davieG

More delays as they spend 5 minutes deciding who last touched the ball and likely still get it wrong.

Slight improvement on a rubbish tip, sadly still no nod of any kind to the old ground and it's LCFC history. In years to come no one will know that this was the site of LCFC for 111 years. Oh wait Soulsby will probably put up a Blue Plaque, Oh wait a blue plaque commemorating the former Leicester City football ground at Filbert Street was installed at the site, but it has since been removed.

Trump and Infantino - too close for comfort? Dan Roan Sports editor in Washington Staged just a mile from the White House, Friday's World Cup draw will have a distinctly political feel. The glittering ceremony will take place at the Kennedy Center, the famous Washington arts venue now chaired by US President Donald Trump after he overhauled its board this year. Alongside stars from football, US sports and show business, Trump will be in attendance, as will the leaders of the other two co-hosts - Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney. Proceedings, however, seem to have been planned with the US president very much in mind. American disco group Village People have been booked to play YMCA, a Trump favourite that is regularly heard at his campaign rallies. And, in a break with tradition, the draw ceremony will feature the awarding of a new Fifa Peace Prize, with Trump widely expected to be the recipient. Such gestures will only underline the alliance forged between the US president and Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino, who announced the prize last month after claiming that Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, and enthusiastically praising his policies. For critics, such moves are a threat to Fifa's commitment to political neutrality, one enshrined in its statutes, and risk turning the draw - and the tournament itself - into propaganda tools. They believe Infantino and Trump are effectively too close for comfort, and that it sends a message that world football's governing body is aligning with the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement, and endorsing what many feel is a divisive administration. Is it wise, they ask, that Fifa is seen to associate so closely with a man who only this week made disparaging comments about Somali immigrants, describing them as "garbage"? Asked about the new award amid reports that the Fifa Council was not consulted about it, one senior official at the governing body told BBC Sport: "Why can't this be bigger than the Nobel Peace Prize? Football has huge global support, so it's right that it recognises extraordinary efforts to bring about peace every year." They pointed to the fact that in 2019 there was no such controversy when Fifa gave the president of Argentina an award to honour his contribution to football, and said the organisation deserves praise for endorsing peace in a divided world. Continues here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c5yjgg0zljro Shades of the 1936 Olympics - The Trump World Cup of 2026

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-citys-highs-not-distorting-10685423 Leicester City's highs are not distorting reality – this could be a historically bad season The numbers have been crunched on 120 seasons of Leicester City as a member of the Football League and Premier League to reveal what their average finishing position is Sportopinion Jordan Blackwell 07:00, 04 Dec 2025 Updated 07:51, 04 Dec 2025 Leicester City are on course for the 10th-lowest season finishing position in their history(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images) Anybody who has followed Leicester City for the past 20 years will have seen them at their highest peak and their lowest ebb. In winning the Premier League title, City hit the jackpot. In finishing in the top half of the top flight for five years running between 2018 and 2022, City enjoyed a run among the country’s 10 teams like they never had before. But it was not much earlier, between 2005 and 2009, where City had their worst run since the end of the Second World War, failing to even finish in the top half of the second tier for five seasons running, with the last of those their sole campaign in the third tier. For City supporters who had their formative years as fans during that period in the mid-to-late Noughties, or who maybe grew up in a similarly underwhelming time in the late 1980s, the club’s lowly status this season may feel like a return to the norm. There may be a sense that City fans have been treated to their best-ever era and now just going back to what they always were. Maybe the anger over City’s tumble down the league ladder is an overreaction because it’s in comparison to the recent highs. Maybe those seasons have distorted City’s reality, hence why this campaign feels so underwhelming. But that’s not true. The numbers have been crunched and City are on course for a historically bad season. City’s first season in the Football League was in 1894-95 and they’ve now completed 120 campaigns. Their average finishing position on the league ladder across all of those seasons is 22nd. At the minute, by sitting 16th in the Championship, they are 36th. There’s still a lot of the season to go and the tightness of the table means it’s far too early to predict even which section of the standings a club might finish in, never mind their exact position. There’s still the matter of a potential points deduction too. But if they were to finish 16th, it would be the joint-10th worst season in their history ranked by final positions. Nobody at the club is satisfied with how this season is going at the moment and it would be viewed as a failure if they ended up where they are now. But it’s perhaps important to appreciate that it’s not just bad in comparison to the highs of the past decade, but bad in comparison to the whole of the club’s history.

