Enjoying the ride more than 2015/16

[HighPeakFox]

1 hour ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

This.

 

I never actually even considered we'd get the title until we went to the Etihad and beat Man City 3-0.

We didn't. 

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

The stars aligned in so many ways for the 15/16 season. Unlikely to happen again so soon. At least one of the big boys (pool) isn't having a stinker. But let's see a top 4 finish for what it would be - another amazing achievement.

[Stadt]

I think what the difference is now is that this feels sustainable, if we lose players, we'll replace them, if lose Rodgers (hopefully) we'll replace him well. We're playing aggressive and proactive football which is what consistently wins games. The best clubs in world football are the ones with the best leadership behind the scenes, most clubs will stumble on a great team or manager every few decades but I'd like to think now we've got the apparatus in place to get things right consistently.

 

Manchester City and Liverpool have great squads and two great managers but they got it right behind the scenes which built the platform for their success now. Our ownership, our DoF, the recruitment, the sports science, the physios and so on are all on the same page which I don't think you can say for probably two thirds of the league.

[Foxaholic ME]

9 hours ago, Stadt said:

I think what the difference is now is that this feels sustainable, if we lose players, we'll replace them, if lose Rodgers (hopefully) we'll replace him well. We're playing aggressive and proactive football which is what consistently wins games. The best clubs in world football are the ones with the best leadership behind the scenes, most clubs will stumble on a great team or manager every few decades but I'd like to think now we've got the apparatus in place to get things right consistently.

 

Manchester City and Liverpool have great squads and two great managers but they got it right behind the scenes which built the platform for their success now. Our ownership, our DoF, the recruitment, the sports science, the physios and so on are all on the same page which I don't think you can say for probably two thirds of the league.

I agree I dont think our medical staff get enough credit we nearly always have a full squad to pick from  whereas teams like Norwich  and others have as many as 10 out and Im sure its not luck 

[ozleicester]

No, for me 15/16 was not going to happen...even as it became inevitable i was sure we would "Leicester it"

 

This year...we are as good as anyone, i still dont expect to win the league, but if we do it will be because we have a squad and manager of the very highest quality.

 

Secondary question.... If by some amazing thing we were to win the league, would it "sour" or reduce the impact of 15/16?

[HighPeakFox]

4 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

Secondary question.... If by some amazing thing we were to win the league, would it "sour" or reduce the impact of 15/16?

No, it would just enhance the impact.

[Lesterlad]

12 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

No, it would just enhance the impact.

No this time we will know how to celebrate 😂😂😂

[Lesterlad]

13 hours ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

This.

 

I never actually even considered we'd get the title until we went to the Etihad and beat Man City 3-0.

3-1

[Leicester_Loyal]

12 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

We didn't. 

Smart arse.

[ThaiFox]

21 hours ago, Yes N'Didi said:

Can't agree with this - I think there was a level of acceptance that we were going down before the great escape. I remember drawing 0-0 against the 10 men of Hull when we desperately needed to win when I couldn't fault our effort, just that we weren't good enough. Whenever we conceded a roar of support came out in the hope that we could still get something. I renewed my season ticket expecting a season of Championship football. There was no stress because it couldn't get any worse! 

 

I heard a story from a friend of someone who had got odds of 5000-1 who was offered a cash out (looking to win 25k) and he had a fairly well off friend who told him not to cash out. He told all of the guys mates that if it didn't come off he'd give him the money himself, but not to tell him. After the bet came in, the guy got wind of his mate's offer had the bet not have won, and asked him why he didn't tell him as he nearly had 3 heart attacks. He told him that the feeling of pure elation after the months of nerve wrangling tension - he will never get that again and no feeling will come close and he was able to enjoy every second of it.

 

I know we all probably didn't have money on it but the feelings were the same. Tension, heart ache, pure elation and relief, every game of those last 10.

Maybe you are too young, but 1990/91 was my most stressful year. With the dreadful David Pleat in charge (in my view the worst manager I've ever seen at the club) we struggled all season. I'll never forget that last match, needing to win to stay in what was then Division 2, we played Oxford United at home and won 1-0 to stay up with a goal from Tony James. Those last 30 minutes seemed to drag on for hours, days, months, even years.

 

I thought that would be our ever lowest point in our history, until 2007/8 when the same feelings came back, and we lost our standing of being one of the only clubs never to have played outside the top two divisions.

