Guy

It's generally for home fans only too!

Agreed re Coady. Tielemans or Maddison as interchanging team captains last season are hardly a hard act to follow to better this coming season and neither were anything like what Kasper was as captain, even though he of course had his many critics on here in that role also!

All of my people 'in the know' supposedly who I've spoken to and who support other Championship sides seem to think we'll go straight back up like Burnley did but I don't share that same confidence yet! It falls into the same bracket as "too good to get relegated" for me at this stage until we know who's going, who's coming in after Coady and Winks - and of course who's definitely staying! I'd imagine the only three definite departees for better climes in the final shake up will be Maddison, Tielemans .... and next up Barnes - and Iheanacho still very much remains on the fence re 'stick or twist'. Might help his cause to stay re the Man. City/Pep connection of Maresca coming in, even if the Forest rumours remain rife for now. Prediction - anything from 1st to a hugely disappointing 10th!!

I thought we were unlucky to get relegated that season after some great wins against the likes of Leeds, Man. City and others. Our tendency that season was to shoot ourselves in the foot though by throwing away big two or three goal leads to end up drawing or .... losing! That is what ultimately got us relegated sadly, albeit narrowly. As one poster said it's ok scoring plenty but you've got to try to keep the back door shut whilst doing so for the whole game!

Always remember Micky Adams rubbing Neil Warnock's nose in it that season by saying even if we'd been deducted points for going into administration that season that we'd still have finished second above Sheffield United, priceless! - ironically at the price of Adams's boyhood club! As for your point then I suppose some would reference the last time we got promoted as Champions under Pearson as being a useful recent guide as to how to go about going up at the first attempt. We perhaps haven't got the players to get 100+ points this season as we did in 2014 but the squad is bulding shape nicely.

I'm wondering if Coady and Winks would've signed for us had Enzo not been here and Dean Smith and Shakey had been retained instead from last season?! Unlikely!

I had fears for a time that the longer the rumours dragged on that this was going to turn into another Jack Harrison saga from last season re a last minute u turn but thankfully.... not! Two class signings on board now which as others have said well and truly puts down a marker at Championship level now. More's now the pity we didn't sign these sorts of players a year ago of course!

Yep, still not one signing with just over a month to go now - hopefully not a repeat of last summer!

I missed thaty one, although I didn't really watch it regularly until about 2008!

Probably just came for the payrise!

Yeah, so I saw on 'Wiki' afterwards! You can probably tell I didn't get to many games that season in person to have observed and then memorised such things! think he kind of got demoted to that position from what I read though....

I did think as much re Hirschfeld but was going by Western Park's thoughts who now seemingly got his wires a wee bit crossed on that one! As for Dublin then I don't personally remember him ever featuring in any of the 2005-06 side under Levein as it was more about Donkey De Vries of course, I only really remember Dublin from the season before (his only full one with us) and I was convinced that away game at Plymouth in the May was his final one in a Foxes' shirt - that's unless he maybe was injured for a fair chunk of the following season and so didn't feature much up until leaving for Celtic. Obv. I haven't used 'WIki' to check that one out myself!

Yes, the O'Neill era of the mid-late 90s and 2000 (before P.Taylor) was arguably the equivalent to Big Nige's two spells with us, albeit mostly spent in the Premier under O'Neill, whereas with Pearson we had just the one of course before his untimely sacking. However whatever the era comparisons/parallels, then obviously absolutely nothing in our history can compare to the Ranieri "one season wonder season" that nobody saw coming when we did the unthinkable. It'll never happen that way again now, period! Strange that the lamentabl;e 2004-2008 indirectly lead to all that and having Big Nige come in at the end of it all!

Well said! Yes, I suppose I'd have loved it all at that age too mind - not just the good bits but the whole going to and following football shebang by just going along to some of the games at that age but I didn't really start properly going to football matches rfegularly until I was about 17 back in the mid 80s. I was also spoiled by the moderately successful Brian Little Championship era (play off finals galore every year!) and then the much more successful Martin O'Neill era in the then "Premiership" that had preceded the dire Championship years, albeit after Micky Adams gave us some hope for a brief time of course after the Peter Taylor shitshow!. Along with the latter part of the David Pleat years in the v.early 90s then the 2004-2008 period was probably the lowest ebb at the club in my time of following them though before Messiah N.Pearson came along to the rescue!

