Unpopular Opinions You Hold

[Koke]

This probably isn't an unpopular opinion but I haven't heard it expresses much. But Olympic athletes are being exploited. They should receive good participation money and their bonuses for winning medals should be quadrupled at the very least. 

[Corky]

2 hours ago, bovril said:

This is what I mean.

 

What is it about NP that stirs debate amongst Leicester fans like nothing else? It's like our own culture war, just for LCFC supporters.

 

There's a PhD crying out to be written on the subject.

To be honest the only manager I've seen (last 25 years or so) who has been successful and not really split opinion is O'Neill. Ranieri often gets the credit for the title win taken away, Rodgers has many detractors on here and beyond.

 

Pearson probably is over-rated by our fans but the recent success and progress has allowed many to forget how absolutely grim it was before he arrived the first time. I certainly believe we are much better for his influence and the foundations he laid. Sousa and Sven definitely didn't look like getting us anywhere near promotion and Pearson delivered two either side of them.

 

There were things he shouldn't have done, we all recognise that, which didn't help his image. But then he's probably the manager with the most individual vocal support in the last 20 years.

 

After all that, yeah, it won't ever be settled.

 

 

[bovril]

22 minutes ago, Corky said:

To be honest the only manager I've seen (last 25 years or so) who has been successful and not really split opinion is O'Neill. Ranieri often gets the credit for the title win taken away, Rodgers has many detractors on here and beyond.

 

Pearson probably is over-rated by our fans but the recent success and progress has allowed many to forget how absolutely grim it was before he arrived the first time. I certainly believe we are much better for his influence and the foundations he laid. Sousa and Sven definitely didn't look like getting us anywhere near promotion and Pearson delivered two either side of them.

 

There were things he shouldn't have done, we all recognise that, which didn't help his image. But then he's probably the manager with the most individual vocal support in the last 20 years.

 

After all that, yeah, it won't ever be settled.

 

 

I don't think anybody has done better with the resources they had than O'Neill, but he was lucky to have come at a time just before social media. It's like racism - there's less of it these days but we perceive there's more because we see it every day online. If foxestalk had been around from 96 to 2000 I'm not sure we would say that O'Neill didn't split opinion (leaving aside the infamous first few months). 

[Corky]

1 hour ago, bovril said:

I don't think anybody has done better with the resources they had than O'Neill, but he was lucky to have come at a time just before social media. It's like racism - there's less of it these days but we perceive there's more because we see it every day online. If foxestalk had been around from 96 to 2000 I'm not sure we would say that O'Neill didn't split opinion (leaving aside the infamous first few months). 

I agree that he has benefitted from no social media, but when fans are asked of him and his time it's pretty much universal acclaim whereas everybody else has had a lot of criticism and "well, they could've done this, that etc".

[Nalis]

6 hours ago, Footballwipe said:

Agree. I'm hitched on the NP love wagon firmly, but understand that he got stuff wrong both publically and in our PL season until the turnaround, and I think a lot of those on the wagon will see that.

 

However what is baffling are the core of supporters who seem to detest the man for turning this club around. Maybe the same as those who give our owners a cult-like status, despite them having made mistakes themselves (Sven etc). It genuinely saddens me that a man who transformed the club so much has such a negative legacy in the grand scheme of things. I don't know if winning the league and the exploits since then seem to have diminished his achievements.

 

One other thing which @Fox92eluded to, and to rationalise the "too much love." NP came in at a time when this club was on its haunches. It'd been through 4 years of shit, one relegation and it felt like the halcyon days of MON, or even the 03/04 PL season were decades ago. My prime teenage years were spent having the turgid time of Levein/Kelly/Megson etc. We needed something, we needed SOMEONE. Pearson came in and (twice) pulled us up by our bootstraps and gave us the progress we wanted. Gave us the joyous emotions of 08/09, the crushing agony of 09/10 and 12/13, the amazing scenes of 13/14 and the incredible last few games in 14/15. That's why he's so revered by people, and it's actually quite awful people want to blitz that away for a few comments and the McArthur incident.

