Eight years!

[ScouseFox]

I was about to post the same thing. The things that facebook reminds you about, ey?

 

I look back at that 09/10 team with much fondness. The 2012/13 team not so much, we were crap for much of the 2013 run in and the Watford game just seemed like the icing on the cake of collapse. Still, all worked out for the best....

 

yeah, think the whole squad came out of the cardiff game with credit bar the obvious one. they really were, in the main, pretty rubbish football league players but just by trying hard nearly got us to the premier league from league one in 18 months or so. 

 

andy king heroic on both days, too. 

[Stadt]

I don't think people realise how big an achievement getting a team of Weale, Morrison, Brown, Hobbs, Berner, Gallagher, King, Wellens, Dyer, Fryatt and Howard to finish 5th in the championship was at the time.

[Tom17LCFC]

Fvck me as if kermorgant was 6 years ago!! Remember that game vividly, the scenes when King scored, the absolute heartbreak when waghorn failed to bag his pen.

We've had so much shit, Stoke and their fans on the pitch, Cardiff and their fans on the pitch, Watford and their fans on the pitch, and here we are now. Who'd have thought it

[Corky]

I don't think people realise how big an achievement getting a team of Weale, Morrison, Brown, Hobbs, Berner, Gallagher, King, Wellens, Dyer, Fryatt and Howard to finish 5th in the championship was at the time.

 

Absolutely, that squad was mid-table at natural level really. To finish comfortably in the play-offs was an excellent season.

[Stadt]

Absolutely, that squad was mid-table at natural level really. To finish comfortably in the play-offs was an excellent season.

 

I think even mid table is possibly generous, look at what Sousa did with basically the same team.

If you look at what all of those players did before and after leaving us it is sensational really. None of those players (even King back then) were good enough to play in the premier league and we were only a penalty shoot-out and 90 minutes away from it.

[Koke]

I was at the Britannia that day. Awful day. To make matters worse Coventry lost at Charlton and if we had scored one goal we would have stayed up and sent Coventry down. 8 year later they're playing Fleetwood away and we're getting a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge. Just let that sink in.

[Koke]

We've had so much shit, Stoke and their fans on the pitch, Cardiff and their fans on the pitch, Watford and their fans on the pitch, and here we are now. Who'd have thought it

When you put it like that, we've been through some shit. Of those 3 I think Watford pitch invasion was probably the most painful one. Stoke was inevitable and relegation was coming from a mile off. Cardiff was the lottery of penalties, granted Kermogant was nonchalant about it but pens are pens. Watford went down the other end and bloody scored. I didn't watch that game back for a good 12 months.

[Guy]

I think even mid table is possibly generous, look at what Sousa did with basically the same team.

If you look at what all of those players did before and after leaving us it is sensational really. None of those players (even King back then) were good enough to play in the premier league and we were only a penalty shoot-out and 90 minutes away from it.

yes, with Holloway's Blackpool at Wembley, who would've been standing in our way had we progressed beyond the Cardiff penalty shoot-out debacle!!

[Guy]

Absolutely, that squad was mid-table at natural level really. To finish comfortably in the play-offs was an excellent season.

I think it was Leroy Rosenior on the League Show at the time who said we were a 7/10 team that season at best, in that first season back in the Championship, yet still gave a convincing show in the play offs and really took the game to Cardiff at their place after an abject first leg display at the Walkers. A team full of grafters (Wayne Brown, Michael Morrison, etc) with a bit of flair thrown in (Gallagher, Wellens, Fryatt, Berner, Kermogant, Waghorn), not forgetting sole survivor Andy King! I think had we gone up with that team though then we'd have been relegated straight away unless Mandaric had spent a wad - and had Pearson stayed on too of course.   

[Matt]

I was at the Britannia that day. Awful day. To make matters worse Coventry lost at Charlton and if we had scored one goal we would have stayed up and sent Coventry down. 8 year later they're playing Fleetwood away and we're getting a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge. Just let that sink in.

 

It's easy to say in hindsight, do you think we'd be where we are now if we hadn't have gone down?

 

I don't think we would.

 

If we'd have stayed up, we'd have just had another depressing Championship season like the previous ones.

 

For years and years I blamed Peter Taylor on how shit we were - Even 10 years on from him and that season I blamed him.