Indeed he was! Strange to think that they had Holloway in the opposite dug out at the time to Rob Kelly! - or Ian 'Hollowords' as they ended up calling him at Plymouth after his defection to us for that ill fated time of it for him to follow - and of course for us! As I live in Plymouth (since 2005), then I was there for that shit show as well - a 3.0 defeat, we were shocking but we never travelled well to Home Park! Then at least we drew the next two against them there in 2007 and 2010 (Championship), before their 13 years' long exhile in the leagues below. I've also never witnessed one of our players score there as the games I saw consisted of two goalless draws, two defeats where we didn't score and most recently a 1.1 draw in which they scored a wordly own goal for us!

Wow, that's admirably advanced 'wondering why' thoughts for a 10 year old! Maybe you're right in so far as his hanging around the following season was concerned and waiting in the wings under Levein for the time Rab Douglas and 'the Aussie' Paul Henderson became injured or if either of their form dropped but then he became (even more) surplus to requirements once Levein had been sacked. What I do remember clearly at the time though was that I was 37, not 10! I also remember that they were barren times and I hope we aren't headed for more of the same in the Championship next season!

According to his Wikipedia he only played that one game for us away in the final "nothing" game of the 2004/05 season in 2005 at Plymouth and to be honest I don't remember him featuring at all the following season, even though with living in Devon at that time also, I didn't get along to many games up there around that period at all! Maybe he stayed without playing until the time Levein was sacked the following January though as you say.....ironically after the rearranged following season's away game at Plymouth!

DUPLICATE POST

Well your memory is better than mine as all I remember about him is he was in that mediocre-poor "Team Levein", his distinctive name and the fact that the only game he played for us away at Plymouth, was one I so happened to be at! It sounds like he wasn't given much of a chance but maybe that was for the reason you observed, lol! Was the other keeper who hardly played called Robert Ziegler or something similar in Ranieri's "after the Lord Mayor's Show!" second season? Ironically one of the only times he played was at the Swansea home game I attended that season and boy, he was lousy. I think his goal kicks and general distribution were dire as well! He was obviously just cover for an injured Schmeichel shortly before Danny Ward was signed . We've always prided ourselves on having good keepers over the years (Banks, Shilton, Wallington, Schmeichel, etc) but there have certainly been some duds in there too, not least Danny Ward!

Last game of the season at Home Park in May 2005, which I had the pleasure of being at, 0-0 indeed! Dion Dublin's last game for us too I think....

You'd imagine (or at least hope....!) that they're made out of recycled material in the first place - but maybe not.....

Here's hoping Ward is one of them!!

A sound enough bloke for sure and honest with it but ultimately he wasn't good enough to keep us up when it was still reasonably possible to do so, especially given our slightly more favourable run in on paper to those around us when he first came in, even though it wasn't ideal. Whether he would've kept us up had he replaced Rodgers with immediate effect remains debatable as in both the Sadler and Stowell caretaker games v Villa and Bournemouth it was just one individual error (each from Ndidi and Maddison that resulted in gifting the opposition the winning goal in each game and which cost us both of those games by a one goal margin), when two draws from them would've kept us up, even if only on goal difference!. Some of his poor decisions were the reason why we ended up getting relegated for his eight games in charge though re team selections in the games that really mattered (esp. not shoring up the defence by not playing Souttar v Everton). The obvious games were Leeds and Everton where we should have taken six points to give ourselves a chance and not have to rely on things like winning at Newcastle or on Bournemouth getting something at Everton.

That might well have been my dream scene I mentioned above (I mean nightmare)!

I had a dream last night that Scott Parker was in the dugout! It wasn't a particularly good or bad dream - it was just one that saw him on TV pictured on the side of the pitch in that cardy and tidy hair giving out orders from afar to the players! Maybe a weird/accurate premonition?!