A season in the life of a Leicester fan

Well whatever you say about being a Leicester City fan its NEVER boring & this last season more than any sums that up.

Just 12 months ago Milan Mandaric owned us, we were looking forward to the play off's after only 1 season back in The Championship, Nigel Pearson the manager, and we were finally looking forward, we hoped, to a period of stability.
We should have know better - shouldn't we!!

Whilst the play off defeat to Cardiff was a huge dissapointment, we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had exceeded our expectations in finishing top 6 after that aforementioned first season back in the second tier of English football.
In Pearson we had a bright young manager, one who knew the transfer & loan market. One that knew the limit's of his players & one that very much put square pegs in square holes. After years of unsuitable managers, Mandaric had seemed to have unearthed another Harry Redknapp.

The Mandaric started making noises about wanting new investment in the team. The Thai's arrived and oh how happy were we?
But hang on a minute it was all going too well. Rumours abounded about unrest at the Mill.
The Thai's it was rumoured didn't like Pearson's style of play. Pearson it was rumoured wasn't happy at being left out w=i the talks with the new owners. Mandaric it was rumoured wanted out asap!
Oh what would football be like without the rumours?

Well whatever happened & as usual with Mandaric, money buys silence so like with The Martin Allen dismissal we will probably never know the full truth. But Pearson threw his toys out the pram and left much to the majority of fans dismay.

So once again a new chapter started in the Life & Times of Leicester City FC.

Milan would eventually leave for another rebuilding job, this time at Sheffield Wednesday and The Thai's would take over completely, albeit with a third mysterious partner which in its self caused some rumblings at FA headquarters.
A lot of fans waved off Milan accompanied by a V sign, but I for one wished him well.
We have to remember that without Milan we probably wouldn't have a football club to support, or if we did it may may be trailing Crawley Town in the conference by now.

The arrival of Paulo Sousa was greeted with mixed feelings, although the majority seemed happy enough with the appointment. He had after all taken an unfashionable football club in Swansea City to 7th in the league the previous season playing the style of football that Abramovich is always shouting about wanting at Chelsea.

But this is Leicester, we know it's all going to go pear shaped, and so it did. An unimpressive start to the season not only failed to see us build on what Pearson had started the season before but we had actually gone into full reverse. September & just 4 league games into the new season saw us lose to a Portsmouth team we had managed to beat just3 days earlier in the league Cup.Not only that but Portsmouth were then bottom of the league, not only that but they beat us 6-1 & not only that we we then replaced them at the bottom of the league. It was all going horribly wrong.
The Thai's who had tried to buy our support by themselves buying the previous season's hero in Martyn Waghorn were beginning to feel the heat & along with Mandaric decided a change in the hot seat was needed.

But what came next not only shocked every City fan but probably every footy fan in England and further afield. Who should turn up at The Walkers but the ex-England manager, one Sven Goran Eriksson.
He turned the club round to such an extent that he had us all dreaming not only of the play off's but even automatic promotion.

The Thai's threw the proverbial cash around & in came big name loan signings & the odd permanent one and out went one or two as well.
The pantomime villain of the previous season, Kermorgant, had by now long gone, but I did, and too some degree still am bemoaning the loss of Matty Fryatt. Jack Hobbs too was a big name departure & Berner was only persuaded to stay at the 11th hour with a new contract. One or two 'fringe' players also departed. N'guesson Parks & Verma were loaned out with Neilson looking to stay at Brentford, mindful perhaps that the City faithful never really took to him.

But young prospect Andy King, midfield lynch pin Richie Wellens & penalty expert Paul Gallagher all signed new & extended contracts. This was the season that saw the rebirth of one or two players. Namely Oakley. Never it seems going to be first choice as a fans favourite, he returned towards the end of the season to score a stunning goal & earn consecutive LTID man of the match awards.

