As a new season starts....

[Lesterlad]

1 hour ago, Gary Eatfood said:

Wasn't it just!

 

I tried my best to enjoy it and be laid back about it but it consumed my every waking minute. It wasn't until we lost at Arsenal that I truly believed we would be in the race until the conclusion and as Kingcarr21 said above, it wasn't until WBA drew at Spurs that I knew we'd win it. Then I could relax and enjoy it.

The moment I was confident we would win the league was when Hazard equalised against spurs. I had been following City for 50 years that may and had seen enough downturns to expect the worst. 

 

How glad I was to be wrong 

Edited 8 August 2018 by Lesterlad
Wrong word

[Gary Eatfood]

1 minute ago, Lesterlad said:

The moment I was confident we would win the league was when Hazard equalised against spurs. I had been following City for 50 years that may and had seen enough downturns to expect the worst. 

 

How I’m glad I was to be wrong 

True. I was talking to someone the other day about infamous Leicester capitulations. Bolton, Middlesbrough and Wolves away came immediately to mid.

[Lesterlad]

1 minute ago, Gary Eatfood said:

True. I was talking to someone the other day about infamous Leicester capitulations. Bolton, Middlesbrough and Wolves away came immediately to mid.

There have been quite a few. But the Chelsea v Spurs game made up for everything 

[StriderHiryu]

When the 2014/15 season ended, I genuinely thought that we could get into Europe if we kept hold of Cambiasso. We had an incredible end to the season and it looked like we had finally "cracked it." Then after Pearson went and Cambiasso left, and with Ranieri coming in whilst I didn't think we would get relegated, I thought we would be in a relegation scrap all season long.

 

Absolutely incredible what ended up happening! Just goes to show why we all love sport.

[Vacamion]

 

Check the "Seasons Expectations" thread on p298.

 

Worra bunch of pessimistic fans we are.

 

 

 

[Guest Col city fan]

The should I or shouldn’t I cash out of the 5,000 to 1 bet was always interesting...

[Bert]

Wasn’t happy with the managerial appointment but was prepared to give him the chance. Was just happy to be playing in the prem for another season. 

[Golden Fox]

The conceived wisdom (as usual, perpetuated by the media) was that after leaving Chelsea, Ranieri failed everywhere he went and ended up a complete failure at Greece.

 

When we appointed him, it was a case of going through his history and the stats to find the real story (as usual!)

 

His MO was pretty consistent: go somewhere and do very well, improving performances - before going into bit of a tailspin & being sacked pretty quickly without seeming being given the chance to turn it round (see Valencia, Parma, Roma, Inter Milan, Monaco). Greece was the 1 exception, which was pretty ridiculous to base much upon given it was 4 games.

 

After looking at the facts, it appeared he was a pretty good manager with his main failing being not given enough time when things weren't going well -which was outside of his control.

 

The fact we'd ended the previous season knowing there was some dross in the Premier League that we could beat by being competent, I thought going into the season we had a good shot at avoiding a relegation scrap - with top 10 a possibility if things went well!

 

It just amuses me, that he seemed to come as advertised - he did very well and then was sacked without being given enough of a chance to turn it round...

[PAULCFC]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

The should I or shouldn’t I cash out of the 5,000 to 1 bet was always interesting...

Did you put that bet on?Genuinly interested!

 

[Guest Col city fan]

28 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

Did you put that bet on?Genuinly interested!

 

Nope. Bloody shame!

[PAULCFC]

Just now, Col city fan said:

Nope. Bloody shame!

Me too....not a betting man though.In fact if you put a form in front of me i would't know where to start!

 

[sdb]

I was Luke warm about Ranieri and remember hearing Cambiasso was leaving outside Sincil Bank one sunny evening in pre season. At that point I was sure we’d go down. I do remember having a genuinely really good feeling about this little French midfielder we signed though. The fact our scouts were clearly adamant we signed him. What a season. I get teary eyed every single time I think back, even now.

 

this season, I genuinely think we have a very plain (at best) manager that our squad don’t want at the helm. Coupled with a bloated squad with lots of unhappy fringe players, I don’t think we will do that well, which is a shame given the talent we have in our ranks. 

