Guy

True but a bit like with the Maddison missed penalty against Everton last month, then Soyuncu being frozen out by Rodgers for most of this season before Smith could have been the difference between staying up and not, had Amartey not started and played in all of those games under Rodgers this season!!

I'd say this is the most likeliest and least fanciful of outcomes that could be decided in days from now, not weeks, although still no guarantees as of yet of course. Big Nige has said himself on numerous occasions in the recent past that the LCFC ship has long since sailed and that he's happy building what he's still in the stages of doing at Bristol City appparently, provided the board there have the continued patience to stick with him I suppose if they finally start a promotion push under his tenure - as they seem to have sold their best players lately and are now seemingly treading water....so there's a very outside chance he might still be tempted to come back here for a third spell if offered but still highly unlikely.

He'd have probably ended up a bench warmer there had he gone to them in 2016....

I was glad to see the back of Rodgers too, to put it politely - but it was just way too late! I suppose most fans of a certain vintage here still don't hold Rodgers in as lower regard as they did with P.Taylor 20 or so years previously simply because of the fortuitous FA Cup triumph and the two 5th place finishes (albeit falling from top 4 grace on both final days of each successive season from seemingly impossible positions to do so - especially the first time!). Then again P.Taylor, though largely despised by most who were about during that era wasn't on £10million (?) a season or holding the club to ransom at any point if you like, even though some despised his incompetent management overall and after his shipping out some of our stars (as they spoke out or he didn't like them).....such as Ian Marshall, Tony Cottee, Stan Collymore, Steve Walsh and Steve Guppy - and replacing them with the likes of Lee Marshall, Akinbiyi, Trevor Benjamin, Denis Wise.....and Junior Lewis, urgh!!

Wow! When I said sacking Ranieri when Vichai/Top decided to was the only thing that was likely to save us from going down one year exactly after winning the league, I got pelters from various people I know on my Facebook - but it was kind of proven of course with our sudden turn around under Shakey' stemp. charge thereafter (even if that didn't carry into the following season) and the more dynamic style was back after Ranieri had lost the plot and was playing a more defensively minded impotent style of football instead once Kante had gone instead, to no avail! I think it was after the goaless draw with Middlesbrough just into the New Year in 2017, one of my mates exclaimed in a text to me "how did that team (us) win the league last season?!". I agreed with him! Fast forward to this/last season then it was a pity Top didn't act at the same time as they did with Ranieri in 2017 (in the February) but I suppose we'd just had those two unexpected back to back wins at the time over Villa and Spurs and were still in the FA Cup, all to provide yet another false dawn and for that sadly to have justified keeping Rodgers on for longer. After Sourthampton away though early the following month then that should have been the final straw, not a month later effectively against Palace away! I know Nacho missed those three sitters at St Mary's but that was more a reflection on how the whole team had played that day (and of course conceded the decisive goal). Others say it was the slow appointment of Smith and Shakey (too little too late), that sent us down re Sadler and Stowell being in charge for those two defeats to Villa and Bournemouth but I think the main damage was done after the said Southampton away game and yet still persevering with BR for another damaging whole month.....! Makes Lineker's opinions on Sunday night all the more absurd now really when saying what he said!

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Benitez would definitely be a Top-esque appointment.....very much in the mould of Ranieri being so IMO. Also a good shout in present circumstances rather than had we hired him straight after Rodgers as a firefighter as we did with Smith (and Shakey). However I don't think he'd come and still think that Smith and Shakey will get first refusal on merit, mainly because of them being good enough to step in after the mess Rodgers left behind when nobody else seemed like they wanted to (Marsch, etc). Obviously most would point to what Rafa did under Ashley at Newcastle when he got them up and then finished 10th in the Prem. Also here he would have a better owner to answer to instead of course...

I just watch the show for the highlights to be fair, not really for what the various pundits and Lineker have to say thereafter - although Shearer does at least talk some sense on there! Amazed that Lineker was still banging the "maybe they should have kept Brendan until the end of the season" drum (to save us from relegation), when BR was the one who created this eventual mess in the first place - scary!!

Nice one, first black player to play a full int. match for England I believe. By opposite contrast to yours then mine was a 4-1 win against West Ham during the latter part of the season before, Lineker scored I think along with Lynex and Bob Hazell. We started dreadfully that season and looked dead certs to go straight back down but were sublime for part two of it, as reflected in the scoreline and performance that day! Low crowds back then though....

54 and seen a lot - including that 0-5 reverse at Filbert Street to newly promoted Bolton (incl. Ian Marshall as a sub) on the opening day of 2001-02 season! Oh dear Peter Taylor! Good post though! First game for me at Filbert Street was in 1984

It won't be easy next season and I can't see us doing a Burnley.....although I can't at this point see a successive relegation from the Championship. I guess it largely depends on who our manager is going to be me thinks....as I'm assuming we won't know until the dust settles a bit. Whether it's Smith to be kept on with Shakey, or somebody else they need to be installed asap and get to work for what is going to obviously be a demanding season next at a different level. As another poster said the three teams who went up last season have stayed up (mostly by virute of the bottom three, us included having been atrocious!) and we've got Leeds and Southampton with us again this time who like us will be both keen to erase the memories of this season asap - and none of us have been yo yo teams in recent seasons. Then there's all your Championship potboliers (your Millwalls, Prestons, Blackburns, Cardiffs, Birminghams and Stokes) to do battle with plus teams with momentum who will ultra keen to do well and not just consolidate, like Plymouth and Ipswich. I can't see relegation but at the same time I can't see us bouncing back in the automatics either.

