Danny Simpson

[Shane]

 

[Guest Cujek]

Quality.

 

Love hearing players talking like this, like they would be with their mates.

[Shane]

Starts talking about Leicester at 43:25

[StriderHiryu]

Ha this is genuinely awesome! He's such a likable person.

 

Always welcome back at the KP Simmo! This was a really good listen I think, and very interesting to hear about him. He played the first 6 weeks of the 15/16 season in the U23s! What a turnaround!

[Uncle Monty]

Listened from 43.25. Enjoyed that, he does seem like a nice guy. Eludes a little bit that there was some unrest in the camp surrounding Ranieri's second season. Specifically about the rotation and for him, missing the first Champ League game was dissapointing. He does also say though, that the whole squad was not rotated at all the season previous and it was difficult to adapt to, for both the manager and players. Doesn't sound like he didn't like Ranieri though, in fact, he spoke quite highly of him.

[Crazy Kop Corner]

I know it's been said before but the year we won the Prem he was absolutely awesome 

 

I think Vichai's belief in him was part of him turning things around. 

 

He comes across as very humble and extremely likeable - He's become one of my very favourite ex players - he totally gets it 

[foxfanazer]

Speaks really well any you can tell being at Leicester was the best time of his life. Such an underrated part of our title win but the wider media. I'd like to think most Leicester fans appreciate just how good he was that season

[KingsX]

I knew those mirrors looked familiar.

 

     

 

 

[Stadt]

Why does almost every footballer decorate their house in that awful grey colour  

[Ashley]

Back post Simo

[RobHawk]

Enjoyed that! Interesteing that Benny and Mendy called him yesterday. 

 

[UniFox21]

The section he speaks on the transfer window post title winning season is interesting to say the least! Big names who didn't buy into what they had in the dressing room

[worth_the_wait]

I've really got time for Danny Simpson.   

 

I wanted Huddersfield not to lose any games he played ... and I even used to check out the highlights, and be happy so long as Danny wasn't responsible for any goals conceded!

 

When we won the league, the media was all Vardy, Mahrez, Kante, and some of the other players.

 

Him and Christian Fuchs rarely got a mention, but they were awesome.   They all were.

[HighPeakFox]

2 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

Think it seems that we hit the mountain top at such quick pace, that it was gonna come crashing and burning. 
 

I think everyone was naive post title win in 2016, from everyone employed by the club to the fans, we all just thought no matter what, we’d continue the way we did, then when we didn’t, no one knew what to do. 
 

Luckily, we’ve rectified it since, but I just really would have loved to have known what would have happened had we made some proper signings in that summer 16 window. 

Absolutely right - I think the whole place was probably in shock. I mean, just how do you prepare for that?

[HighPeakFox]

Just now, pmcla26 said:

You can’t, and that’s the beauty of the story and also it’s downfall.
 

It’s just that when you look back on it, the signings just don’t make sense looking at them now. We, as fans, were excited for a few of them and thought they’d add something to the squad but it was never gonna work for any of them (bar Mendy and Kapustka with his promise) from day 1. 
 

Why on earth we spent that much on Slimani when we had Ulloa was just ridiculous and nonsensical. And to only buy one centre midfielder was even worse. 

My memory says that Slimani was very last minute, and I expect there was some panic that people weren't falling over themselves to play for the champions of England. I also think there was probably denial over the importance of Kante too.

[UniFox21]

Was disappointed they didn't ask questions about Puel's era

[HighPeakFox]

2 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I think a lot of the players coming in that summer were just joining us because they wanted to be part of the ride of the 15/16 story, without understanding what the 15/16 was built on. 
 

Furthermore, Simmo says we shouldn’t have bought so many foreign players, maybe they didn’t quite understand the magnitude of what we’d just done being from abroad. 

Slight correction - he said it might have been better to buy more British-based players.....a small but significant difference.

[StriderHiryu]

41 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

The section he speaks on the transfer window post title winning season is interesting to say the least! Big names who didn't buy into what they had in the dressing room

Well I don't think it's so much that they didn't buy into it, but just culturally they were very different. I think that's what he was saying as he even had some positive words about Slimani. Our title winning team was by and large British, and even players like Mahrez had been at the club for a while to adjust and acclimatize. Imagine if we had signed Troy Deeney over Slimani as an example... whilst I don't either is a particularly stand-out player, Deeney would have fit our team like a glove.

 

Anyway the good news is that we learnt our lessons quickly. If you look at some of the other "shock champions" around Europe over the last 20-30 years, only Leicester and Wolfsburg are still relevant. Montpellier, Blackburn Rovers, Deportivo, Verona, Boavista... none of these teams managed to use their title win to propel their club forwards whereas we have.