Edited 8 August 2018 by sdb

[deanolegend1989]

The feeling at the start of the 2015/2016 for me was the most optimistic I’ve been since we came back up.

we had just won 7/9, playing good football in the majority of those games - this wasn’t luck, we had built a good team with good shape.

Don’t get me wrong, I was truly stunned how it turned out and still to this day have no idea how it actually happened however I genuinely was not surprised we would do well that season. I remember when we beat Villa 3-2 and were 2nd and remember saying to my mate ‘I told you we would do well this year’..

In terms of the title though:

1st step - winning at Norwich 2-1 Kante looking brilliant was the moment I thought: ‘aye aye’.

2nd step - winning 3-2 away at West Brom made me think ‘were the real deal’..

but to be honest, I could not actually really believe it would actually happen until we gritted a 1-0 win at Watford...that was the day I said ‘we are actually going to do this!!’

Winning 4-0 vs Swansea was the defining moment..pre game was worried we would drop points without Vardy but after that win it was the safety net of Everton at home and no longer needing points away at Utd or Chelsea which made me comfortable!

this season though I’m not confident. It always feels like hindsite but from my actual feelings at the start of each season here’s how I genuinely felt:

most confident/least confident:

15/16

17/18

16/17

18/19

14/15

This is the most I’ve worried since our first season.

our signings are ‘meh’ at best, Mahrez’ loss will be huge. Vardy is aging and I’m worried we might lose Maguire(even if he stays he’s said he wants to go and his head will be turned). I think we could be in trouble.

15/16 I was confident we would be top half. It was the only season I was excited about pushing for Europe. The momentum and Vardy and Mahrez on top of the game and under the radar I genuinely thought we would be a dark horse(similar to Burnley 17/18 was what I expected us 15/16).

17/18 I was confident we would be solid enough, yet not spectacular(similar season to what I expected)

16/17 never expected us to get near without Kante but safe enough.(we ended up roughly where I expected but didn’t expect us to be that bad under ranieri).

14/15 I expected us to be struggling but again I thought we would be ok, we were a lot worse than I expected hovering around 19 points in April.

18/19 I expect us to be 12-17th I’m a bit worried but hole we will be ok. I’m kinda confident due to the amount of ‘crap’ teams in the league, rather than confidence in our own team.

 

[WigstonWanderer]

I remember just before the great escape discussing with my father that despite some signs of better performances we’d definitely go down because we’d need top 4 level results to survive. Well obviously that’s exactly what happened, in fact I believe the form table for those last 9 matches showed us first or second.

 

After that I was pretty confident that the following season could be really good if they could continue that sort of style and form. My confidence evaporated when Pearson was sacked as I assumed the continuity would be broken, tactics changed to suit the new manager, and the exciting brand of football that characterised the great escape would be lost.

 

Fortunately Ranieri did no such thing, and gradually tweaked things instead. Coupled with signing Kante, the rest is history.

 

I wonder how much we have “player power” to thank for that?

[Frost]

When we beat Sunderland at home first game I was winding up my Mackem supporting mate after. He text me back saying 'I thought both clubs would go down before the game and I've seen nothing to change my mind'.

 

He was right about one at least

[FoxonMaui]

Remember walking into a building supply store on Maui and spotting an English guy who is a mad gooner fan just before the Sunderaland game at the start of the season. He asked me how I thought Ranieri would do. I said I really didn’t have a clue but that somehow we had learnt how to win in our “great escape” and that if we came out with the same attitude from the start we would really be dangerous. He laughed at me in that usual big club fan way we all know and predicted Arsenal we’re going to win the League!! Little did we know. 

Was in England for the Swansea game in the run in and will never forget walking out of a restaurant in Wycombe with friends in the late evening and checking the Spurs West Brom score on my phone and seeing they had pulled the score level, what an amazing feeling that was!! 

[Tuna]

I was cautiously optimistic about Ranieri's appointment, and hoped we'd be mid-table.

 

I was very disappointed with Nigel's sacking, and extremely frustrated by the transfer business, and major disappointment at Cambiasso leaving.

Remember we didn't get Kante, Inler or Benalouane until very close to the season starting (Inler after the start as I recall).

 

I thought the idea of Drinky and King in midfield going into the Premier League season was a shambles.

 

Who'd have thought it, eh? We only won the thing.