then Ranieri arrives and is hailed a magician.

Wenger was only a success whilst life remained in George Graham's back four.

Only Ferguson can be allocated credit with certainty because he kept rebuilding teams so it had to be his own work.

[Leicester Loyal]

Hackney said:

Absolutely. Leicester have found their level (struggling around the relegation places) but because they had an incredibly good season some fans and the players expect them to be top four year in year out.
They're deluded.

Not one of our fans expect us to be top four year in year out.

I don't know what's hard to understand, it seems like most fans of other teams were happy for us to keep Claudio aslong as we went down just because it's a fitting end to the 'story'.

Winning the league, spending 80 million pounds and then getting relegated is not good enough, I don't care what happened in the previous season. If it was your club, your opinion would be completely different. Why keep Claudio when it was obvious we were going down? It's so clear everyone commenting doesn't watch us week in week out, the body language of the players says it all, they knew we were going down. An unnamed player even announced in the bar after one of our games that we were 'f*cked' due to what's going on at the club.

[technodup]

Leicester Loyal said:

Winning the league, spending 80 million pounds and then getting relegated is not good enough, I don't care what happened in the previous season.

Stop going on about the £80m ffs, it's chickenfeed these days. You're a bottom half team in the bottom half, which is where you always are and should be, bar last season's miracle. Look at how much Sunderland, Newcastle, Villa or any of the other bottom feeders/yo-yo clubs have spent and what they have to show for it.

Leicester Loyal said:

An unnamed player even announced in the bar after one of our games that we were 'f*cked' due to what's going on at the club.

That unnamed player should man the fk up or fk the fk off. A group of journeyman stehawks knifing the manager who won them the league in the back? Body language wrong? Cliques grassing the manager to the board? fk me.

Self important primadonnas who got found out. In more ways than one. A disgrace of a club, hopefully a few seasons in the championship will teach them a bit of grace and humility.

Last season was wonderful and got worldwide coverage because Leicester are a essentially a diddy club. You might do well to remember that and come back down to earth.

[Leicester Loyal]

Sorry for having ambition, I'm sure Man City thought the same after their first title win, one miracle, then lets go back to the lower leagues.

Goodnight mate

[Adam B]

A lot of holier than thou and self-righteousness going in here from other fans.

I have some sympathy with LL's views.

Something has gone very wrong in the dressing room and none of us know who it's down to, so it's easy to blame the players (overpaid selfish tts, plus Vardy is a scumbag) and not CR because he comes across as a lovely bloke.

Similar thing happened at Chelsea last season but players were forgiven because JM comes across as a dick.

I don't think any Leicester fans thought they would repeat the miracle but if I was one of them I would have hoped for some momentum that would have secured mid table. Yes they all would have taken winning the premiership plus relegation two years ago, but once EPL won none would have settled for relegation.

Do you show loyalty to a dysfunctional manager/team even if you get relegated or bite the bullet? If someone comes in and wins a couple (not starting v Liverpool please) then it was the right decision however unpleasant it seems. Staying up must be worth £100m or so now and that has to be the #1 aim.

Edited by Adam B on Sunday 26th February 10:07

[Trabi601]

Leicester Loyal said:

Sorry for having ambition, I'm sure Man City thought the same after their first title win, one miracle, then lets go back to the lower leagues.

Goodnight mate

City spent a hell of a lot more money on building a title winning side, then a hell of a lot more to stay at the top.

The only comparison between the situations is that the clubs are willing to sack managers for fun.

[Sparkyhd]

Not sure I quite get the outpouring of grief.

There's a limited pot of managers playing musical chairs, big Sam an exponent.

They get paid squillions for doing the job and more squillions in pay offs even when they fail horribly.

[technodup]

Leicester Loyal said:

Sorry for having ambition, I'm sure Man City thought the same after their first title win, one miracle, then lets go back to the lower leagues.

Goodnight mate

Jesus. You're now comparing Leicester to the City team of Tevez, Aguero, Dzeko, Silva etc which cost about £300m? That wasn't a miracle.

I'm all for ambition, nothing wrong with that at all. But there's no point in Sunderland dreaming about winning the CL, it's not going to happen. My club had big ideas about European success, spent money we didn't have, pulled all sorts of stunts and we ended up in the bottom league. Leeds did similar.

Ambition should be realistic, and barring last years freak, Leicester's should be PL survival/mid table and a go in the cup. On that basis, given you're a 1-0 away from a CL Q/F, and weren't in the bottom three I'm really struggling with your expectations.

For some reason this has really pissed me off. I loved last year, loved the press conferences, loved the 40 points mantra, the staged goals, the story, the fairytale. Was gutted when Welbeck scored that late one. But take it as it was, a freak. Remember it, but forget it too. Don't judge every new team and manager against last year. I think back to our teams of Gascoinge, De Boer, Laudrup, Van Bronkhurst and the rest, and it was fking brilliant, but it wasn't real.

[Adam B]

Sparkyhd said:

Not sure I quite get the outpouring of grief.

a) miracle of last year made Leicester everyone's 2nd team
b) Ranieri comes across as a lovely bloke, unusually so in the game
c) its an easy embodiment of all thats rotten in modern football, ie influence of money over honour

Edited by Adam B on Monday 27th February 12:40

[Leicester Loyal]

Adam B said:

A lot of holier than thou and self-righteousness going in here from other fans.

I have some sympathy with LL's views.

Something has gone very wrong in the dressing room and none of us know who it's down to, so it's easy to blame the players (overpaid selfish tts, plus Vardy is a scumbag) and not CR because he comes across as a lovely bloke.

Similar thing happened at Chelsea last season but players were forgiven because JM comes across as a dick.

I don't think any Leicester fans thought they would repeat the miracle but if I was one of them I would have hoped for some momentum that would have secured mid table. Yes they all would have taken winning the premiership plus relegation two years ago, but once EPL won none would have settled for relegation.

Do you show loyalty to a dysfunctional manager/team even if you get relegated or bite the bullet? If someone comes in and wins a couple (not starting v Liverpool please) then it was the right decision however unpleasant it seems. Staying up must be worth £100m or so now and that has to be the #1 aim.

Edited by Adam B on Sunday 26th February 10:07

Spot on, someone that understands where Leicester fans (the majority that go to the games, but not all) are coming from.

There's now talk of Pearson coming back

[Alfahorn]

Leicester Loyal said:

Our owners have been better than we ever expected and I trust them to make the right call.

Your owners are very much part of the problem. Leicester City are a club in decline on and off the pitch. I know of people who work at the club including someone who has worked at Belvoir Drive for many years. I have even seen some of the nonsense that gets communicated by the club internally.

The club awarded journeymen footballers fat contracts and silly sports cars at the end of last season whilst forgetting to reward others who work for the club. This has created a less than harmonious situation within the club let alone the playing staff.

Claudio Ranieri has been let down by the players and the owners of Leicester City without question. When Leicester won the Championship in 2014 Pearson was in charge, he remained in charge right throughout the following season even though the club were bottom for 6-7 months. The decision to include Mahrez and Vardy later in the season brought about a change in fortune.

Claudio Ranieri won the Premier League. 9 months later Leicester are 17th in the Premier with 12-13 games left and they sack him. Why did Claudio not get afforded the time Pearson was?

I think the supporters who have been calling for Ranieri to be sacked are ungrateful and undeserving of the success they enjoyed last season. Leicester are Leicester, a yoyo club, one season in the sun where they achieved the impossible dream doesn't change that.

It was a heck of a ride but now supporters and the club have got ideas well above their station frankly.