The "do they mean us?" thread

[Guest MattP]

Article in The Times today...
 

 

Can Leicester City pull off one of the most unlikely title wins English football has known? George Caulkin asks the locals

What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by — Richard III, William Shakespeare
 

There is scrubland where Lineker Road meets Filbert Street; rubble where it all began. From the remnants of Leicester City’s old ground, between the terraced rows, past a single outcrop of student flats, there is a clear vista to the King Power Stadium a few hundred yards away. Walk closer and you can make out the piercing blue of the exterior, the word “Fearless” illuminated in white.

 

Fearless is daubed inside the dressing room, too — as a Twitter hashtag, naturally — and if anything can encapsulate the club’s blissful rise over the past ten months and how that growing confidence is mirrored in the city, perhaps it is this. “It’s incredible, a fairy story,” Alan Birchenall, the club’s ambassador, said. “I call it ‘Walt Disney’. Can we think the unthinkable?”

 

After 24 games last season, Leicester were bottom of the Barclays Premier League. “They were gone,” Gary Lineker said. “No chance of staying up, barring a miracle.” “Nobody gave them a prayer,” Micky Adams, manager when they moved home in 2002 and then stumbled into administration, said. “You just thought, ‘That’s it,’ ” said Gary Silke, of The Fox fanzine.

 

A baffling, beautiful year on, Leicester are top. On Tuesday, there was a vibrant 2-0 victory over Liverpool. Next up: the second-placed Manchester City, then Arsenal. It feels like a moment, although there have been a few of those. “The miracle came and it carried on,” Lineker, a former player, the club’s honorary vice-president and, through it all, a supporter, said. “It’s mad.”

 

Silke considered the context. “It’s been really good fun up until now,” he said. “Now it’s starting to get a bit scary. I’m beginning to wonder.” At the start of the season, the odds of Leicester winning the title were 5,000-1. “Strangely, it makes you more tense than floundering somewhere near the bottom as normal,” Lineker said. “It’s a different vibe. And one we’ve never experienced as a club.”

 

Leicester have never been champions, never lifted the FA Cup. Martin O’Neill was manager during “a most glorious time”, securing promotion in 1996 and leading them to the League Cup twice. He was also a player under Brian Clough at nearby Nottingham Forest. “My team won the odd thing and we never finished outside of the top ten. This side has the potential to emulate and surpass what we achieved,” he said.

 

“I’d rather draw comparisons with the team I played for. Forest scrambled up in 1977, signed a couple of splendid players and took off. People were saying, ‘It’ll blow up, it’ll blow up,’ but at some point it became obvious that it wouldn’t blow up.” Forest won the league and League Cup that season.

 

Before and since O’Neill? “Yo-yo, up and down, s*** — that’s how it’s been,” Lee Jobber said. He is a big man of 36, who works in special needs education, beats a drum at the stadium on match days and is covered in tattoos; a club crest across his back and, more unusually, Mary Poppins (“my favourite film”), in a Leicester scarf. “You can’t make sense of this,” he said.

 

Earlier that day, Jobber had stepped inside Leicester Cathedral for the first time in his life. After being discovered in a nearby car park, Richard III’s remains were reinterred there on March 26. Silke had gone to the service. “You could feel the weight of history,” he said. “It’s shaped us a little bit. Look up the road; they’ve got Robin Hood. Perhaps we’ve got somebody now.”

 

Since the king’s reburial, Leicester have lost three league matches, a coincidence that reflects a general sense of renewal. After walking around the tomb, Jobber began talking to Rebecca Hale, a volunteer manager at the cathedral and a season ticket-holder. A thought occurred: why did Jobber not have a Richard III tattoo? “Leave it with me,” he said.

 

“The team were going through a bad patch when Richard was reinterred and perhaps there was less focus on that,” Hale said. “It’s possible that the good feeling, the pride, rubbed off. I wouldn’t go further than that, but it does feel like there’s a correlation. The odds were against finding Richard, and Leicester City are the great underdogs, too.”