Leicester City FC - Filbert St. Years added a photo to the album: 1971-72 · Follow Leicester City 1 v Coventry City 0 Filbert Street, Leicester (Attendance 24,254) Football League Division One April 22nd 1972 "Keith Weller leads the team out" (Photo by Neville Chadwick)

where's Elvis Hammond?

History of Leicestershire in Images Mervin Wallace ON THE 3rd DECEMBER 1944 Britain officially ‘Stood Down’ the Home Guard - formed in 1939 to defend Britain from invasion by Germany. They were then officially disbanded in December 1945. Photos of Home Guards last parade in Hinckley and the Hinckley Home Guard.

Even if you not starting or playing regularly you're still learning and acclimatising to professional football.

Cool As Leicester · Follow The Donkey is set for a full transformation including name change to The Victoria Park. Star Pubs are looking for someone to take over the pub on an investment tenancy. “The refurbishment will completely transform the pub, creating a welcoming, contemporary space. Inside, the main trade area will be fully redecorated with a new bar, finishes, furniture, and refurbished toilets. Externally, there will be new signage, full redecoration, and a refreshed beer garden with improved seating and lighting. Once complete, The Victoria Park will trade as a Premium Local offering a quality mix of premium lagers, cask ales, ciders, wines, spirits, and cocktails. The food offer will be low-skilled but trendy, focusing on burgers, pizzas, and other casual dishes. Entertainment such as live music, sport, quizzes, and events will build rhythm and attract a diverse customer base.” Info - https://www.starpubs.co.uk/.../donkey-leicester-(to-be...

I do

You must be thinking of the 1950s re directories because they were mostly missing or if not half the pages torn out. But still if you found one that didn't smell of piss you'd be having a good day.

I often see lads with their mates cycling home from school in a shall I say erratic way and think twats! then I think hang on that looks familiar that would have been me back in the day

On the other hand Football Away Days · Follow Birmingham City will be asking a lot to fill their 60,000 seater stadium, when this was at St Andrew’s last night.

I didn't take it as one I assumed it was an observation the way it was written.

True. I guess we never thought we'd need a thread for these sorts of posts. Perhaps should have put it in the atmosphere thread although the person obviously wasn't there.

Leicester City FC - Filbert St. Years added a photo to the album: 1968-69 · Follow Frank O'Farrell, Matt Gillies Leicester City FC Filbert Street, Leicester December 1968 (Photo by Neville Chadwick)

ive been to filbert street n stood on the kop those were the days my friend · Carl Nicol · Message to LCFC - Player’s & Staff - The below marks out of 10 represent a team effort, that will make the Fans Sing & Applaud & Cheer on the Players. Leicester’s Team Score’s average around 4/5 which is totally unacceptable for a Professional Team representing LCFC in the Championship, Shocking does not get Close to this sides performance’s. Any 5 or below should not be selected for the next game, 6+ should be our minimum score with our average nearer 8!! Then we will see a difference

Football Away Days · Follow Leicester sent season ticket holders who didn’t go to Saturdays game an email asking for feedback why, well this fan didn’t hold back in his thoughts with the current state of the club.

I can't remember exactly what it was but there used to be a way of getting random numbers by tapping the phone holder bracket in a set sequence. I got a chip shop in Glasgow and was asking if they could supply me and my mates with Fish & chips at the Granby Halls Leicester. Mind you I was bit drunk.

Made In Leicester Rob Hubble Cascelloid Factory Abbey Lane Leicester.

