LEICESTER TILL I DIE

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LTID

The Leicester till I Die Interview - Alan Young

Yak Not Young Enough

Former Leicester City striker Alan Young has never been one to mince his words.

His punditry style on BBC Radio Leicester has been enjoyed by Leicester fans all over the World, from Beaumont Leys to Los Angeles and the Scotsman is relishing his new role.

The man signed by Jock Wallace in 1979 is reigniting his relationship with the fans that watched him then forging new ones with the next generation of fans that listen to him now.

“We’re live all over the World. Czech Republic, Australia, Los Angeles, Canada, it’s unbelievable. I have a Facebook site running now and the comments of support have been brilliant”

Young’s expert commentary is based on his experiences as a hard working centre forward, a fashion of striker that isn’t seen often enough these days, especially at Leicester City.

Nigerian striker Yakubu was the usual choice to lead City’s frontline last term and his work rate raised issues with many fans, one of them being the big feller in the press box. Young’s concerns over the Nigerian’s fitness stem from the player’s attitude toward it.

“I watch his warm up and it’s a disgrace. When you warm up your preparing yourself for combat. You need to get your muscles warm, your blood pumping and your heart beating so you’re ready for the game. He doesn’t do that. I look at him and he looks like he has hamstrings worse than Eddie Kellys!”

Young may have finished his rant on a light-hearted joke but the point he makes is one that was clearly evident in the strikers work rate, or lack of it, last season. The Scot wouldn’t mind a pre season session with Yakubu either to help amend his flaws.

“If I could get him into a pre season I’d tell Derek Fazackerley to run his bollocks off. When he’s on the floor and being sick, pick him up and make him run again” “Fitness was a big thing in my time at Filbert Street. Jock used to say if you can’t run you can’t play. Fitness is such a huge, huge thing in football”

It’s an area of the game that Young knows all too well is imperative to a professional footballer.

“In my first game at home to Watford, we won 2-0, I scored both goals. I felt so fit and strong. When you feel like that you want to impose it on others. I had Steve Sims marking me that day so when they won a corner I’d shout to him, Simmsy you lazy bastard, come on I’ll race you back”

The no nonsense, tough tackling striker is sadly a rare breed in English football these days but on 104.9fm on a Saturday afternoon you’ll find one screaming down your headphones.

Young himself claims he’s very optimistic about City’s chances of promotion next season and the fans will be hoping he has a lot more to shout about in his coming commentary sessions.

David Cockcroft, June 2011

That brought us down to Earth

Ok who out there are betting people?
Anyone have a few hundred quid on Craig Mackail-Smith joining Brighton & Hove Albion?
If anything it shows there's no betting scams in English Football Transfers as I don't think anyone would have taken the said bet bar a few die hard B&H Albion fans.

When you look at all the rumours & news stories it seemed that CMS was destined for big things.
The top goal scorer in the top 4 English Divisions, the world it seems was his Oyster.

Premiership new boys Norwich City & QPR were apparently chasing his signature armed as they were with their Sky Millions.
West Ham who were still to get their Sky 'Parachute' Millions, albeit less than the aforementioned two clubs entered the race closely followed by our own Leicester City & Sven armed as he is with his Thai millions.
Reports surfaced that Peterborough had accepted our offer and talks had taken place.

Even the Peterborough Chairman came out and said it looked odds on that CMS would be making the short journey down the A47 to The Walkers.

But then the delays started. Could personal terms not be agreed? Had another club made a last ditch bid ?
Well the second was the case, but I would never have believed that club would have been Brighton.
I was expecting a Premiership club at least.

Surly only a team of Premiership standing could blow us out the water when it comes to transfers.
After all, we had beaten The mighty Glasgow Rangers to the signing of Neil Danns, and we were competing to beat Premier League Clubs to the signatures of Routledge, Mills, Nugent & Pilkington.
We are in the hunt for World Cup Stars from the likes of South Africa. Our manager is the ex England manager Sven Goran Eriksson & we have money to burn.
We were being linked still with Yakubu & a host of Premiership loanees.

How could any player not not want be part of the Leicester City revolution ?

Well CMS did. Choosing Brighton over us was a shock to my LCFC system.
He had chosen a club that had just come up from League 1. The journey he had only just made himself with Peterborough.
A club that was, in fairness to them, a lot smaller than Leicester in fact a club that was probably not much bigger than the one he was leaving.