 

“Even when it was doom and gloom a year ago, we hadn’t been playing that badly,” said Birchenall, who played for a swashbuckling Leicester side in the 1970s and, on and off, has been associated with them ever since. Adams spoke about the “siege mentality” forged by Nigel Pearson.

 

Before Leicester played West Ham United on April 4, supporters found cardboard clap-banners attached to their seats with elastic bands. “You thought, ‘Oh God, corporate fan stuff,’ ” Silke said, “but it made a lot of noise and it lifted everyone.” The team won 2-1 and what began as a novelty is now a tradition, one that costs the club £12,000 every game.

 

They have fine players, too. “Good scouting,” is the alchemy, Birchenall said. “Steve Walsh Sr. I won’t laud him too much because I don’t want other clubs trying to nick him.” Jamie Vardy, who scored that lustrous goal against Liverpool, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kanté cost about £7 million between them (“I spend more on my packed lunch,” Jobber said), while Esteban Cambiasso, one of last season’s heroes, has not been missed.

 

The players have knitted under Claudio Ranieri, Pearson’s successor. “Sometimes a team just comes together like a jigsaw,” Silke said. “They’ve been wisely picked, they’re asked to do what they’re good at and they love each other. And the manager has got a very light touch.”

The same applies to the club’s Thai ownership. The wider football world looked askance when Ranieri was appointed (after four dismal games in charge of Greece, including a home defeat by the Faroe Islands), but within the city it is different. “They’ve got the money, but they’ve also got manners; they do everything right,” Silke said. “They’re perfect.” Jobber agreed.

 

Birchenall played at Filbert Street, but he leads an informal tour of the King Power, accompanied by John Hutchinson, the club historian, with brio. “Birch” is full of garrulous tales, of how he became a friend of Elvis Presley’s bodyguard when he played for Memphis Rogues, of kissing Tony Currie, of offering to play Lionel Richie in the dressing room and, in return, Vardy threatening to dump him in the communal bath (they still have one).

 

He attends the funerals of 20 to 30 Leicester fans a season; the memorial garden that flanks the stadium was “his baby.” He can remember “the desperate years, the doldrums, administration, people leaving the ground with their stuff in boxes, the third tier, not being able to afford a shoelace”. It was as recently as 2008-09 that they were out of the top two divisions for the only time in their history.

 

The place is transformed, the training ground, the stadium. There is difference; Buddhist prayer flags flutter behind every part of the ground (apart from the away end), but the past is embraced, too. Old shirts and programmes hang everywhere. “I look at Chelsea, who I played for, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and they’re corporate,” Birchenall said. “Maybe it sounds a bit fingers down the throat, but we’re family. It’s a close-knit thing.”

 

The combination is powerful. “Up until now, I’d say our best season was 1962-63,” Hutchinson said. “With five games to go, we were top of the old first division, FA Cup finalists and odds-on for the Double. We didn’t win either. This side is every bit as good and the style is quite similar; fast, counterattacking. The big differences are the infrastructure and the finances. It’s not just the team, it’s everything beneath. It’s sustainable.”

 

He disputes the idea that Leicester is a rugby town. “Going into administration and dropping down the leagues coincided with the Leicester Tigers doing well, but it’s urban myth,” he said.

 

“We’ve had good days and bad days, nobody really interested, and now we’ve had Richard III and people have noticed a bit,” Birchenall said. “And then because of the reach of the Premier League, suddenly we’re global. We’ve overtaken Richard III! We’re not just that little place next to junction 21 of the M1 any more. When you hear those words on a Saturday night, ‘Leicester City are top’ you think, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s such a sweet sound.”

And it is no longer fantasy. As O’Neill said, “If ever there’s a season to do it, this is it.”

 

Lineker, whose early heroes were Frank Worthington and Peter Shilton, first went to Filbert Street with his dad and grandfather; three of his four sons are Leicester fans, “and for them, it’s magical”. The euphoria is intoxicating; on Twitter, the former England striker, who has a street named after him and is a freeman of the city, promised to present the first Match of the Day of next season, “in just my undies” if the team win the title.