This Day In History · Follow On a rainy night in 1977, Mark Knopfler stepped into a nearly empty pub in Deptford, a run-down corner of South London. He wasn't looking for inspiration. He was just looking for a couple of pints and somewhere to get out of the weather. In the corner of the pub, a small Dixieland jazz band was setting up. They were older men, dressed modestly, their instruments showing years of use. As Knopfler settled in with his drink, they began to play. The music was unremarkable. The band was what Knopfler would later describe as "a very average little Dixieland jazz band." Around them, the pub's sparse clientele—perhaps three or four people total—paid them almost no attention. A couple of young men in brown baggies and platform shoes played pool at the far end, completely indifferent to the trumpet and drums filling the space. Knopfler, at least, appreciated that someone was trying. He called out requests—"Creole Love Call," "Muskrat Ramble"—classic jazz numbers that most pub crowds wouldn't recognize. The band members seemed genuinely surprised that anyone in the audience actually knew the music they were playing. For two hours, the band played their hearts out to a room that didn't care. They gave it everything despite the empty seats, the inattention, the sheer thanklessness of the moment. And then, as the set ended and it was time to pack up, the bandleader stepped forward with what Knopfler would remember as "a mildly enthusiastic" announcement. "Goodnight and thank you," he said. "We are the Sultans of Swing." The Sultans of Swing. The name hung in the air like an absurd joke. Here were these aging musicians in this seedy dive, playing to indifference, and they called themselves sultans. The contrast between their grandiose name and the drab reality of their surroundings struck Knopfler as both amusing and oddly moving. You couldn't be less a sultan of anything if you were in that band, on that night, in that pub. Yet they'd played with dedication, for the love of the music itself. Knopfler left the pub with the seed of an idea. He returned to the Deptford council flat he shared with his younger brother David and bassist John Illsley. The three of them had just formed a new band, and they were living on next to nothing—barely able to pay the gas bill. They weren't called Dire Straits for nothing. That night, inspired by what he'd witnessed, Knopfler began writing. He pulled out his National Steel guitar and started composing a song about those musicians—about Harry who had a day job but showed up to play anyway, about Guitar George who knew all the chords but kept strictly to rhythm, about the indifferent crowd in their platform souls who didn't give a damn about any trumpet-playing band because it wasn't what they called rock and roll. "The first time I heard Mark playing a version of Sultans of Swing was in that flat," Illsley recalled years later, "but the song was completely different." Even Knopfler thought it lacked spark. The song existed, the lyrics captured that rainy night perfectly, but something was missing. The National Steel guitar in open tuning gave it a certain sound, but it felt dull, incomplete. Then everything changed. In 1977, Knopfler scraped together enough money to buy his first Fender Stratocaster—a 1961 model with a rosewood neck. It was a red Strat that would become legendary in its own right, the guitar that would define his sound for years to come. One day, not long after the purchase, Knopfler approached Illsley with renewed excitement. "Remember that song I was fiddling about with the other day?" he said. "I've completely redone the chord structure." He plugged the '61 Strat into Illsley's Fender Vibrolux amp and began to play. "It just came alive as soon as I played it on that '61 Strat," Knopfler would later explain. "The new chord changes just presented themselves and fell into place." The transformation was immediate and undeniable. What had been a modest folk-blues composition on the National Steel suddenly became something else entirely—a smoldering blues-rock groove with intricate fingerpicking, rolling rhythms, and a melodic sophistication that sounded like nothing else on the radio. The song now had the spark it needed. "It sounded pretty good," Illsley remembered. "The whole thing is incredibly simple, it's the playing that makes it intriguing. It's that rolling rhythm on the guitar and a very simple bass and drums approach. Then, of course, it's a story. And let's face it, all good songs have a story." By July 1977, Dire Straits had honed the song through months of gigging at small venues from Deptford to Covent Garden. They booked time at a tiny eight-track studio called Pathway Studios and recorded a five-song demo tape. "Sultans of Swing" was on it. They took the