I honesty dont think thats the case, 99% of our fans like, if not love, him for what he's done for us.

 

I think its more to do with some of us not calling him our best manager ever and not saying that he would have won the league instead of Claudio anyway which seems to equate to some of us hating him in the eyes of some others.

[Leicester_Loyal]

On 24/01/2021 at 16:49, SemperEadem said:

I don’t want us to win the FA cup this season.

[SemperEadem]

6 minutes ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Aha good find. Granted Im sure when I wrote that no fans were there. Stand by it if it was the case that it was won behind total closed doors.

[Dan]

Still think it'll forever be a shame how few got to actually be at it - as somebody who was there.

[Leicester_Loyal]

25 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

Aha good find. Granted Im sure when I wrote that no fans were there. Stand by it if it was the case that it was won behind total closed doors.

Was the first post when I clicked the topic tbf, shows how long it's been since I was in this thread.

 

Unreal that I got to be there that day, will forever be grateful!

[Sampson]

All this talk of Pearson, reminds me of the one that bugs me the most about our ex-players - and don't know how unpopular this really is, but when I see younger posters saying Shilton is a club legend, I find it bewildering.

Was in goal when I grew up, he was a good player for us when we were a Second Division side and a lower First Division side, but definitely not in the same league as Schmeichel at his peak and then was absolutely hated by our fans for decades after he left us, probably one of the most hated ex-Leicester players I can remember when he was at Stoke and Forest, Dennis Wise probably the only player I can remember who Leicester fans genuinely disliked more. Because our fans completely interpreted (rightly in my opinion) that he went to Stoke for money, then went from Stoke to Forest for money too (both were sideways steps at the time) then I remember fans singing songs about his alleged extra-marital affairs while drunk driving.

Nowadays, he just comes across as a bit of a bitter old man.

Went on to have a fantastic career obviously for Forest and England but I think that that caused his performance for us as a club when he was young, to have become overrated in retrospect. I'd put him 3rd in Leicester keepers in my lifetime, comfortably behind both Schmeichel and Wallington.

And I can't be having him as one of our most iconic figures, that only seems to be something I've heard people saying in the past 10-15 years, I doubt anyone would've called him that in the 70s or 80s when his actual time here and was still fresh in the mind of most fans. He was a good player for us (but Schmeichel is most certainly much better), who did the dirty on us and is not a particularly likeable character at all. Wallington was always a far more likeable character, far more loyal and felt much more like "our" player and wasn't really any worse in terms of his actual performances.

Edited 3 August 2021 by Sampson

[SystonFox]

As with all this type of stuff ; Pearson, Shilton, O’Neill et al most of it is nostalgia. Particularly O’Neill.

 

it’s pure 90s nostalgia. The 90s were the greatest decade ever. Coming from someone born in 87. People will always long for something they once had and can never have again or if they did it wouldn’t be the same. Always lots of talk of the return of O’Neill in the mid noughties when we were struggling…. Imagine if he had came back :-/

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, SystonFox said:

As with all this type of stuff ; Pearson, Shilton, O’Neill et al most of it is nostalgia. Particularly O’Neill.

 

it’s pure 90s nostalgia. The 90s were the greatest decade ever. Coming from someone born in 87. People will always long for something they once had and can never have again or if they did it wouldn’t be the same. Always lots of talk of the return of O’Neill in the mid noughties when we were struggling…. Imagine if he had came back :-/

Agree with this.

 

When MON was manager I followed us home and away in my early 20's and they were my glory years as a fan. For that reason, he'll always be my favorite manager.

 

Although I love Pearson for what he did for us, I was busy bringing up two young kids then and hardly got to games, so I don't have the same affinity/connection with him.

 

I'm sure those who will go regularly now and are at that young, free and single age, will then look back at Rodgers as being their favorite. The same as those fan's in their 70's who still revere Matt Gilles.

