10 years is a long time in football

[Jimbo]

As we approach the end of the decade, a 10 year period which will be remembered fondly, mostly for the premier league win, it's easy to forget just how long 10 years is.

 

At the start of this decade we had just come up from league 1.  By the end of the 09/10 season we'd secured a playoff spot. 

 

Taking a 0-1 loss into the 2nd leg of the playoff final we overturned the deficit to lead the tie. I remember sliding on my knees in my living room as we led the tie 3-2 on aggregate. Chopra scored, a goal in today's game that wouldn't have stood, I'm certain the goal would have been disallowed by VAR.

We will, of course, always remember that penalty by Yann Kermorgant. And the hit YouTube sensation of the song that followed.

 

Nigel Pearson left the club, new owners were coming in and apparently wanted a bigger name to propel the Leicester city brand to new heights. Paulo Sousa was appointed, and in came and influx of players none of us had heard of and a style of football that made Claude Puel look like an all out attack mastermind. Sousa didn't last long and a certain Sven Goran Eriksson was appointed. In followed more players, £5.5 million for Mills!!! Michael Johnson tried to resurrect his young career. Jermain Beckford and Yakubu, who did nothing but score goals! But nothing ever clicked. A very narrow diamond formation with 4 central midfielders never took off. Sven lasted just over a year and Pearson returned just over a month later.

 

This is when things got interesting. Pearson bought well, and moulded a team together. Helped by the successful buys of his predecessor Nugent, Schmeichel and Konchesky we added Drinkwater, Knockaert and some lad from Fleetwood for £1million!! 

The season after we again finished in the playoff spots. This time we took a 1-0 win away with us to Watford for the 2nd leg. With the tie at 2-2 on aggregate we were awarded a more than dubious penalty in injury time when Knockaert went down. With the chance to secure the tie and book our place in the final, Knockaert picked himself up and insisted on taking the penalty himself. He missed and I don't want to talk about what happened next. I spent the whole of the summer of 2013 avoiding anything football, it hurt that bad!

The season after, however, was about as good as any of truly thought it would get. The lad signed from Fleetwood found his feet, we signed a young Algerian fella.  Nugent finished the leagues top scorer, we broke all sorts of club records and won the championship at what was a bit if a canter, despite an apparent challenge from Burnely. After a 10 year break from the premier league we were returning.

Promises of £180million spent and european football within 3 years were laughed off by many, including many of us. 

The signing of Cambiasso in the summer of '14 got us excited enough. We went in the our 1st premier league season in 10 years full of hope rather than expectation and home draws against Everton and Arsenal were greatly received. The famous 5-3 against Utd was as good as it got for a while though. What followed was a draw against Burnley and things started to go downhill from there. Despite playing some lovely football we couldn't get the results and many of us started to come to a realisation that our visit to challenge Englands elite might be a short one. As April began most, if not all, gave us no chance of staying up. West Ham came to visit and we secured a vital victory. What followed was 7 wins from our next 8 games. A draw at Sunderland turned out to be enough to complete what was the greatest ever escape the premier league had ever witnessed.

In the summer of 2015 the team visited Thailand on what was more of a PR visit than anything else, the owners homeland. We all know what happened there. With his son's involvement in the "festivities" Pearsons position became untenable and again left the club. We appointed Claudio Ranieri, an appointment met by many with disbelief, his last position with Greece was a disaster. Known for tinkering and never actually winning anything, it was a strange appointment considering most of us were gearing up for another relegation scrap. We need passion, grit and determination. Not a different 11 every week with no fluidity. 

Signings like Fuchs and Okazaki arrived at the club having been signed by one manager only to be led by another. This wasn't a good time to be a Leicester fan, there was no plan, no path and everything was rather up in the air. Cambiasso left, despite out pleas to stay and we signed a little french guy to replace him.

Ranieri picked his 1st squad and we comfortably won against a poor Sunderland side. Kante finally made his way into the team and things started to happen. We were high in the table, just early season form though, nothing to get excited about. Arsenal came to visit and the 5-2 defeat put us back in our place, it was good while it lasted. However, it started again, the Arsenal defeat was the blip. We kept picking points up. That lad from Fleetwood went on a scoring streak that went down in history, 11 games in a row. We made it to christmas still in the mix, european football within 3 years wasn't so laughable anymore. Still, pundits were writing us off, we wouldn't last. Key players would suffer injury, form would drop off. Neither of those things happened. Another defeat to Arsenal, away this time, temporarily raised nagging doubts but the 3-1 win away at Man City had us all believing. Sat at my friends house watching Chelsea V Spurs, nervously kicking every ball as if I was in the Chelsea midfield, champagne on ice, Hazard puts in his best performance of the season, he had been missing for large parts that year, and scores what turned out to be a very important goal in our history. We were premier league champions!! We were the best in England. Emotions cannot be described in words from that night, and the subsequent ceremony that followed in our game against Everton.

The following season, domestically, was disappointing. Ranieri had unfortunately started to live up to his tinker man name. Poor summer signings and a ridiculous pre season schedule seemingly took its toll. We started badly and never really recovered. Rumours of discontent in the dressing room followed and Claudio did not see the season out, much the the dissatisfaction of the footballing world, but we could see we were going down if a change did not happen. Shakespear was appointed in temporary charge and an upturn in feel, tempo and passion happened. We went in the the 2nd leg of our champions league tie against Seville a goal down. That night will, again, live long in the memory. Goals from Morgan and Albrighton coupled with a penalty save from Kapser gave us a famous victory. 