But seeing them move into a new stadium and an ambitious manager turned Craig's head so it seems.
I would put forward the fact that of all the teams mentioned Brighton would be the place he would be first choice on the team sheet week in week out was the main factor in his decision.

He would have looked over at The Walkers and seen what had happened to the likes of Matty Fryatt, one time LCFC top scorer but sold by Eriksson and to the likes of Martyn Waghorn, one time crowd favourite but far from being a regular starter for The Foxes.
And of course, we all know Svens reputation for tinkering with a wining team.

But this was also a wake up call that at the end of the day we are still Leicester City.
Still just a Championship side albeit hopefully only for one more season.

Lets get realistic and say we are a way off getting every player we want just because we are Leicester City with Sven & The Thai's millions.

Chelsea are still trying to buy the Champions League title & will probably go through every manager available, and not in some cases, before they do. Blackburn Rovers bought the title for one season but precious little else & look where they are now & Manchester United tried to buy the title for years & couldn't but found a certain Scottish manager, had a little luck & patience and the rest is History.

So thank you Craig for this wake up call.
You have done what you feel is best for you, and I kinda respect you for that

For Leicester fans, well keep the faith in Sven. CMS was untried at this level and you could say was overpriced for an unproven Championship Striker. A player who may have turned out to be no better than Matty Fryatt.

Fozza1
LTID editor

KEEP THE FAITH - Transfer activity or lack of it

All clubs have their motto's. Ours as the title suggests is Keep The Faith.
That is something City fans have more than learned to do over the past few decades.

However The Faith is being well and truly tested at the moment.

When Mandaric sold Portsmouth there were big promises made by the new owners. Money was going to be no problem and they planned to take the club to Europe & beyond.....

Sounds familiar?

We were told Sven would be given unlimited funds to get the players he wanted to take us to The Premier League & beyond.
And yet here we are over a month since the season ended and not one new signing in place, no immediate prospect of any of last years loanees returning and to add insult to injury players actually leaving the club!!

So as things stand at the moment our squad is smaller & weaker than the one that failed to get us promotion last term.

Lets face it we shouldn't really be worried, its early days, players and managers are on holiday. But, and its a big but, agents it seems never go on holiday!!
All we keep hearing is that we can't sign The Yak cause of his wage demands, negotiations are stalling over Nugents wage demands, Naughton looks to be staying in London albeit with QPR and its down to wage demands.

Well we should have expected it. The Thai's come in shouting about how they are going to spend to Leicester where they want them, so isn't it only natural agents & players are going to up their demands when Sven comes a knocking?

Look back at the Mandaric / Allen years. Money spent, not very wisely but spent none the less as those players & agents who answered their door to Allen immediately doubled their value, and stupidly looking back Allen paid it.

Allen was like the kid on pocket money day in the sweet shop - thankfully Sven is not like this!

Look back at the Premier League / Taylor years. Having been successful in the top flight winning trophies so with money to spend Taylor went a looking for a new squad. He tried to do a Martin O Neill & find hidden gems in the lower league (Junior Lewis, Trevor Benjamin et al) - he couldn't. What money he spent on great prospects was badly spent - Ade Akinbiyi for example

Taylor was good at coaching but absolutely usless when it came to finding & buying his own players aka managing - thankfully as we have seen Sven is not like this!

Look back at the Championship/Premier League / Martin O'Neill years. A manager who had his players respect. A manager who could get star names to Leicester who could still play (Cottee), a manager who could pluck unknowns from bigger clubs reserve teams (Izzet), a manager who could go digging at less fashionable clubs and find a gem (Lennon).

Sound familiar?

For Cottee read Yakubu. For Izzet read Naughton, for Lennon read Bamba.... well I think you get the picture.

Martin was never one to rush into the transfer market. We learned that. But when he did he bought well.
So lets not shout too loudly at Sven just yet.

Is Sven another Martin? I believe he could be

Yes I am like every other City fan getting impatient at the lack of transfer activity, especially when our so called targets are being snapped up by other teams. Maybe the club bought the fans discomfort on themselves by shouting too loudly about signings.

Yes I am asking myself is the money really there?
But Leicester I am convinced is NO Portsmouth.
They level of commitment from the Thai's since their arrival last term convinces me they do have the money & desire.
Top is at many games and I truly believe that Sven has curbed their enthusiasm to 'spend spend spend' going for a more sensible approach.