Of those players coming in, well again mixed results were the order of the day. Bamba became an immediate cult hero with a first touch, first minute goal against Premiership Big Boys Manchester City. Abe grew on people, becoming an important squad player and ending the season on a high with a superb goal against Ipswich. Vassell continues to be an enigma. The potential is certainly there but his light shines, whilst brightly, not often enough for a ex England player in my opinion.

Of the loanee's - Ricardo is the ultimate Marmite player. Brought in when it appeared Weale was doing nothing wrong, a string of high profile blunders resulted in calls for the return of Weale & accusations that these blunders cost is a play off spot.
Bruma proved he has yet to mature as a defender but had a man of the match performance with 2 goals when moved to a midfield role. Van Aanholt is another who flatters to deceive.
Roman Bednar was an unqualified disaster, as was local boy returned Chris Kirkland. Injury prone as the stopper is he surly out did himself when getting injured before he had even kicked a ball in anger for his new club.

Kamara, the striker brought in at the very last minute has had little time to impress while strike partner Yakubu from Everton had scored 11 since arriving in the January Transfer Window. A fact hat may yet convince Eriksson to make his move permanent.

Greg Cunningham impressed the fans before injury resulted in his return to his parent club earlier than most of us would have liked. But the undoubted success has been Kyle Naughton. A defender who likes to get forward & has a goal celebration that doesn't result in a yellow card. Unfortunantly, his success at City will probably mean a full time return to Tottenham Hotspur.
But that's how the loan system works. Players who prove to be good get taken back by their parent clubs, and this looks like what Leicester may actually do in regard to young prospect Jeffery Schullp who's excelling himself at Brentford.

Sven has stated, allegedly, that he hopes to sign permanently as many of his loan stars as he can. Well time will tell. But what we can be sure of is that over the next 3/4 months we are going to be linked with every available player going. With Heskey & Owen two of the top names to be linked with Sven I can only hope we don't end up going down the Martin Allen path & becoming a rest home for old & decreped ex Premier League players. Although I hope & believe Sven has more about him than the aforementioned Mr Allen.

The season itself had games of every description. The 6-1 loss away to Pompey was probably the low point, but it was run a close second by the debacle in the snow away at Ipswich Town. A game that I still believe proves that Sky run today's game & its no longer run by The FA. We proved again that we consistently fail to perform in league games in front of TV camera's with the loss against Reading recently. But the 5-1 win over Doncaster Rovers and the recent 4-0 drubbing of fellow play off hopefuls Burnley proved highlights.

The season ended with a 4-2 win over Watford, making us the team who has scored the most goals at home. I darn't look at the goals conceded stats though, and a final position of 10th.

So has it been a bad season?
If I take off the rose coloured spectacles then no. At 4.50pm on Saturday 25th September 2010 if you would have told me we would have an Ex England & Lazio Manager in the top job, and we would finish 10th after running Premier big spenders Manchester City to the wire I would, as they say, bitten your hand off.

The Thai's want Premier League football, sooner rather than later but will that come at a cost? Money can buy you short term success sometimes but not long term stability. QPR, one of the richest clubs in Europe have taken their time. It has taken them 4 seasons to get where they are today, Championship Champions, and they will, I believe, do well when they go up.

Blackpool proved you can go up with a good man at the helm. Holloway proved he wasn't the failure his Leicester days might have suggested, purely the right man at the wrong time per chance.

So lets not run before we can walk in case we fall flat on our faces. But I am not bemoaning what we have.
Money & Sven make a heady mix. Sven's got another year left on his contract with talk just a few months ago of him wanting to extend it.

We must hold onto him & our best players. We have the money to scare off potential vultures but only for so long. Sven & the players are ambitious and money wont mean that much if we stay in this division much longer.

But with continued Thai backing, Sven leading the troops, our best players staying & sensible & hungry new signings we have a great deal to be optimistic about for the forthcoming season.

But then again, how often have we said similar before?

Chris Forryan (fozza1)
LTID Editor