Mr Weller

People are over-reacting. Yes, it’s true we might have expected some movement by now but it’s only mid June so it’s hardly time to panic. I appreciate there is a hangover from the disappointment of last season and concern that without improvement we’re heading in the wrong direction but we just don’t know what is really happening. Speculation is fun up to a point but talking yourself into a domesday scenario at this stage isn’t.

Democracy only works if people believe in it but they don’t believe in it if it doesn’t work for them. A few of the plutocrats may leave if wealth is more evenly distributed but the overall wealth of the economy increases and the quality of life for most improves. I’m not talking about absolute equality, just tolerable levels of inequality to allow the vast majority to have a vested interest in maintaining democracy.

There’s pride in your country and there’s blind faith to the point where obvious weaknesses are ignored or simply written off as necessary evils. The irony of the American dream is it describes the country as it was 100 years ago. Today social mobility in the US is well below most developed nations.

You can have democracy or you can have vast levels of inequality, but you can’t have both.

Imagine

Yes but context is everything. We became a much richer club when our current owners arrived so those historical comparisons aren’t altogether valid. Fans are a little disappointed because it’s obvious the team has more about it than the mid season form delivered. It is perfectly possible this team could’ve finished 6th or reached the conference or even Europa final never mind beaten Forest in the FA Cup but in the games that mattered we fell short. 8th is still highly creditable and certainly nothing to be downcast about but it’s no use denying that most fans feel a bit underwhelmed even if they know that historically it’s a really good finish.

I noticed he was trying to rally his teammates after the second goal and was disappointed to be subbed. At least he seemed to care.

Perhaps but it’s a million miles from the way people are feeling right now. Besides which, many like freespending clubs such as Everton to get their comeuppance.

Irrespective of the value for money many won’t have enough money to buy season tickets anyway. Having said that I suspect plenty of others would take their place.

For the umpteenth time I noticed a lot of players slipping again today and it’s not helpful. Either they need to change their studs or water the pitch less.

I’m torn because I was firmly in the ‘in’ camp but today it looked like he’d lost the team and certainly the fans. He’s a knowledgeable coach and in lots of ways he’s done well overall but that’s not enough to change the current situation. I don’t like to make snap judgments immediately after a defeat and still wonder if they’ll give him the rest of the season regardless but the danger is we go into freefall and the atmosphere becomes even more toxic. I suspect he won’t be sacked yet but another game or two like that and he’ll be gone.

Exactly because what we really want are owners who just stuff the fans. Some people are spectacularly ungrateful. Through the T shirt away if you like but appreciate the gesture.

That’s a lot of anger based on pure speculation. The facts, as they stand, are that he is our most successful manager bar Ranieri. Having one mid table season and two top 6 seasons is not mediocrity for a club with Leicester’s resources. Of course we want more, and of course (unless we win the conference), this season has been disappointing after the last two, but Leicester under Rodgers have not been mediocre.

Shows we’re an ungrateful bunch of idiots?

Yes, great idea. Upset the guy whose family have bankrolled us for a decade and whose father died leaving the ground he loved just because you don’t like clappers. That’ll work.

But most don’t. I looked on Sunday and about 5-6 out of 10 people used them and I sit in the east stand close to the Kop so not many kids around. I know some fixate on clappers but for most fans it’s really not an issue. I think that in the minds of a certain type of fan clappers have come to represent what they don’t like about the modern game with all its razzmatazz, music, sponsors etc. They yearn for an era that never really existed whilst ignoring the fact they’re in a minority.

The atmosphere in the league winning season was the best for sure but as the whole world smiles with you says, it comes alive again in matches such as Liverpool. Equally the atmosphere in the early 2000s was awful because we were awful.

I’ve said it many times but I’ll say it again. Some people would rather football returned to the bad old days of hooliganism and declining attendances of the 70s and 80s because it suits their definition of atmosphere; aggressive, prejudiced and abusive. I went to matches then and I go to matches now and it’s far better now. Women and children feel safe and all ethnic minorities are welcome, unlike then. Some European countries are about 20 years behind us in sociological terms and so their crowds resemble what we would think of as a bygone era. Silly protests and complaints about clappers are doomed to fail and represent a minority of actual supporters. Football will never return to those dark days but if it did it would be dead in a generation.

I think it’s because most Pearsonites are of a certain age where he was manager during the first period of moderate success they’d had in their lives. Younger fans hardly know who he was and older fans know he was well short of the likes of O Neil. He delivered them from a decade of dirge and they’re eternally grateful.

The worship Pearson brigade rewrite history on Putin like levels! The infrastructure I am talking about is making us debt free, owning our own stadium, investing huge sums in back room staff and ensuring we could pay premier league wages for players in the championship. But apart from that…yes what have the Romans, err I mean Thai’s, done for us. So a poor first season in the premier, remembered for a miraculous last few games should somehow be explained away with an ‘it was to be expected anyway’ line. By whom? Certainly not the thousands who watched us storm the championship the season before. Pearson’s tactical naivety was sending us down like a lead weight before stumbling by accident on a style he had stubbornly resisted all season until it was forced on him chance. Unless, of course, you maintain he planned all along to have a record losing streak for three quarters of the season followed by a miraculous last quarter? To ignore or downplay the instrumental role the Thai owners have played in our rise to prominence is not only pure fantasy it’s rather ungrateful, if not downright disrespectful.

He didn’t get it right at Leicester for sure but O Neil, Little, Milne, Wallace and Gillies all got us promoted and apart from Little they did much better than Pearson in their first season. Sven tried to buy his way out and it didn’t quite work. Pearson did which was great, but at the higher level he was found out tactically. In the end Thai money bought the infrastructure, good administration helped immensely and some great recruitment after Pearson left set us up for a magic season.

It’s true we were losing lots of games by the odd goal but we were still virtually down until he was finally forced to change tactics and play a counter attacking style. Like I say, a decent enough manager at lower levels but without Thai money it wouldn’t have made that much difference.

No agenda and this is about interpretations not facts. Plenty of managers have built a decent team on a limited budget and got us promoted to the top division but in the post war period only Gilles and O Neil then went on to sustain it. Thai money really changed the club, nothing else.

Which part? Either you’re saying it wasn’t Thai money that did it or he didn’t make a hash of most of our first season in the premier league.

Not really. It was Thai money that did that. Like I say, he was okay but by no stretch our most successful manager. He did well in the lower leagues but made a complete hash of our first year in the premier league before fortuitously stumbling on a style towards the end of that season that suited us.