demo to Charlie Gillett, presenter of Honky Tonk on BBC Radio London, hoping for advice. Gillett heard something special. He put "Sultans of Swing" into his rotation immediately. The response from listeners was overwhelming. Two months later, Dire Straits had multiple record labels competing to sign them. They chose Phonogram Records, who sent them back into the studio—this time to Basing Street Studios—to re-record the song with producer Muff Winwood in February 1978. "Sultans of Swing" was officially released as a single on May 19, 1978. It made almost no impact in the UK. Radio 1 deemed it too wordy and declined to add it to their playlist—a crushing blow in an era when radio play determined a song's fate. The self-titled debut album, Dire Straits, came out in October 1978. Sales ticked along very slowly at first. The band seemed destined to remain an underground curiosity. Then something unexpected happened. The song traveled. First it caught fire in Holland, where the album quickly went gold. "I got this phone call from the record company saying that we'd sold 25,000 albums," Illsley remembered. The success spread across Europe—Germany, Belgium, New Zealand. Most improbably of all, American radio stations started playing "Sultans of Swing" obsessively. Warner Records negotiated a US deal, and by early 1979, the single had climbed to number four on the Billboard Hot 100. In a delicious twist, BBC Radio 1's Paul Gambaccini then played it on his weekly round-up of US Top 40 hits. The "over-wordy" single that Radio 1 had rejected finally made it onto the UK's biggest radio station through the back door of American success. Re-released in Britain, "Sultans of Swing" shot to number eight on the UK Singles Chart. The debut album became the best-selling UK debut since Led Zeppelin, eventually selling over seven million copies worldwide. The song's appeal was undeniable. In an era dominated by disco's synthetic shimmer and punk's aggressive nihilism, "Sultans of Swing" offered something different—a blend of rock, blues, and jazz with literary lyrics and Knopfler's extraordinary fingerpicking technique. His guitar solo, improvised and fluid, was instantly recognizable. Guitar World would later rank it the seventh greatest guitar solo of all time; Rolling Stone placed it at number thirty-two. More than technical brilliance, though, the song had heart. It celebrated musicians who played for love rather than fame, who showed up night after night to nearly empty rooms because the music itself mattered. In singing about those Sultans of Swing—the aging Dixieland band in that Deptford pub—Knopfler had captured something universal about artistic dedication and the dignity of showing up, even when nobody's watching. "I suppose you could say that Sultans of Swing was the one song that started it all off," Illsley reflected. "It had a huge impact. These are the catalysts that move you onward through life." Dire Straits would go on to become one of the most successful British bands of the 1980s, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They would produce massive hits like "Money for Nothing" and "Brothers in Arms," dominate MTV, and fill stadiums across the globe. But it all began with that 1961 Stratocaster that Knopfler bought in 1977, and a song about a band nobody was listening to. The guitar became so precious to Knopfler that decades later, when he auctioned off much of his legendary collection—including the Gibson Les Paul he used for "Money for Nothing"—he kept the '61 Strat. "You want to hang on to things that are family heirlooms, really," he explained. "It's the same thing for Strat Number One from Sultans, so I am careful about that." That Stratocaster transformed a dull composition into a masterpiece. It launched a band from Deptford council flats to international stardom. And it all happened because Mark Knopfler walked into a pub on a rainy night in 1977 and paid attention when nobody else would. The real Sultans of Swing never knew they'd inspired one of rock's most enduring classics. But somewhere in that empty Deptford pub, they played their hearts out anyway, and that was enough.

Leicester Memories Mervin Wallace ON SUNDAY 1st DECEMBER 1963 - The Beatles appeared at Leicester’s Demontfort Hall, thanks to Hinckley’s Pop Promoter Arthur Kimbrell. My brother went to this I was too young.

Admitted into the Football League in 1920, they spent the next 38 years in the Third Division South. Under Dave Bowen, the club achieved three promotions from the Fourth Division to the First Division within five years. However, Northampton only survived for one season in the top tier of English football after relegation in 1966. Northampton then experienced two further relegations in three years to return to the Fourth Division by 1969