 

Now I look back and think League One was our new era, everything that has happened in recent years (8) is thanks to taking a step backwards, freshing things up, coming back alot more positive.

 

It wasn't nice at the time, but I genuinely think going down to League One was a good thing - We wouldn't have wanted to be there for longer than 1 season, but it gave us a fresh start to rebuild and look where we are now.

 

I think it's time for me to quote this and I still stand by it

 

 

I don't think it'll ever happen to us but I do always look at Man City in hope and look how quickly they have evolved, obviously they have been heavily invested in.

 

It was only 15(?) years since Man City won Division 2 (League One) and only 12(?) years since Man City won Division 1 (Championship), they have stayed there ever since.

 

I am not for one second saying we will do a Man City, I don't think we will, but it really is quite amazing that they were in League One 15 years ago and since have won the Premiership.

 

I kinda predicted it, whilst not predicting it at all!

[Koke]

I think it was Leroy Rosenior on the League Show at the time who said we were a 7/10 team that season at best, in that first season back in the Championship, yet still gave a convincing show in the play offs and really took the game to Cardiff at their place after an abject first leg display at the Walkers. A team full of grafters (Wayne Brown, Michael Morrison, etc) with a bit of flair thrown in (Gallagher, Wellens, Fryatt, Berner, Kermogant, Waghorn), not forgetting sole survivor Andy King! I think had we gone up with that team though then we'd have been relegated straight away unless Mandaric had spent a wad - and had Pearson stayed on too of course.

Looking back, Pearson really was excellent for us. He plucked Morrison from non league, N'Guessen from Lincoln, Weale from Bristol City, Dyer from MK Dons and couple of kids loaned from other clubs + couple of veterans in Brown, Solano, Berner etc. This side was mid table at best but Pearson nearly got us back to back promotion with these players.

I agree if we had gone up we'd probably gone straight back down. The 12/13 side was much better but I appreciated the 09/10 side because they grafted and worked hard and punched above their weight.

[blueharmie]

Thanks to Taylor and all the bad past. Loved getting beat by Swindon in the playoff final and loosing to spurs in the league cup... Brilliant. Ade dick head akinbye.....

All that was worth it because we are the Pl champions!!!!!

[Koke]

It's easy to say in hindsight, do you think we'd be where we are now if we hadn't have gone down?

 

I don't think we would.

 

If we'd have stayed up, we'd have just had another depressing Championship season like the previous ones.

 

For years and years I blamed Peter Taylor on how shit we were - Even 10 years on from him and that season I blamed him.

 

Now I look back and think League One was our new era, everything that has happened in recent years (8) is thanks to taking a step backwards, freshing things up, coming back alot more positive.

 

It wasn't nice at the time, but I genuinely think going down to League One was a good thing - We wouldn't have wanted to be there for longer than 1 season, but it gave us a fresh start to rebuild and look where we are now.

 

I think it's time for me to quote this and I still stand by it

 

 

 

I kinda predicted it, whilst not predicting it at all!

I agree

Even Southampton and Coventry at the time were just as horrific as we were and they eventually also dropped down. It did Southampton a lot of good, it also did Norwich a lot of good. Had we stayed up in 2008 we'd just have had more relegation battles, unless Pearson was appointed.

[Wymsey]

Remember ''revising'' the 'Opening Worlds - Short Stories From Different Cultures 2003-2008)' for my English Language/Literature whilst in the same room as the family with the game on.

 

Was both stressing about this and the game.

[worksopfox]

I still hate that road to Stoke City !!

[Guy]

This unsavoury-turned-good era of our recent past (2008-2010) is still fondly looked back on it seems by most in a retrospect way - as it is quite possibly still the main reason why we are where we are today - and of course due to other factors like the Thai owners uncanny nous and so on! It all seems to make it all the more sweeter for us fans who were there in the dark times as well as now in the glorious present times! As alluded to in this post, Man. City also emulated such a feat previously but had substantial financial backing to do so....whereas our wage bill this season was akin to a mid-lower Premier league side at best - and yet we are ten points clear at the top of the Prem. now and Champions!!

 

Basically Pearson deserves a huge amount of credit for our Premier League title alongside Ranieri - and both deserve to go down in great Leicester folklore in equal measure.