You don't I believe win things with expensive over paid has beens.
You have to get the mix right. Youth & experience together ala Heskey & Cottee.

Lets learn from the golden years of Martin O'Neill who DID get the nix right.
Do we have stars coming through the youth academy? After all they didn't have a bad season last term themselves did they?
Yes we are losing players but are they not the players we have been shouting to get rid of all last season ?

This coming season promises to be one of the most exciting season in many a year for Leicester. I haven't felt this excited since Mandaric brought in Martin Allen. But deep down I know that Sven will be sensible and get the right players in at the right price.

Lets not overspend on the house and not be able to furnish it. Spending too much to get to The Premier League could leave us with nothing to send once we get their.
And as teams have found out when you go up to the top division you need TWO teams -
one to get you there & one to keep you up.
So you need to make sure that there is money left for the latter.

QPR one of the richest clubs in the country did not buy their way instantly to the top. Despite having some of the richest owners in the country they bided their time to get promotion. They spent but not madly, they got the right manager who chose the right players to get them

Never has the Leicester City saying be so true - KEEP THE FAITH!!

2010/11 A roller coaster season

The 2010/2011 season was one to be met with huge expectation at Leicester City.

After returning to the Championship at the first time of asking under a new tenure led by Nigel Pearson, City had narrowly missed out on a back to back feat, losing in a heartbreaking play off semi final penalty shoot out to Cardiff City in South Wales.

The disappointment was overshadowed by pride in what our overachieving team had done though, and under Pearson the Blue Army felt that this team would realise the dream of Premier League football once again.

A summer of turbulence was to follow though.

Over Leicester’s unsuccessful play off semi final fixtures, club Chairman Milan Mandaric had invited Swansea City manager Paulo Sousa as his personal guest. The former Portuguese international was a close friend of Mandaric and Pearson smelt a rat.

Just over a month after the defeat in Cardiff news was spreading that Nigel Pearson had left Leicester City to join recently relegated Hull City as manager.

“I was quite surprised at Nigel Pearson’s departure. But that is in the past and now we have to look for what’s best for this club and to replace a good manager with a good manager” said Milan Mandaric.

Things didn’t add up though and once the information leaked about Sousa being invited as Mandaric’s guest to Leicester’s final two games of the campaign, the realisation set in that Pearson didn’t really leave Leicester on his own accord.

The inevitable appointment was made. On Wednesday 7th July Paulo Sousa was installed as Leicester City manager. A new regime began with the same ambitions as the old one had ended. Promotion was the target.

Sousa employed a new patient style of football at Leicester, totally diverting the team from Pearson’s compact counter attacking system. The new reign at the Walkers Stadium was not hitting the ground running by all means and after an opening day defeat at Crystal Palace, Sousa’s Leicester did not taste victory in the Championship until September 14th, the clubs sixth league outing.

Patience and football do not go hand in hand in English football and that win against Cardiff City on September 14th would be Sousa’s first and last in the Championship.

Inbetween a League Cup victory at Fratton Park against Portsmouth came a 2-0 home defeat to table toppers QPR and an embarrasing thumping at the same ground the club had tasted success on just days before. Portsmouth got revenge for their cup exit, a 6-1 verdict had the knives out. Sousa was on borrowed time.

Four days after the Portsmouth massacre saw Leicester lose again. Norwich City overcame a resiliant Leicester fightback to win 4-3. Leicester had conceded 10 league goals in under a week and Carrow Road was where it ended for Paulo Sousa.

September 28th 2010, Leicester City held up the Championship table, four points from the safety zone. A season that promised so much was rapidly turning into a nightmare.

The new Thai led consortium that had bought into the club in August were seeing their investment flop in a devastating manner. A statement needed to be made to shake up the fortunes of Leicester City.

With Sousa gone, coaches Chris Powell and Mike Stowell took charge for the visit of Scunthorpe United. A 3-1 victory for Leicester at the Walkers, only their second of the campaign, saw the club rise from the bottom. More notably than the result came a face in the crowd. Former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson had been heavily linked with the vacant post at Leicester and the Swede was present for Powell and Stowell’s first and last win in charge at the club.

Eriksson was soon appointed Leicester manager and the clubs fortunes were quick to change with it.