[Spudulike]

At least we managed to show him our appreciation (and Shinji) in that final game when Brendan brought them on. That final walk around the pitch together 

 

Unforgettable.

Edited 8 June 2020 by Spudulike

[Barrowblue]

I'd buy that man a beer. 

 

He can get them in after that. 

[Chrysalis]

4 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:

Listened from 43.25. Enjoyed that, he does seem like a nice guy. Eludes a little bit that there was some unrest in the camp surrounding Ranieri's second season. Specifically about the rotation and for him, missing the first Champ League game was dissapointing. He does also say though, that the whole squad was not rotated at all the season previous and it was difficult to adapt to, for both the manager and players. Doesn't sound like he didn't like Ranieri though, in fact, he spoke quite highly of him.

Also shows how important the first game can be, the way he talked about the hull game.  I agree with him, if that game was won it would have been very different.

[Spudulike]

48 minutes ago, Chrysalis said:

Also shows how important the first game can be, the way he talked about the hull game.  I agree with him, if that game was won it would have been very different.

Maybe but I think it was also due to the world tour throughout the summer when our players were treated like pop stars. Poor preparation coupled with the introduction of new players upset the squad dynamic. Inevitable, I suppose. 

Edited 8 June 2020 by Spudulike

[Leeds Fox]

4 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

The media were all over us from day one, like he said too. I remember before the Hull game Sky did an interview with Simpson and they told him the bookies had us at shorter odds to get relegated than win the league again. They were waiting for it to go wrong and they got it right from the off. 

I still think the chance of us being relegated that year was probably more likely than us winning it again. We had a thin (but good) squad and were playing in the Champions League. We’d lost Kanté and hadn’t signed Wilf at that point. 
 

Regardless, it must be frustrating as a group of players to do what we did and still be seen in that light.

 

The Hull game was a big loss for us on the opening game as reigning Champions. 

[shen]

6 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Well I don't think it's so much that they didn't buy into it, but just culturally they were very different. I think that's what he was saying as he even had some positive words about Slimani. Our title winning team was by and large British, and even players like Mahrez had been at the club for a while to adjust and acclimatize. Imagine if we had signed Troy Deeney over Slimani as an example... whilst I don't either is a particularly stand-out player, Deeney would have fit our team like a glove.

 

Anyway the good news is that we learnt our lessons quickly. If you look at some of the other "shock champions" around Europe over the last 20-30 years, only Leicester and Wolfsburg are still relevant. Montpellier, Blackburn Rovers, Deportivo, Verona, Boavista... none of these teams managed to use their title win to propel their club forwards whereas we have.

That's a bit of a sweeping statement!

Fuchs, Schmeichel, Huth, Kanté, Okazaki, Ulloa, Mahrez, Inler, Benalouane, Wasilewski, de Laet, Amartey and Kramaric.

That's 13 non-British players.

But I think I know what Simpson is getting at. There was obviously a good chemistry and camaraderie in that squad, full of characters that were hard-working and professional and maybe where language wasn't a big issue. Maybe the language barrier proved an issue for the new signings as well as the struggle to adapt to the PL (Mendy, Slimani, Hernandez, Iborra), which led to Simpson making voicing that opinion.

[StriderHiryu]

11 minutes ago, shen said:

That's a bit of a sweeping statement!

Fuchs, Schmeichel, Huth, Kanté, Okazaki, Ulloa, Mahrez, Inler, Benalouane, Wasilewski, de Laet, Amartey and Kramaric.

That's 13 non-British players.

But I think I know what Simpson is getting at. There was obviously a good chemistry and camaraderie in that squad, full of characters that were hard-working and professional and maybe where language wasn't a big issue. Maybe the language barrier proved an issue for the new signings as well as the struggle to adapt to the PL (Mendy, Slimani, Hernandez, Iborra), which led to Simpson making voicing that opinion.

The players in bold speak fluent English and most of them had also either been at the club or in English football and became part of that core group. They got the Nigel Pearson culture that positively influenced the club and which remained intact even as we won the title.

 

I don't think the 2016 summer signings were "bad apples," they just didn't fit into the culture or weren't able to adapt. Not surprising given that many of the Leicester players careers are almost fairy tales in that they were discarded from other teams / told they weren't good enough. That's why I come back to Deeney who did time inside and has something to prove as being an example of someone that would have fit the culture. Or more recently Jonny Evans who despite being an amazing defender for many years in the division was let go by Man U.

 

Anyway no need to dwell on it as a Foxes fan! Those signings didn't work out, but we've learned our lessons and have probably one of the best overall transfer records in the division.