 

 

[HighPeakFox]

On 03/08/2021 at 09:56, ealingfox said:

 Quantum of Solace - doggo, 

Yes, but... Gemma Arterton. 

[RoboFox]

OG Jaffa Cakes are inferior to many of the supermarkets own brand versions. 

 

The sponge is too dry and they're stingy on the orange jelly. 

 

Aldi's versions are top drawer IMO. 

[LiberalFox]

On 03/08/2021 at 23:04, Sampson said:

All this talk of Pearson, reminds me of the one that bugs me the most about our ex-players - and don't know how unpopular this really is, but when I see younger posters saying Shilton is a club legend, I find it bewildering.

Was in goal when I grew up, he was a good player for us when we were a Second Division side and a lower First Division side, but definitely not in the same league as Schmeichel at his peak and then was absolutely hated by our fans for decades after he left us, probably one of the most hated ex-Leicester players I can remember when he was at Stoke and Forest, Dennis Wise probably the only player I can remember who Leicester fans genuinely disliked more. Because our fans completely interpreted (rightly in my opinion) that he went to Stoke for money, then went from Stoke to Forest for money too (both were sideways steps at the time) then I remember fans singing songs about his alleged extra-marital affairs while drunk driving.

Nowadays, he just comes across as a bit of a bitter old man.

Went on to have a fantastic career obviously for Forest and England but I think that that caused his performance for us as a club when he was young, to have become overrated in retrospect. I'd put him 3rd in Leicester keepers in my lifetime, comfortably behind both Schmeichel and Wallington.

And I can't be having him as one of our most iconic figures, that only seems to be something I've heard people saying in the past 10-15 years, I doubt anyone would've called him that in the 70s or 80s when his actual time here and was still fresh in the mind of most fans. He was a good player for us (but Schmeichel is most certainly much better), who did the dirty on us and is not a particularly likeable character at all. Wallington was always a far more likeable character, far more loyal and felt much more like "our" player and wasn't really any worse in terms of his actual performances.

Steady on, you'll be telling us Harry Kane isn't a club legend next!

[Captain...]

Pearson and Ranieri we're the right people in the right place at the right time. Doesn't detract from what they did, but also doesn't mean they are the amazing managers and can repeat it elsewhere. 

 

We should just be grateful that everything aligned as it did and give NP, CR, CS even CP the credit they deserve for getting us where we are today. 

[Captain...]

I actually came in here to say I really like the smell of the dishwasher, just before it needs to go on, all the memories of decomposing past meals combining in an olfactory assault that is equal parts revolting and amazing.

[LiberalFox]

Rodgers and O'Neil are/were both great managers. O'Neil was clearly heavily influenced in his managerial style by Brian Clough and I think the game has left him a little behind. I'm not sure how young/old you have to be to appreciate that Leicester City was basically the 3rd biggest East Midlands club behind Derby/Forest when O'Neil took over with a modest stadium and resources. Winning the league cup twice and finishing top half of the premier league was amazing in the 90's/ early 00's. Rodgers is more of the modern era and a brilliant coach and manager combined. Different era and I don't think most people would argue against that we're the biggest East Midlands club now regardless of historical trophies. We are the top regional academy and have established ourselves in the top flight in a way that was never going to happen when we were a provincial club playing at Filbert Street. 

 

Would probably have to say Rodgers > Ranieri > O'Neil > Pearson >> everyone else when it comes to Leicester managers (a few honourable mentions like Micky Adams and I quite liked Ian Holloway). [not including managers before my time].

[fuchsntf]

On 03/08/2021 at 17:29, Koke said:

 

Definitely is. 

 

I love the guy and he's easily top 5 GOAT City managers. I do, however, think he's a one hit wonder. In the same mould of Lambert, Nigel Adkins, Roy Keane etc. The guy is 58 years old and has one promotion to the PL. Ian Holloway and Neil Warnock must have about 3 each, and I don't rate either of them. 