 

Of course winning the P/L was stressful too, but a much happier stress because it was totally unexpected. Your story of the bloke being so stressed up that season could have been because of his gamble. That's always likely to add extra stress, especially as £25K could have been life changing money for him.

 

This season just feels like pure joy at the moment. No doubt the stress will come in should we be in with a chance of winning the league with 10 games to go. It's way too early in the season for me to get too stressed up yet......maybe a sign of experience and age!

[Desabafar]

Tbh I'm enjoying it more at this point because we're so in control of most games whereas at this point in 15/16 it didn't feel like that. Also don't think we have a hope of winning the league so there isn't that pressure and we have enough of a buffer to 5th already that top 4 looks more likely than not.

[KingsX]

15/16 no worries, we performed close to our xG.  This year I’m worried sick

 

 

 

 

[worth_the_wait]

In terms of "Enjoying the ride more than 2015/16" ... I don't think we're comparing like-for-like here.

 

Our view of 2015-16 is ultimately affected by our knowledge that in the end, we won it.    It's very easy to accidentally transpose that information onto our memory banks when thinking back about the season..

 

Likewise, at the moment, we don't know what the future holds.   so we only have the hear and now to go on.

 

But trying to compare like with like ...

 

After 13 games of 2015-16, we had just beaten Newcastle Uutd away 3-0.  

We were top on 28 points, 1 point ahead of Man Utd, and 2 points ahead of Man City and Arsenal. 

Jamie Vardy had scored 10 league goals on the trot, and was 1 off setting the Premier League record (held by Man Utd's

van Nistelrooy).

Our next match was home to 2nd placed Man Utd.

 

We had no idea what the future held, but the place was absolutely buzzing.  City, County, Club, fans.  Everyone.

 

At the same stage this season after 13 games, I'm loving it.   But more than in 2015-16?  No, not more.   Just loving it, in a different way.

[treer]

the ride hasn't began yet, we just getting on the bus

[The Fox Covert]

We haven't got 40 points yet. We don't have the weight of expectation of the so-called Big Six and it is so much easier to enjoy it. Long faces from the Spuds and Man U supporters at work and the landlord of my local who is an Arsenal season ticket holder. Just waiting for the 40 point threshold and the chants of 'We are staying up'! My estimation is this will happen at Man City on 21 Dec.

[Benji]

I'm enjoying this a lot more and I think it's a combination of having won in 15/16 and the style of football we're now playing.

 

In 15/16 every game felt like it was on a knife edge and after enjoying a win for 5 minutes I immediately started thinking about the next game and all permutations.  Now we've already achieved something I never thought would happen in my lifetime, I can enjoy this without feeling any pressure as to whether or not we could win it again.

 

Add to that we control the game so well now.  Every player is comfortable on the ball and I watch games this season confident we're going to keep a clean sheet.  It's pretty damn great. 

[MC Prussian]

Six wins in a row. New record.

 

Not comparable to the 2015/16 squad for obvious reasons, but the unity strikes me as unique. Great mix of older and younger players (mostly younger).

Vardy on fire again. Tight back four. Creative, versatile, dynamic midfield. Everything seems to click at the minute.

 

Look at the next few matches:

 

Watford (h)

Aston Villa (a)
Norwich (h)

 

We could approach 40 points by mid-December already.

[09bballer]

Today felt a bit like one of those 1-0 wins at the end of 2015-16. A tight game against battling, defensive opponents.

[shailen]

This really feels like one of those moments that could define the season. What a victory that was. I really feel like we have gained the psychological edge over Liverpool and with their schedule, it really feels like it's turning. Exciting times!! 

[Foxaholic ME]

On 27/11/2019 at 10:34, ThaiFox said:

Maybe you are too young, but 1990/91 was my most stressful year. With the dreadful David Pleat in charge (in my view the worst manager I've ever seen at the club) we struggled all season. I'll never forget that last match, needing to win to stay in what was then Division 2, we played Oxford United at home and won 1-0 to stay up with a goal from Tony James. Those last 30 minutes seemed to drag on for hours, days, months, even years.

 

I thought that would be our ever lowest point in our history, until 2007/8 when the same feelings came back, and we lost our standing of being one of the only clubs never to have played outside the top two divisions.

