In our 125th anniversary year, Leicester City find themselves in the second tier of English football. We’ve been here before lots of times. In fact, for the last 125 years the Foxes have spent a total of 57 seasons in what is now called the Championship.
We are of course one of those in-between clubs; a decent size fanbase of loyal and devoted individuals, a lovely modern stadium, which has all the original characteristics of a Tesco Value potato (oh Filbert Street), and with the right leadership - the potential to be guided to and achieve relative success in the Premiership. There are a number of these teams these days some in the Premiership, most in the Championship and a few in League One (let's all laugh at Leeds).
A stint in the unknown last season in League One was as refreshing as it was successful. After a few years pretending we could hash together a team made up of wretchedly mediocre players and get back where ‘we belong’, finally City succumbed to the inevitable embarrassment of the drop. Milan Mandaric rightly forced Holloway out and took a chance on little Nigel Pearson, bizarrely unemployed after saving Southampton from a relegation they fully deserved. Under Pearson’s guidance City barely put a foot wrong and what’s more began rebuilding a team with an emphasis on youth, but combined efficiently with experience and the odd loanee.
“I want to see Pearson's men continue to improve and build, focus on youth and quality not money and names (DJ Campbell, £2.1m???)”
My worry though lies with an unnerving reliance on goals from Matty Fryatt and Steve Howard. Essentially the strike force which couldn’t score the goals we desperately required when relegated. To their credit they both have experience at this level and are clearly decent players. More importantly, Howard scares the crap out of everyone and Matty shaves his head a lot, which is cute. The real focus is on Fryatt, he did everything to illustrate how good he is in League One last term but will know full well that this year he HAS to step up or face the harsh reality that he has found his level.
So, three games into the new season and things are looking good. A win against Swansea and two draws away from home to Ipswich and Sheffield United, the latter including a classic Fryatt finish and the former looking increasingly less respectable given Ipswich's struggles, hopefully proves we have a team capable of competing.
The Championship though, is full of teams capable of competing. There are about 24 of them every season. This is why we love the Championship; everyone can beat everyone there’s no big-f*cking-four, just a bunch of middle-of-the-road teams with real fans (ironically dreaming of a crack at Sky Sports’ Premiership) and average players. Budgets still dictate quality but the beauty of putting together a team of substance on an absolute shoestring remains.
Play Offs are realistic but the very English pessimism within tells me to calm down or I’ll eat my words. In reality for me, this season is about improvement. I want to see Pearson’s men continue to improve and build, focus on youth and quality not money and names (DJ Campbell, £2.1m???). I definitely do not want to see Milan’s media-loving face very much because that will probably mean he’s sacked another manager. Jerk.
|