Steve Earle

You have my sympathy. I’m afraid to say you can expect disappointment on a massive scale several times over a personal and professional life. Sorry to be the bearer, and all that.

I won’t be alone on here in having seen, I think, 10 of them, beginning in 1969. Still, there’s a record there for the taking. Go on Top my son, you can do it. 18 here we come!

And of course we won’t necessarily know then either.

But that’s where we are, isn’t it? Hoping for an ‘inspired’ appointment. They are bound to get one right eventually. This is what I think Henry Winter meant when he described us as a ‘manager club’. In other words, absent anything resembling a club strategy, the buffoons in charge keep rolling the dice hoping to drop on the next Enzo or Nige. But every passing year’s financial missteps make it less and less likely that any manager could succeed here.

A strategy you say? That’d be a start.

An optimist huh? You think there'll be another season after next?

I think we need, among many others, a Steve Howard-style ST. Someone for wingers to cross to, someone decent at hold up play. If we go the more likely route (4-2-3-1 with a rapid CF) then we could do a lot worse than Sidibeh from Stockport. Impressed watching him now.

This is of course right. 👏 May I introduce you @CarolinaFox to paragraphs?

This could have been us with a half competent owner. Sack Rodgers in the autumn, appoint the available Emery, extend Tielemans’ contract (or sell in the January window). It was, even back then, obvious. To most people but not our 🤡 of an owner. We’d have won a European title by now.. . 😢💦

Shouldn’t the thread be called ‘League One - Who Cares?’ I don’t, for one, having given up my season ticket after 45 years, & given up completely on the incompetent buffoons that allegedly run this empty vessel. I have something between admiration & respect for those of you who still have the ‘pashun’. I guess I might have sustained that if I were still in my 30s or 40s. The manager next season? It’s maybe 10-15% of the problem.

It’s not your guts @teblin. It’s your brain. With Top & Rudkin in charge it’s a certainty that things will get worse. The thing that’s not clear is whether it’ll ever get better under these clowns 🤡

He really doesn’t! Obviously IMO. Here’s 10 teams he doesn’t get in, without any thought at all: Arsenal Man C Man U Liverpool Villa Chelsea PSG Bayern Munich Atletico Madrid Real Madrid Barcelona (11th added in case you felt he’d start for Villa. Or Chelsea). Remember, he’s not even the first choice LW at a Newcastle side in the bottom half of the league!

We’re talking at cross purposes. Barnes isn’t, wasn’t & never will be an elite level player. I was responding to a post, initially, that suggested that as well as Ndidi, Tielemans & Maddison, our other ‘European level’ players from the recent past might have included Albrighton & Barnes. I took ‘European level’ to have meaning more than ‘played in Europe’. Perhaps implying elite level. Those Barnes stats are indeed impressive. But they don’t tell the whole story. I can’t think of many Champions League teams that would want him as a starter, for example

Pretty sure they never played together?!? My claim, on behalf of Ndidi, Tielemans & Maddison, was that they were the best midfield trio we’ve ever put out, certainly in my time - 1965 onwards.

Jonathan Northcroft wrote that we had four world class players in 2015-16: Schmeichel, Kante, Mahrez and Vardy, who ‘was world class at what he did’

I’m suggesting that you implied a certain standard, not just ‘played in Europe’. Sharky played at the absolute maximum of his potential for a handful of games in the Champions League, not all of them. I’ve never seen Barnes have a really dominant game in Europe.

He had his moments Ric, and I was there to see him score our first Champions League goal. But it can’t seriously be argued that he performed at the level of Ndidi Tielemans & Maddison - comfortably the best midfield we’ve ever put out (unless someone who saw the Ice Kings begs to differ). Let’s not forget that Sharky lost his place to Ayoze Perez either.

You were doing so well, and then I read ‘…and I’d argue you could add Albrigton & Barnes to that list’. Never. Good Premier League players both, but ‘easily European standard’? No. Not unless by ‘European standard’ you meant, and I don’t think you did, could play for OH Leuven, or similar? Agree with the rest 👏

Thought Aluko looked really good. Let’s hope he stays. He’s definitely ready for League One. Page & Monga showed flashes. I wouldn’t be too disappointed if Monga left for big money. Page, however, we must keep, at least for a couple of seasons. Silko offered more (in a more open game, against tiring players) than either Monga or the execrable Mavididi. Souttar, if we can keep him, is a potential captain.

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned elsewhere or if this is the right thread, but felt I had to mention the ‘It was what it was’ podcast on our title triumph, featuring Jonathan Northcroft. Excellent. Reminds us of a time when we were ahead of the curve, not so far behind it we can’t even see it.

My first game at Filbo was home to Northampton Town in their only season in the First Division in 1965-66. They lost just about every away game that season but if memory serves, held us to a 0-0 draw. I’d been 8 or 9 times before I finally saw a home win - kind of set the tone for the next 50 years!

Surely he’s gone by now? Top? Top?!?

Have mine @LCFC2299

They have too. I’ve seen multiple relegations. I’m used to the cyclical nature of being a Leicester fan. But this? Sheer bloody-minded incompetence for 5-6 years has taken us from what should have been a minimum of a decade in the top half of the Premier League to League 1. And we’ve not bottomed out yet. I won’t be back while Top & Rudkin are there. Hopefully, relegation will hasten their departure. The ties that bound me to this club (arranging weddings & holidays round fixture lists for example) are gone forever. I’m out of the habit of going now (Friday will be my 4th game of the season) and can’t see that returning under any circumstances. But I have to go one more time. I’ve had some of the happiest moments of my life at that ground: Nalis, Steve Howard, Vardy (the volley against Liverpool), Mahrez (Chelsea at home), Andrea Bocelli, Sevilla, etc etc. Bastards.

I’m not going tonight but am on Friday. I’ve given up my season ticket after 45 years or so. I’m not going to back the lads - they’re the most dislikable bunch I’ve ever seen - I’m going to say goodbye: to my club, the friends I’ve made among the fans & to the stadium. I hope that’s reasonable?