 

Of course winning the P/L was stressful too, but a much happier stress because it was totally unexpected. Your story of the bloke being so stressed up that season could have been because of his gamble. That's always likely to add extra stress, especially as £25K could have been life changing money for him.

 

This season just feels like pure joy at the moment. No doubt the stress will come in should we be in with a chance of winning the league with 10 games to go. It's way too early in the season for me to get too stressed up yet......maybe a sign of experience and age!

If you think Pleat was the worst manager the club has ever had you havent lived you are possiblly too young to remember some of the worst ones but cant believe you cant recall Taylor

[ThaiFox]

13 hours ago, Foxaholic ME said:

If you think Pleat was the worst manager the club has ever had you havent lived you are possiblly too young to remember some of the worst ones but cant believe you cant recall Taylor

I've watched City since the early 60's. Taylor is a top contender for our worst ever manager, no question. But the football we played under Pleat was 10 times worse than anything we played under Taylor. as were McLlintock, Megson, Holloway and Levine. 

 

Taylor was dreadful. He destroyed a decent team and made very poor signings. But at least his first season was reasonable until he destroyed a decent team and signed very poor players for exorbitant sums.

 

Pleat was so bad he almost relegated us to the third tier. His football was truly dire, he took the team backwards from day one and it was only by luck we survived that season after his sacking. It took some years to recover from the damage he did.

[FoyleFox]

At this point in the 2015/16 season I was quite happily enjoying the ride, it was a novelty that we were high in the league table after the misery of the previous season. I didn't expect that we'd stay in the top 4. I'd just cancelled my BT Sport subscription and had a joke with the agent about needing it for the Champions League. Having the points we did meant no pressure of relegation and a top half of the table finish with no drama was very appealing. I fully expected we'd start to drop points and normal service would be resumed from the the traditional 'top' teams. Actually winning the Premier League wasn't a reality.

 

In the new year and even after the Man City victory, I was still enjoying the season and though Champions League or a Europa League place were realistic. I was happy and excited at this prospect.

 

My season turned with 4/6 weeks to go. After West Ham. Sh$t! We could actually win the league!

Realizing this would be our one and only opportunity to do so sent my stress levels soaring. I hardly ate, felt permanently nauseous, hardly slept, I went to bed thinking about it and it was the first thing I thought of in the morning. I didn't then enjoy any of our matches. I was worse than the 'great escape' stress wise as I'd accepted our fate in February or March. This season and experience was on another scale, a complete unknown.

 

So this season I'm enjoying our winning run and our current position in the table. I have no expectation of a title challenge being realistic as Liverpool have lost 3 of 52 matches since the start of last season. With our 12 point gap to 5th I'm hopeful and would be very happy with Champions League qualification. It's all good.

 

If there's a significant shift in the situation come April, it may well be a different story!

[Paninistickers]

5 hours ago, ThaiFox said:

I've watched City since the early 60's. Taylor is a top contender for our worst ever manager, no question. But the football we played under Pleat was 10 times worse than anything we played under Taylor. as were McLlintock, Megson, Holloway and Levine. 

 

Taylor was dreadful. He destroyed a decent team and made very poor signings. But at least his first season was reasonable until he destroyed a decent team and signed very poor players for exorbitant sums.

 

Pleat was so bad he almost relegated us to the third tier. His football was truly dire, he took the team backwards from day one and it was only by luck we survived that season after his sacking. It took some years to recover from the damage he did.

Pleat was a curious era - a slow death of a football club. I despised him at the time but think there was more to it....a lot of antagonism between him and the board I think.

 

He started brilliantly with 4 really shrewd loan signings (best being Peter Weir from.Aberdeen) to rescue us from the dreadful Bryan Hamilton.

 

Then he (or the board) signed  all sorts of relatively decent championship strikers who he wouldn't play alongside the excellent Mike Newell; Wayne Clarke, Jimmy Quinn, David Kelly, David Oldfield and then Kevin Campbell on loan.

 

Bearing in.mind he had the basis of a very good team; Newell, the strikers above, Gary Mac, Steve Walsh and Ali Mauchlen he then car crashed the club with bizarre tactics and signing the likes of Ricky Hill, Terry Fenwick, Martin Hodge, various Southern Irish freebies (any remember the extraordinary tale of Pat O Toole?), Tony Spearing....I could go on but it's too depressing to name all his failures.