MarriedaLeicesterGirl

Are we actually... leading????

On many levels, yes. But I still think the summer of 2016 - after we won the Premier League and was in the Champions League - was horrifyingly bad.

Clubs will always take advantage of the loopholes they find - the Big 6 certainly do! But the drop was horrible in many ways. For goodness sake, we had been fairly regular in Europe for a few years, and won three trophies in under a decade! Yet the PSR rules were suffocating us (as they were meant to) yet clubs that won less than us (<< cough, cough>> **Spurs**) get away with murder.

So, anyway, a few months ago, I mentioned I had a massive stroke (cerebral hemorrhage on both sides of my brain). One year ago, I was learning to walk again at the General, after spending two months at the Queens and City in Nottingham (much of it in a couple of comas, but when awake in Nottingham I was suffering from delirium - which greatly affected my wife, so if you are the praying type, please say one for my family). I am a bit self-obsessed in general, and nearly dying (three times! The stroke was supposed to kill me, the vascular surgery was supposed to kill me, and the heart valve replacement was supposed to kill me) hasn't really helped me overcome my infatuation with myself. I managed to walk for 5 miles the other day, and even went by the stadium. I also have added a clip from my latest medical review from the post-critical care unit. (And now you know I have one of the most common last names in the English-speaking world.) I miss going to the games with my two boys. But I share this because, mentally, I feel like I have to talk about it ... and my family is sick of me talking about it to them.

I have an appointment at City Hospital on Monday - should I put on my Leicester shirt?

Finally on Twitter (X) - WOW!

They sent me an offer to buy a ticket at 5:30 pm!

I have always said I am so glad he plays for Leicester, because if he didn't play for your team, you would have to hate him - and I'd rather die than hate him. (I was having major medical issues last year and missed the drop because I was in a coma. Saw this game in a pub - first time to watch a game live in well over a year. It was truly special to see him score. Truly all I could ask for.)

I am planning to go see this one at the pub - it will be my first sports visit since my stroke! (It seems if you have a brain bleed, the scars make you prone to seizures, so have spent months building myself up to groups- sadly had to stop going to the actual games due to this). I hope the boys surprise me!

I was so happy when we signed him. But a guy I knew in Scotland hated him - warned he only cared about himself and that he would have a good season or two and then destroy the atmosphere at the club. I should have believed him.

The weirdest thing about Musa is that we actually made money selling him.

Kaputska - poor kid. Should have gone to a much smaller league, and maybe been able to build himself up to Germany or France. We broke his confidence, and then his body.

Slimani was such a weird one - he seemed amazing at first, and then was constantly injured. We would "get better" when Algeria named him, and then get injured while playing for his country. If he had stayed healthy and was fit into a system, I think he might have excelled - but as it happened, he kinda earned the Donkey status.

Growing up I liked baseball and American football. I watched one NBA game and a few high school games - basketball wasn't my thing. When I was in my 20s, I loved the (awful) local minor league ice hockey team. I strangely loved watching lacrosse, which is big at the high school level, okay at university level, and a joke at the (semi) professional level. The problem with football (the soccer one) is that it is a "anyone can play" youth game - it literally is hugely popular because children with no abilities are guaranteed playing time! The biggest supporters of the MLS are either born in foreign countries (and watch the Mexican league more often) or had a semester abroad and want to tell everyone about it for the rest of their lives - the only names they know are Messi and Ronaldo. It will never be super popular in the US without becoming a more US sport (like the MLS is attempting with playoffs and such), but US owners are willing to destroy the European game to become, maybe, the 4th most popular sport in the US.

The biggest problem, really, is that the US owners are competing with three huge American sports - American football, basketball, and (more limited) ice hockey. Both at the professional level and the college level. There is a reason the MLS plays when it does. The most viable money maker would probably be a longer summer UEFA World championship held in the US over 6 weeks. It would be a technical "real competition" but serve as a pre-season tournament for the European teams. It also gives a playoff, which Americans think is necessary to have a "real" champion. Football (the American soccer) just isn't anything but a class-statement in the US, and won't get the same support as American sports (people visit international Rugby matches, too, but don't really follow it. Lacrosse? Don't get me started.) But there is no sport in the US that has a true league champion - and that is what everyone should be worried about - the desire American owners have for a play-off system.