I was just being general and putting it into perspective really minus the 'passion' attachment or perhaps a wee bit less from the self entitlement "too good to go down" angle.....and nobody's more disappointed than me at our relegation after an unbelievable past nine years. As for 'the positions' you refer to that we've been in .... then over the past two seasons they have hardly been great ones have they? No investment last summer, shite recruitment the summer before that, criminal infact (Daka and Soumare plus two Saints rejects to show for it back in 2021). Maybe this so near, yet so far (to staying up) episode, was simply an accident waiting to happen after the past two years.....sad all the same but as I said life and football both go on to the next cycle! Also Covid did us no favours either re investment connected to King Power empire. nor persisting out of indecision and/or blind loyalty with Rodgers with it for a season too long but we'll just have to see what lies in store for us now. All we can hope it for better times ahead than this season as things stand at present.....and it's not as if we're strangers to tier two football after all. I suppose what you were saying is that we don't want to resume our yo yo club status and become the next Watford or Norwich, which although a possibility isn't a prospect to relish, fair play if so.

Indeed. We're simply returning to where we were a mere 'decade' ago (2013-14!), aka the Championship/tier two which to some of us over 50s is a bit like yesterday returning to what we were well accustomed to yesterday afternoon still. Disappointing after nine mostly decent-exceptional Prem. years but hardly the end of the world in the grander scheme of things. We were never going to be able to compete with the orthodox 'top 6' establishment on a regular basis before it all went pear shaped last season and this besides really. The fact that we won the Premier League against the greatest odds ever and the FA Cup for the first time ever will obviously never be forgotten anytime soon by most of the football world and they have to be milestones in our archives but that's all they now are - history, even if recent history! As you say part and parcel and on we go with the next cycle, be whatever it is as it may!

Daniel Iversen!

I would love to share your optimism but it's been such a terrible season that it's hard to share even a smidgen of it! - and I just hope we don't end up with Smith's successor next season in charge, Gerrard!! Sorry for his mention again! I think many on here may be hoping Mark Robins may finally leave Cov. for us after yesterday's disappointment for them but a hard one to call and it depends on a number of things, not least what league we'll be in! Many thanks for your best wishes towards Foxes though, all the same! I 'hope' it helps come evening time but if not - then thanks anyway!!

Should never have fallen this far from grace in just two seasons after the FA Cup win with mostly all the same players (albeit bottling top 4 at the very end of the same season - again!), even if things had gone stale in that time under Rodgers since 2021. Even the 'dustcart season' after the Lord Mayor's Show of winning the Prem and nearly getting relegated for a time before Ranieri was sacked was in a way more forgivable re the hangover effect, even if there wasn't much in it!

I think that's very much the overall feel here towards Smith too, even though it may pan out to be much shorter term than his time in charge at Villa if the board don't see him as the long term answer after today - regardless of what league we'll be in next season. He comes across as a nice enough guy but I suppose a lot of us look at how he fared at Norwich after his swift appointment there and fear the same thing may happen here all over again (being unable to save them from relegation last season and then sacked mid way through this in the Championship), given time if he's retained for next season! I thought he was a bit harshly treated by Villa at the time and superseded by an inferior manager in Gerrard, even if a bigger name perhaps. Maybe he went in there at Norwich with Shakespeare too soon after the sack at Villa and could've done with some more time out but I suppose knew such opportunities don't come around very often and so just ent for it....whereas someone like Potter is having time out now after his unsavoury time at his former club. In hindsight he should never have left Brighton but on the flip side the Chelsea chance might not have come round for him again so you can understand why he jumped ship. Anyway regardless of all the above in the distant future then I just 'hope' we can do it today under Smith!!

Same. it's the not knowing (and the hope!) that kills us! I have a nagging feeling that Moyes will field a full strength WH team still to keep them on their toes and 'match fit' for their Europa Conference Final with it still being over a week away of course - and would sub consciously like to keep his old team up as a sidenote I'd say.....sadly. All will be revealed by the evening.....

I guess Deano is revered by Villa fans in the way Pearson still is here!

Let's face it, whoever of us gets relegated with Southampton later on today will purely be on merit and not be unlucky in the slightest as all of us in the bottom 5 have been atrocious for most of this season. That purple patch the other side of the World Cup was a real false dawn, given what followed and maybe that ridiculously timed winter tournement did break up our gained momentum and then some - but we'll never know. The fact that we've won just three league games since the World Cup is basically inexcusable with our squad of players and if we do by some twist of fate manage to stay up today then it will be ill deserved in all honesty, even if it's obviously what we all want to happen!

Still to this day I don't know why Tielemans or Vardy never insisted firmy on taking it. Very costly......

That's more when Prem players earnt their more modest amounts of money. at least compared to nowadays!

Thanks, it's all coming back now! I see even Norwich (3rd botom) got 43 points that season and went down - as good as midtable this season!!

Maybe but I well remember in 1995 C.Palace got relegated as the highest up "fourth from bottom finishers" that season on 45 points! Not sure why four went down from the Prem. that season but they have to be the unluckiest ones of all time in that regard! They went down along with us of course and arch rivals Ipswich and Norwich!

I think Everton must've sent Brighton a huge bung before KO for that freak result! That was even more unlikely than us winning the Prem. in 2016 - or as near as dammit!