“I hope I have to do it,” Lineker said. “I did say ‘undies’ which hopefully means I can wear a vest, because I don’t think the nation needs to see my nipples. But I’d have to do it and I’d be thrilled to. Unbelievably embarrassed, but thrilled.”

 

[Lestoh]

Apparently we were rejected by Ronaldinho on deadline day, as if he'd actually get a game

[Captain...]

This is superb. I too love it when Vardy puts the ball at the intersection of the stakes.

 

I can't decide if this is my favourite bit:

 

"A gesture from star players, combining technique to naughty."

 

Or

 

"but really will try to pull? Come on. Come on, my ass"

 

And I must have missed the bit when Mahrez ran over and groped Marcin on the bench:

 

"in the first half, Mahrez had touched the pole"

[goose2010]

Apparently we were rejected by Ronaldinho on deadline day, as if he'd actually get a game

 

It was the other way round we rejected an option to sign him.

[Koke]

The absolute refusal to believe there might be some truth in this is so typical of some on here.

Vardy scored 5 goals last season, if Pearson thought he could upgrade on Vardy he would obviously let him go, as would any manager.

But Sheffield Wednesday though? Remember Vardy had gotten an England cap just prior to that. I find it hard to believe that he'd been sold to a mid table Championship club. And not to mention we rejected a £5m bid from West Brom 6 months earlier.

It's possible but unlikely IMO.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

"Pearson wanted to sell Vardy last summer..." 

 

People don't actually believe this utter bollllocks do they?

[The Doctor]

The absolute refusal to believe there might be some truth in this is so typical of some on here.

Vardy scored 5 goals last season, if Pearson thought he could upgrade on Vardy he would obviously let him go, as would any manager.

It's obviously bull though - he was in the England squad and had ended the season strongly as comfortably first choice. Pearson wasn't an idiot, he'd not sell his first choice striker, certainly not to the championship and not for that price when an England cap adds a few million to your value. There's a difference between keeping your mind open to possibilities and letting your brain fall out

[Jimbo]

I can't decide if this is my favourite bit:

 

"A gesture from star players, combining technique to naughty."

 

Or

 

"but really will try to pull? Come on. Come on, my ass"

 

And I must have missed the bit when Mahrez ran over and groped Marcin on the bench:

 

"in the first half, Mahrez had touched the pole"

 

My childish instincts make this my favourite part

[Fox92]

"Pearson wanted to sell Vardy last summer..." 

 

People don't actually believe this utter bollllocks do they?

 

I hope not given Pearson was a major influence in telling Vardy to stay.

[Maybes]

The ignorance of pundits & journos who think Mahrez's pass to Vardy was an aimless hoof is astounding.

 

If they'd watched us regularly they would know that we look for that pass often, and you can see Vardy on his bike as soon as Mahrez gets the ball and Mahrez knows exactly where to put the ball because he knows the space Vardy will be running into.

 

If it'd been Di Maria last season it would have been 'world class', 'incredible vision' etc etc

[Maybes]

Spurs and Palace fans seem to be a breed apart.

Palace seem to have the delusion that they are bigger than they are.

Spurs are just fecked up, an entire generation has grown up playing with Arsenal owning them year in year out. That has bred a special kind of bitterness. I see a similar thing with Everton fans, even though your closest rivals haven't actually been great they've been consistently better than they have.

Arsenal and Chelsea have a few dicks but for me Spurs and Palace are streaks ahead in the competition for London's biggest twats.

 

Where have Palace gone anyhow? Thought they'd bagged a champions league place about 6 weeks ago, hence why they stopped playing. Tinmen.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

...Pearson was a major influence in telling Vardy to stay.

 

He believed in him, even after that first Championship season. He told S Walsh snr when he joined that JV would go on to play at the very highest level.

[Bayfox]

"Pearson wanted to sell Vardy last summer..." 

 

People don't actually believe this utter bollllocks do they?

 

So eloquently put geoff

[Nick]

Wolves Fans with nice things to say - some interesting neutral perspectives, esp. on Page 2:

 

http://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=96489

[Captain...]