Inbetween cup exits to Premiership sides West Bromich Albion and Manchester City, the latter resulting in a pulsating couple of games ending in a reply at Eastlands, came an unbeaten run at the Walkers Stadium in the league that would stretch for 12 games, 8 of which Leicester won.

The run had catapulted Leicester City from the bottom three into ninth, five points from the play off placings. Sven Goran Eriksson had not only ended any fears of another relegation season to League One, he’d reinstalled the summer hopes of promotion to the Premier League.

Eriksson’s run of form was dented mainly by promotion chasers QPR, Norwich City, Reading and finally Nottingham Forest as the season drew to it’s conclusion. A 3-2 defeat at the City Ground in late April ultimately ended Leicester’s languasing hopes of a top six finish.

A season that started with dissapointment was unfortunately to end in the same manner but the resergance inbetween will surely stand Leicester in good stead for next season. The ambitions of Premier League football will again be the driving force come August and this time the club won’t be starting over again.

With a high profile manager and money to spend, Leicester City have already been installed as second favourites behind West Ham United to win the Championship next season.

Last years hopes and ambitions were pinned on a manager we didn’t know too much about but with Eriksson’s feet now firmly under the Thai bought office table, this summers hopes and ambitions are warranted.

As ever, ‘this could be the year’.

David Cockcroft, June 2011
For Leicester till I Die
Twitter - @DavidJCockcroft

Change of Scene for Leicester City

Why a shake-up behind the scenes at Leicester City could lead to success on the pitch......

Leicester City announced today that Lee Hoos had been replaced as Chief Executive Officer of the club after a three year spell with the Foxes. Susan Whelan, the Senior Executive Vice-President of King Power, will replace Hoos, while Simon Capper replaces Mark Johnson as Finance Director as part of a "management restructure".

What does this all mean? Well, all this may not seem as exciting as the speculation surrounding potential big name targets for Leicester City, but these changes off the pitch are just as significant in providing the best possible opportunity for a successful season on it.

The changes at the top could have been forecasted; when Vichai Raksriaksorn became club chairman in August last year following the takeover by Asia Football Investments, it seemed inevitable that King Power would eventually bring in their own backroom staff. The departure of former chairman Milan Mandaric at the end of 2010 was the beginning of the end of these adjustments, and now that the Raksriaksorns have their chosen personnel, it should provide stability - which is what Leicester City needs after a season of adjustments on and off the pitch.

Fans need not be concerned. The restructure is taking place as the most appropriate time. This scenario means that everybody involved in running the club behind the scenes at the Walkers Stadium should be on the same page when it comes down to making decisions that affect the club on the pitch. It also provides Leicester City with a solid level of experience amongst its backroom staff. It is a wise decision made at the right time.

Of course, although it puts Leicester in a good position, it does not ensure anything during the 2011/2012 season. Susan Whelan believes there is still work to be done, telling LCFC.com that "[the club has] the foundations set in place for success, but it is now important that everyone continues to work hard…to deliver success as we enter an exciting new era at Leicester City". It should also avoid any potential mid-season shake-up as experienced last season with Paolo Sousa, Milan Mandaric and even Chris Powell leaving the club in a short space of time.

All of this, combined with Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager of Leicester City, gives Foxes fans a reason to be optimistic. With the preseason fast approaching, the speculation over summer signings is likely to continue. But now, at least, the groundwork has definitely been laid down.

Simon Poole for Leicester till I Die
http://simonpoole84.blogspot.com/

LEICESTER TILL I DIE 2010/11 SEASON AWARDS

You cast your vote....the results were counted....and the winners are.....

THE 2010/11 LEICESTER TILL I DIE SEASON AWARDS
as sponsored by Cult Zeros - the LCFC T-Shirt you willw ant to be seen in

AND THE WINNERS ARE...........

1: PLAYER OF THE SEASON

RICHIE WELLENS

2: YOUNG PLAYER OF THE SEASON

KYLE NAUGHTON

3: BEST LOANEE

KYLE NAUGHTON

4: MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

PAUL GALLAGHER

5: PLAYER MISSED MOST

ALEKSANDAR TUNCHEV

6: GOAL OF THE SEASON

SOL BAMBA V MANCHESTER CITY

7: GAME OF THE SEASON

LCFC V MAN CITY FA CUP

8: TURKEY OF THE SEASON

PAULO SOUSA

Leicester till I Die would like to thank everyone who voted via both the Webiste & Facebook page.
Here's to 2011/12