Shakespear was appointed permanently to lead us into the 17/18 season. But again things turned sour. Our dressing room was getting a reputation as snakes and player power was apparently taking over. Elder statesmen were running the training sessions and picking the team.  Our 1 chance to become a top, "big" club had seemingly passed us by. We made another managerial change and brought in a Frenchman, labelled by many as dull, Claude Puel. 

Our tactics changed to a possession type game and initially we saw an upturn in form. However, this did not last and by the end of the season there were disgruntled fans. A few good results at the end of that campaign seemingly saves Puels job.

Claude recruited well in the summer of 18, Maddsion and Ricardo were added. We lost Mahrez and replaced him with the wonder that is Ghazzel. Alright, not all the signings were great, but we had some youth and talent in the squad. Ndidi, signed a year or so before, was finding his feet. Big Harry Maguire had a good first year and we added experience with a good mix of youth. That lad from Fleetwood still doing his thing. A dull season followed, defeat to Newport in the FA cup didn't help, neither did the loss to Man City reserves for the 2nd successive year in the quarter finals of the league cup. Puel was gone and in came Rodgers. The same sort of tactics as Puel but with a different style. We had a manger with charm and charisma who had seemed to unite the squad again and our form again improved. We went into the 19/20 full of hope, tinged with expectation. 

 

We finish this decade with a real chance of champions league qualification. Most of us would have taken a europa league spot. That lad from Fleetwood is 4 goals short of 100 premier league goals.

 

It's fair to say that the last couple of seasons won't be remembered as fondly as some of the others in the last 10 years. But 10 years is such a long time really. We started the decade as a sleeping giant looking to become championship promotion hopefuls after a brief stint in Englands 3rd tier. We finish it as a team, hopefully, on an upward curve, mixing it with the big boys, not only in England but in Europe should we continue on this path

 

Thanks to every single Leicester fan for sharing all this. Here's to the next 10 years, hopefully just as memorable as this decade has been, for all the right reasons. Football is full of highs and lows, but to appreciate the highs we have to suffer the lows. 

 

Cheers 

[goose2010]

9 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

We started the decade as a sleeping giant looking to become championship promotion hopefuls after a brief stint in Englands 3rd tier. We finish it as a team, hopefully, on an upward curve, mixing it with the big boys, not only in England but in Europe should we continue on the path

 

A lot of fans should remember this.

 

What an absolutely crazy 10 years.

 

I hope that the next ten are a little calmer... only a little

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Nice one, good to read that and remember how we have skyrocketed up the football pecking order this decade (from a low start but even so!)

 

Even before we won the league, we were having an incredible run, finishing in the playoffs regularly, destroying L1 and the Championship more often that not, and we forgot how brilliant the Great Escape season was once we got the momentum going at last!

 

Its too easy to forget where we came from, an established PL side, and a good one at that, I never actually thought I'd see the day!

[Stadt]

Losing on pens at Cardiff was heartbreaking, I cried when we went down but Cardiff was more gut wrenching because I was more into football and LCFC in general by then. It’s mostly been amazing ever since, if I wasn’t a Leicester fan I’d be a bit jealous 

[Dorkingfox]

Yes, a great 10 years as the previous 50/60 had seen us up and down, with some great football and some total crap. The Ice Kings were great, Bloomfield years frustrating, same as Jock Wallace, the O'Neil years were a great think to happen for us, but the rest was tosh.

[murphy]

It goes to show how quickly things can change and should serve to remind us to be grateful and to enjoy this present time.

[FoyleFox]

Great review of the last decade. It's fair to say it hasn't been dull....

[HitchinFox]

 

That's another great reminder why there should be a roller coaster at Alton Towers named after us...

 

 

 

 

[ithuriel]

I still remember, after taking my niece to watch a Xmas match under Levein, (think it was against Norwich,) when we were hammered and looking at relegation, thinking what the hell happened and just sitting there as the ground emptied wondering where the club would end up.

 

 

[Jimbo]

21 hours ago, goose2010 said:

 

A lot of fans should remember this.

 

What an absolutely crazy 10 years.

 

I hope that the next ten are a little calmer... only a little

 

19 hours ago, ithuriel said:

I still remember, after taking my niece to watch a Xmas match under Levein, (think it was against Norwich,) when we were hammered and looking at relegation, thinking what the hell happened and just sitting there as the ground emptied wondering where the club would end up.

 

 

A fair few fans won't have clear memories of the dross we stuck with through the Levein and Kelly years. Same as I don't clearly recall the Pleat years.

We should all just enjoy the ride, we never know if or when it could end. Take the rough with the smooth and realise just how lucky we are to have witnessed our rise over the last 10/11 years

[UniFox21]

7 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

 

A fair few fans won't have clear memories of the dross we stuck with through the Levein and Kelly years. Same as I don't clearly recall the Pleat years.

We should all just enjoy the ride, we never know if or when it could end. Take the rough with the smooth and realise just how lucky we are to have witnessed our rise over the last 10/11 years

Ahhh i started watching during the joys of the Levein era, how things have changed. From being laughed at for being a leicester fan as a kid to watching them win the premier league, it's been a hell of a ride.

[urban fox]

A great read. just goes to show how quickly fortunes can change either for good or bad. Our current rapid rise is balance with how quickly it all went pear shaped under Peter Taylor. from the highs of the MON years, a good position in the league, FA cup quarter final against a lower tier side to relegation and a downward spiral and years in the doldrums. Lets be grateful for what we have now and just enjoy the ride.