We Dont have to rate anybody...

their careers path,their career compromises,their life's CV...Will give them their value...

Is a life-long successful league-3 manager, Any worse than Klopp or Pep...

[Fox92]

23 minutes ago, Captain... said:

Pearson and Ranieri we're the right people in the right place at the right time. Doesn't detract from what they did, but also doesn't mean they are the amazing managers and can repeat it elsewhere. 

 

We should just be grateful that everything aligned as it did and give NP, CR, CS even CP the credit they deserve for getting us where we are today. 

Sorry but no. Pearson absolutely changed us on and off the field and without him we wouldn't be in the PL. Ranieri guided a side that nearly got relegated from the PL to win the PL.... the following season. It's a hell of a lot more than "right people in the right place at the right time" for both of them.

[drumbeat]

On 03/08/2021 at 17:35, Koke said:

This probably isn't an unpopular opinion but I haven't heard it expresses much. But Olympic athletes are being exploited. 

Hmm, yes, the olympics. An overhyped marketing exercise for armchair supporters and wannabe nationalists. I don't really get it. 'Team GB'? (read any other nation really) - what a laugh. Most of these bods have never met each other and never will. Their sports do not intersect. They have their national and international specific sport championships. 

 

The magic of the games (if there is such a thing) is about the individual's performance on the day. (For example, Anna Keisenhofer in the women's cycling road race) And, imho, that has f*** all to do with the olympic set up.

 

Don't get me wrong, I can watch (and enjoy) any of the individual sports in their own right but them all being packaged up together as some kind of festival is an absurdity to me.  

[Dunge]

Nigel Pearson: Good manager; legendary architect.

[Sampson]

All professional sports people and athletes are exploited in ways we'd consider pretty crazy in almost any other area of life to be fair.

 

David Foster Wallace famously wrote an article on it about 20-25 years ago where he concentrated on this professional tennis player who was ranked something like 78th in the world and never got past the first or second round of a grand slam.

 

The article was about how the guy constantly reiterated "my entire life is tennis". His diet, his sleep pattern, when he could see friends, when he could see his wife were all scheduled out by other people - his coaches, the US tennis association etc. And sportspeople get punished and fined and shamed socially and publicly if they don't stick to these things and it has been that way since he was a young child in academies to the point where it was unclear whether "tennis is my life" is something he really thought or something that has been drilled into him since he was a child.

 

Some sportspeople have been brought up like this in academies as well from the age of 6 years old and so don't know anything else - and they forego their education in other areas as well and are often not even taught basic things to function in a society because others do it for them- we've all heard the stories of people like Phil Neville and Rio Ferdinand who couldn't even make a cup of tea or book plane tickets when they retired.

 

And yeah, if you make it at the top and get the glory, then I guess they might say the sacrifices were worth making (though there are plenty of athletes who say they weren't, when they reflect in later life- was it Steve Thompson recently who said he deeply regrets playing rugby and wouldn't want his children to play it?). But the overwhelming majority never make it anyway and are just left to the world having been brought up to believe they're entire life and identity was only about playing one single game and they lost out on learning so many basic functions in society because of their (or their parents, their schools, their nations, their coaches etc) obsession with playing a game.

 

Don't want to say there's a cult-like feeling to professional sport, but there's definitely parts of the culture in professional sport that is deeply unhealthy and we probably wouldn't accept in other areas of society.

Edited 6 August 2021 by Sampson

[LiberalFox]

I wouldn't say athletes from first world liberal democracies are being exploited. 

[leicsmac]

21 minutes ago, LiberalFox said:

I wouldn't say athletes from first world liberal democracies are being exploited. 

Tbh given the amount that fall by the wayside if their careers don't pan out (and sometimes even if they do) because they've not been able to learn how to function in society as someone else demands it sounds like exploitation to me.

 

A response to this might be "but they can always quit", which is true, but how easy is it for someone who has been devoted to the sport at the behest of others to really do something else with their lives? They'd spend years, perhaps, just catching up.