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davieG

The "do they mean us?" thread pt 3

By davieG, in Leicester City Forum

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Spudulike

Spudulike

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6 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

I think that was a real strength of ours from the time Nigel joined until lockdown hit. It always felt like we had a real togetherness in the squad and they enjoyed a beer or two together. This was then reflected on the pitch.

I dont know if we have that same mentality now, I don’t tend to see the pictures or hear the stories of them all out together.

Maybe that’s part of the problem

We see the darts group. 

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davieG

davieG

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31 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

He just chats bollocks. He's an absolute gobshite.

I don't think Jordan's that bad.

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HybridFox

HybridFox

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It's laughable how so many "experts" look at this season in isolation. There have been downfalls in every season Brendan's been here.

 

Granted the FA Cup and European football offset parts of it but the lows far outweigh the highs at the moment. Increasingly ruining any sort of legacy he had

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worth_the_wait

worth_the_wait

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5 hours ago, TK95 said:

It's laughable how so many "experts" look at this season in isolation. There have been downfalls in every season Brendan's been here.

 

Granted the FA Cup and European football offset parts of it but the lows far outweigh the highs at the moment. Increasingly ruining any sort of legacy he had

That's the thing.   Even some of he so-called "highs" were not what they seem.

 

The two 5th placed finishes were both disastrous endings to a season (when a Champions League top 4 place had looked a certainty).

 

The Europa League campaign in 2020-21 started well, but fizzled out to a very average Slavia Prague in the first knockout round.

 

The Europa League campaign in 2021-22 was awful - finishing 3rd in a 2 horse race between us and Napoli.  (Spartak Moscow and Legia Warsaw were both rubbish).

(so all this "reaching a European semi final" nonsense, disguises the fact that we shouldn't have been in the 3rd rate Conference competition in the first place!)

 

And even the FA Cup .... if you want to be a bit churlish, you could say our players enjoyed playing most of the matches in near empty stadia ... which helped our fragile mentality.  And the actual win was down to a couple of moments of individual brilliance ... a fantastic goal from Tielemans and a world class save from Schmiechel.  Plus a helping hand from VAR).   Not a tactical masterclass from Rodgers.   

 

(ok, I accept I'm being a bit harsh on our current manager.  But if he gets the plaudits for good times, he can take some stick when it's going terribly)

 

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The Bear

The Bear

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It's a relatively similar trajectory to Nuno under us. Took us to giddy heights in the Prem (two 7ths, European QFs and half decent football. Yes your bar was slightly higher though. 

 

But then came a lack of investment and the squad/team got a little stale resulting in struggling performances and results, culminating in Nuno's sacking. 

 

If its true that you can't afford to sack Rodgers, it would seem that Top is playing a waiting game. Once you get to a point when the situation becomes difficult to salvage in time and relegation is a real possibility, then he'll be forced to act regardless of the cost. That won't be until after the World Cup IMO, so you're stuck with him for the time being. 

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Sambiasso

Sambiasso

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Alistair Heath explains his decision to leave Leicester City’s academy to become the manager of Angkor Tiger in the Cambodian Premier League and reveals what he has learned from the experience of taking his first managerial job abroad

 

Tuesday 11 October 2022 15:29, UK

 

Alistair Heath was working in Leicester City’s academy but the young coach wanted something more. It is that desire to make the move into football management that has taken him on a journey to the Cambodian Premier League

For the past year, he has been in Siem Reap - more famous as the gateway to Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world - as the manager of Angkor Tiger. It is a role that has tested him on the pitch and off it but Heath has no regrets about his decision.

"I am a football manager," he tells Sky Sports. "If you ask 95 per cent of people in England if they would move to Cambodia you would probably get a lot of negative answers because it is not on a lot of people's lists. But this is what I have set out to be since I was 17.

"I did not have the fortune to play football professionally. The offer came and it was not something that I could turn down. Football management is tough. There have been a lot of sacrifices but it is probably the best decision that I have ever made."

He took a pay cut for this opportunity and acknowledges that was a gamble. "If I get the sack, what am I going to do? It was a risk but you have to take the risk, don't you, for the chance to get on?" There is not a long list of support staff for him to lean on either.

 

He has a Japanese assistant. "He is 28. A good lad." His German fitness coach doubles up as the physiotherapist. The side's forward, Leicester academy graduate Jozsef Keaveny, has been a useful sounding board despite being only 22. "There is not a big team."

But this is the path that he has chosen for himself. A former Birmingham City season-ticket holder - "I learned nothing watching them!" - his journey began as a teenager coaching Buxton's under-nines. "Even then, I was adamant I wanted to be a manager."

 

Two-and-a-half years were spent on a project coaching Thailand national team players aged from 16 to 21 as part of an initiative within Leicester's academy. When the pandemic ended that, Heath, 37, took up a role with the Premier League side's U14 age group.

"It was a good experience but I wanted to manage. Academies are all about player development, which is fine, but I love the thrill of winning a game of football. That buzz of being in charge of that team is something that I cannot get anywhere else.

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"I am like it when I play any sport. I run and I cycle. I swim but after 10 lengths I am bored. I prefer squash or racquetball. I need a sport where you are playing for points. It is all about that competitive nature. It is that 90 minutes in a different zone. I cannot explain it.

"So I got myself an agent and something in Cambodia came up and we started talking. I managed to get an interview but I did not think it would go far. I have been to Thailand so many times through work, I thought it would be the same but it is very different.

"I am working with a lot of players who have never left Cambodia. They know what they know and if you tell them to turn up at 8am, they are going to turn up at 7.45am. They work hard and will never stop. They keep going and going. But improvement is needed."


Heath is the English coach in charge of Cambodian side Angkor Tiger
On the pitch, it has been an education. The team is sixth in the eight-team Cambodian Premier League, at no risk of relegation but playing merely for pride with two games remaining. With crowds in excess of 3,000 people, there can be no let up.

"Early on, I thought we overachieved a little bit. We were attacking well. There was a lot of work to implement the style that I wanted and the highs outweighed the lows. Then injuries hit, confidence was hit, and all of a sudden we were conceding goals.

"It would not be an exaggeration to say that I have learned something every day. How to talk to players and manage different personalities. What to say and when to say it. Building the best squad. Dealing with losing. How to get that team-talk right.

"The big challenge is making decisions alone. I am questioning myself all the time because there is nobody else. I can speak to people back home but they can only give their opinion based on what I am saying not what they are seeing. I have had to criticise myself a lot."

He has enjoyed the support of the people. "I have been fortunate. The fans have been great with me. I interact with them a lot, I get stopped when walking around town. We might not have the budget to match that but the interest is absolutely there."

 

Heath has taken Cambodian side Angkor Tiger to sixth in the Premier League
But the biggest challenges have been away from football.

"From a tourist point of view, you would look at it very differently. Angkor Wat is the main point of interest, of course. People go on holiday and think, 'I could live here.' Nine times out of 10, they couldn't. Living here is difficult. It has been a tough way to learn.

"Being on my own. I have not got that support network around me. It is tough. Socially, it is difficult. I am a manager so I have to be careful if I go out. I don't drink. I take care of myself anyway but I certainly want to project a good image in terms of what I do.

"You have to be very single-minded to do this and be prepared that day-to-day life is going to be changed. You are out of your comfort zone and it is called the comfort zone for a reason - it is comfortable. You are breaking that. I found it difficult but I have done it.

Alistair Heath is the English coach in charge of Cambodian side Angkor Tiger
Image:
He has found working in Cambodia to be a psychological challenge
"I miss the activities in England, my mates, the sports that I played. You appreciate those things more when you don't do them. You suddenly lose a large part of what you do. How do you fill that void?

"I fill it by thinking about what I can do differently on the football field. Football management is 24/7. It has to be because there is always more that you can do and it has been constant football here. I have been shut away from everything else."

He is sure he will emerge from the experience better for it.

"I am confident," concludes Heath. "I have the belief. If I had started management in Europe, it would have been tough but here it is extra difficult. I feel that what I have been doing this season with no support network can act as the stepping-stone.

"I have just applied for the Pro Licence in Ireland. That opens doors. I want to manage at the highest level I can and I would like to manage in another country at some point. Let's face it, doing what I have done, I have shown that I am prepared to manage anywhere."

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12718050/alistair-heath-interview-leicester-city-to-the-cambodian-premier-league-and-a-first-managerial-job-with-angkor-tiger?fbclid=IwAR20npOnaUaLxJoITfCbBcs-8ae5AzvJPxN60gBdgRqek8whRFi6iuKcvcE

Edited by Sambiasso
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Nalis

Nalis

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14 hours ago, worth_the_wait said:

That's the thing.   Even some of he so-called "highs" were not what they seem.

 

The two 5th placed finishes were both disastrous endings to a season (when a Champions League top 4 place had looked a certainty).

 

The Europa League campaign in 2020-21 started well, but fizzled out to a very average Slavia Prague in the first knockout round.

 

The Europa League campaign in 2021-22 was awful - finishing 3rd in a 2 horse race between us and Napoli.  (Spartak Moscow and Legia Warsaw were both rubbish).

(so all this "reaching a European semi final" nonsense, disguises the fact that we shouldn't have been in the 3rd rate Conference competition in the first place!)

 

And even the FA Cup .... if you want to be a bit churlish, you could say our players enjoyed playing most of the matches in near empty stadia ... which helped our fragile mentality.  And the actual win was down to a couple of moments of individual brilliance ... a fantastic goal from Tielemans and a world class save from Schmiechel.  Plus a helping hand from VAR).   Not a tactical masterclass from Rodgers.   

 

(ok, I accept I'm being a bit harsh on our current manager.  But if he gets the plaudits for good times, he can take some stick when it's going terribly)

 

If this is what is said about our FA Cup win, you could comment and nick pick in the same manner about 99% of trophies won in football.

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worth_the_wait

worth_the_wait

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9 hours ago, Nalis said:

If this is what is said about our FA Cup win, you could comment and nick pick in the same manner about 99% of trophies won in football.

 

That's why I prefixed it with the caveat "if you want to be a bit churlish, you could say ..."

 

I don't give two hoots how you win a trophy.   Once your name's engraved on it, that's it.    Job done!

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Fox92

Fox92

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10 hours ago, Nalis said:

If this is what is said about our FA Cup win, you could comment and nick pick in the same manner about 99% of trophies won in football.

Exactly this.

 

I agree with the rest of what OP said but Cup finals are won (and lost) on individual moments.

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filbertway

filbertway

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1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

Exactly this.

 

I agree with the rest of what OP said but Cup finals are won (and lost) on individual moments.

Which is why it's mental to attribute the trophy so much to the manager. Especially when Iheanacho and Kel were the driving force behind the run and then Youri and Schmeichel were the heroes in the final. 

 

Sven and Puel deserve about as much credit.

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Nalis

Nalis

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2 hours ago, worth_the_wait said:

 

That's why I prefixed it with the caveat "if you want to be a bit churlish, you could say ..."

 

I don't give two hoots how you win a trophy.   Once your name's engraved on it, that's it.    Job done!

Yeah thsts a fair comment 

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Fox92

Fox92

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On 17/10/2022 at 09:02, filbertway said:

Which is why it's mental to attribute the trophy so much to the manager. Especially when Iheanacho and Kel were the driving force behind the run and then Youri and Schmeichel were the heroes in the final. 

 

Sven and Puel deserve about as much credit.

Well obviously the manager is the manager, he's guided the team. If he didn't then we wouldn't need one lol

 

To discredit him isn't fair when the same people (rightly) criticise him. My point was that pretty much all Cup finals are decided on a single moment, whether it be a goal or a great save. People who criticise Rodgers just seem to think it happened to us, something that isn't fair.

 

 

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worth_the_wait

worth_the_wait

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2 hours ago, Fox92 said:

To discredit him isn't fair when the same people (rightly) criticise him. My point was that pretty much all Cup finals are decided on a single moment, whether it be a goal or a great save.

 

To be strictly accurate, it's probably fairer to say "many, or even most, Cup Finals are decided on a single moment"  (rather than pretty much all)

 

Since the Premier League era started (yes I know football didn't start then) ... in the last 30 years ie 60 domestic FA and League Cup finals.

34 have been decided by one goal.

17 have been settled by more than one goal

9 went to penalties

 

Whether or not the penalty shootouts were "close" (ie decided on one kick or one save), it shows that quite a few final were still "comfortable" wins ie not by a single goal.

 

I'm not disagreeing with your main point, btw.

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HighPeakFox

HighPeakFox

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On 17/10/2022 at 09:02, filbertway said:

Which is why it's mental to attribute the trophy so much to the manager. Especially when Iheanacho and Kel were the driving force behind the run and then Youri and Schmeichel were the heroes in the final. 

 

Sven and Puel deserve about as much credit.

Iheanacho AND Kel? 

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Astleyfox

Astleyfox

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On 17/10/2022 at 07:22, worth_the_wait said:

 

That's why I prefixed it with the caveat "if you want to be a bit churlish, you could say ..."

 

I don't give two hoots how you win a trophy.   Once your name's engraved on it, that's it.    Job done!

True though. 

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