Wolves Fans with nice things to say - some interesting neutral perspectives, esp. on Page 2:

 

http://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=96489

 

Interesting how other fans view it, but what they and others have missed about our success story is that it has been a long time coming and has been the result of long term plans put in place by the owners and Pearson Shakespeare and Walsh and not just one thing that happened this season.

 

When the owners first came it wasn't an instant success on the field, but off the field they were putting the work in. Brand new state of the art facilities heavy investment in the academy and training ground and support staff, and with Pearson invested a lot of time and money on sport science and scouting departments.

 

Our success hasn't come from nowhere we had the set-up then we bought the players. Typically 2 types of players, young hungry and with something to prove, or experienced players that have seen it all and can pass on their experience. We have shown patience and a desire to nurture talent players like Vardy and Drinkwater could very easily have been cast aside by other clubs after poor seasons.

 

When you look at the squad Morgan and Drinkwater have been here 4 years, Vardy, RDL, James 3 and a half, King, Kasper, Schlupp have been here even longer. That is a core of a squad that have benefitted from developing together. Add in Was and Mahrez that is 10 players that won the Championship. More importantly 10 players who have had years of being given the best medical/fitness/training/nutrition support money can buy.

Edited 4 February 2016 by Captain...

[ramboacdc]

It was the other way round we rejected an option to sign him.

i thought that was robiniho? 

[Fox Ulike]

Interesting how other fans view it, but what they and others have missed about our success story is that it has been a long time coming and has been the result of long term plans put in place by the owners and Pearson Shakespeare and Walsh and not just one thing that happened this season.

 

When the owners first came it wasn't an instant success on the field, but off the field they were putting the work in. Brand new state of the art facilities heavy investment in the academy and training ground and support staff, and with Pearson invested a lot of time and money on sport science and scouting departments.

 

Our success hasn't come from nowhere we had the set-up then we bought the players. Typically 2 types of players, young hungry and with something to prove, or experienced players that have seen it all and can pass on their experience. We have shown patience and a desire to nurture talent players like Vardy and Drinkwater could very easily have been cast aside by other clubs after poor seasons.

 

When you look at the squad Morgan and Drinkwater have been here 4 years, Vardy, RDL, James 3 and a half, King, Kasper, Schlupp have been here even longer. That is a core of a squad that have benefitted from developing together. Add in Was and Mahrez that is 10 players that won the Championship. More importantly 10 players who have had years of being given the best medical/fitness/training/nutrition support money can buy.

 

Good post.

 

I think our scouting network has been phenomenal.

 

Three of our current first team (Simpson, Albrighton, Huth) were not wanted by 3 lower Premiership clubs.

 

And it wasn't as if we had to fight off a load of other clubs to get Fuchs signature, nor that of Kante.

 

Drinkwater was playing for Barnsley and unwanted by Man United. He'd walk into Man United's first team right now.

 

In fact, if you remember back when Leeds sold us Schmiecal their manager (Grayson) said that it was because they wanted to sign a better keeper.

 

That's a whole team of players no-one else wanted! That is some motivation for all of them, and somebody somewhere at LCFC has a phenomenal eye for spotting a player. I just wish we knew exactly who it was!

Edited 4 February 2016 by Fox Ulike

[Corky]

I do think the squad being together for a while is helping. For many years we had a revolving door and too many short term loans, now we have players who are into their 5th year with the club and they can get a feel for the place and build a rapport with the fans.

[MC Prussian]

The Transfermarkt users have selected their Team of the Week, and three LCFC players are in the starting line-up, with Vardy being chosen for the sixth time in total so far:

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/team-of-the-week-english-players-dominate-selected-xi/view/news/226108

 

Notice Ranieri as the Manager of the Week.

[foxoffderby]

Wolves Fans with nice things to say - some interesting neutral perspectives, esp. on Page 2:

 

http://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=96489

 

Wolves fans are great. Hope they come up soon. Fantastic fan base.

[My Nads]

Has Barcelona ever played against a team as good as us though? I reckon we could beat them over 2 legs with the away goal rule.

I've been thinking about us playing Barcelona for a few months now and I've convinced myself we would beat them! I'm sure we'd do better than Arsenal or Man City would against them. Europe is about to get a big surprise.

[Kinowe Soorie]

Wolves fans are great. Hope they come up soon. Fantastic fan base.

Not a fan myself...

[davieG]

You will win it, you can win it - Jeremy Vine's letter to Leicester

 

 

• 30 minutes ago

• From the sectionFootball

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Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri used to manage Jeremy Vine's beloved Chelsea

BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has been a Chelsea season ticket holder for 20 years.

Dear Leicester City fan,

Can you take a moment to spare a thought for me, a beleaguered Chelsea supporter? I just saw my team fail to score against Watford. Let's put that in context: we are Premier League champions, and we cannot find the net at Watford. We don't even know where the net is. Eden Hazard ought to be wired up to a sat-nav.

So it has finally dawned on me. Chelsea are not going to be champions any more, maybe not for many years. I can now admit something I have been in total denial about. For the sake of my children I will keep pretending to believe - keep turning up at games and shout for Chelsea. But our campaign is over.

So at some point the question has to be answered. If Chelsea can't win the league, who do I want the crown to go to?

Today I tweeted a picture from my account, saying I want Leicester to win the league.

And naturally I got abuse from the kind of people who lose their T-shirt as soon as they see a pint of real ale. "Plastic fan," replied someone with too much time on his hands, "u should only care about your team."

This is my reply: I do. But I want Leicester to win the Premier League because my team can't.

This week you took Liverpool apart. Your pair of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez have 31 league goals between them, more than all the Reds combined. You are performing the kind of high-wire act not seen since the French daredevil Philippe Petit strung a cable between the Twin Towers and crossed it without a harness.

Every week we expect you to fall; to go down 7-0 like Gary Neville's Valencia just did. But every week you stay on that cable.

When you played us in December I totted up the total cost of your players. I made the total bill £23m. Chelsea's, by contrast, was £215m. I was so embarrassed I hid my jottings in a coat pocket. You then beat us 2-1, adding injury to insult and meaning your scoreline was 19 times times cheaper than ours on a pounds-per-goal basis.

I tuned into 5 live's 606 show that week and heard a Leicester dad called Lee weep on the line with Robbie Savage, who used to play in midfield for your team. The man cried as he described his beloved LCFC going from last to first in the league in just 12 months. "I'm welling up," he told Robbie. "This season is just unbelievable, pal."

Leicester, like Philippe Petit, have not faltered

His son, he explained, grew up with all his friends supporting teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and...Chelsea. He told his boy to hang in there with Leicester because one day things would turn. When the Foxes finally reached the summit of the Premier League, Lee said, "My son looked me in the eye and said: 'Dad, dad, amazing, absolutely amazing'."

Lee then told Robbie: "You can't tell me we haven't got a chance of winning the league."

The broadcaster replied: "Lee, how can I tell you that you can't win the league after that?" I seem to remember the man crying as he said goodbye.

So I am going to go even further than Robbie. Leicester fan, your team can win the league. You deserve to win it. You will win it. And you will win it because I, and many thousands of others, are secretly willing you to, because it's the closest thing to Roy of the Rovers we've ever seen. You've made the teams we support look like a bunch of bungling amateurs, and, despite my pain, I love you for it.

Yours sincerely

Jeremy Vine

[goose2010]

Just read that on the bbc website, really enjoyed it and I do think we have the full backing of all football fans out side the premier league and if not a few in the league to!

[Koke]

Wolves Fans with nice things to say - some interesting neutral perspectives, esp. on Page 2:

http://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/vb/showthread.php?t=96489

Someone brought up the Spurs game last season on Boxing Day (I just remember we could have nicked a draw late on but failed yet again). Vardy went from being an unused sub that day to being the first name on the team sheet now.

This guy's will to improve and become better is astounding. He has improved tactically, he makes more intelligent runs, his finishing and composure has improved. Compare that to someone like Theo Walcott who has the tactical awareness of an academy player and footballing IQ of a League One player, despite being at Arsenal for ten years and training with world class players.

It really is a shame that Vardy is 29 years old.

Edited 4 February 2016 by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar