Do we look like a side that is supposed to be challenging for promotion?

[Jonbluefox9]

I remember a sleepy old village squash club which wanted to make a name for itself.

In five years starting from scratch it signed quality players, developed the best junior structure in its region, imported quality coaches to aid their development, used those juniors to win everything in sight (junior and senior) FOR THAT ENTIRE PERIOD period and ended up full of England, regional and county representatives/champions in many categories.

That village club climbed to a national top 20 ranking during that time and for one reason only - not money but by being focused on its goals.

Positive thinking goes a long way in sport at any level. I could quote footballing examples along similar lines

but what I can't understand is why so many of you seem so cautious, accepting and uninspired. Only by aiming for the summit do you have any chance of achieving things.

Look at Dame Ellen the yachtswoman. Derbyshire inland upbringing, mocked by many when she revealed her ambitions in round the world sailing but now a legend in her own lifetime and a person to inspire anyone.

Positive thinking, bravery and belief. Why oh why are some people so hard to convince. Why is the cup half empty in so many people's minds. Levein should have all the time he needs but unless we push him I don't believe he will be the fastest sprinter from the traps.

Why? Cos he's a bit like some of the fans - forever cautious and inclined to safety first.

As one of my critics remarked: "Attack? What's the point of attacking if you lose 4-3?." He didn't say what was the point of endless draws or odd-goal "snatched" defeats.

No offence but Squash and Sailing are totally different to Football. I don't know much about Squash but surely the success of a Squash club depends on how individuals do in their own little games whereas a Football club needs the individuals to work together as a team to succeed? You could get the best individuals in the world of Squash together and have a really successful club but the best footballers won't necessarily make the best team.

I would say to a certain extent in the Premiership a team like Wigan are doing well because they are playing as a team whereas Newcastle have, until recently, been playing poorly with some very good individuals.

[Thracian]

No offence but Squash and Sailing are totally different to Football. I don't know much about Squash but surely the success of a Squash club depends on how individuals do in their own little games whereas a Football club needs the individuals to work together as a team to succeed? You could get the best individuals in the world of Squash together and have a really successful club but the best footballers won't necessarily make the best team.

I would say to a certain extent in the Premiership a team like Wigan are doing well because they are playing as a team whereas Newcastle have, until recently, been playing poorly with some very good individuals.

Team spirit and inter-player assistance is vitally important in squash just as it is in golf's Ryder Cup etc. I was however mainly illustrating the powers of positive thought and direction. I could have used other examples but chose to quote what I'm familiar with.

[Hullfox]

What I don't understand is that people seem to accept CL's explanation that we've been working on defence in training and now we are going to look at being more creative.

FFS, why can't we work on all of them at once and improve them all?

I think that CL's position is tenuous. Not because I want him to go but a couple of bad defeats on the bounce with no sign of attacking flair (because we haven't got round to that in training yet) and we'll have the supporters on his back big time.

I agree that we are a championship team but that doesn't make me want to accept it. I want the good times back and if we don't get them, I want to be entertained. Neither seems possible at the minute.

[Babylon]

What I don't understand is that people seem to accept CL's explanation that we've been working on defence in training and now we are going to look at being more creative.

FFS, why can't we work on all of them at once and improve them all?

I know what you mean and I did think that myself when I read it.

But... he said at the last international break that the defence really wasn't working, and that they would have to review it and work on some things. Since then there has been an obvious improvement so they did something!!

Had the improvement not been there I would have taken it with a pinch of salt like MA's "working hard in training" bullshit. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating as they say. Lets see what happens. If a complete review of the attacking structure takes place like it did with the defence who knows?!?

[Jonbluefox9]

Team spirit and inter-player assistance is vitally important in squash just as it is in golf's Ryder Cup etc. I was however mainly illustrating the powers of positive thought and direction. I could have used other examples but chose to quote what I'm familiar with.

Sure. I don't claim to know much about squash myself but I think it takes more than just positive thinking to succeed in football. At the moment we have too many players who aren't putting in a good enough standard of performance every week. The centre of defence looks good now and the wings look better but our central midfield looked below par and neither of our starting strikers looked good enough. The fullbacks and keeper looked average too so imo we were trying to win whilst carrying about three or four passengers. When Gudjonsson gets back from suspension and Hughes recovers from injury our midfield will be much stronger. I've gone off topic a bit so I'll end it there.

[Guest]

I didn't, i thought it was good business, but Hume only scored 16 last season in a division below, plus Tranmere fans said he wouldn't be a goalscorer, he would be a creator.

We needed a goalscorer, like the ones I have mentioned, but Levein failed to see that for some reason. I guess he foolishly thought Hammond, with no goals at the time, would be the answer.

And as has been pointed out elsewhere, perhaps he was unable to get the goalscorer he wants? The last manager was all in favour of quick fixes, and it did us no good then.

[The People's Hero]

In terms of kit, we don't look too dissimilar to Chelsea, and they're the best team in the country.

[Thracian]

we have got watford, sheff utd and burnley coming up, how many points will we get out of those fixtures? 0 because we are simply not good enough.

Fancy a small bet?

[Babylon]

I reckon 5 points.... COME ON!!

[Thracian]

When you take off the blue-tinted specatacles it doesn't look as good, to be fair!

Do you means there's anyone on this forum doesn't wear blue-tinted specs and has any desire to be fair about our failings.

[frenchy_lcfc]

I reckon at least 4: -

Draw against Watford <_<

Loose against Sheff Utd

Win against Burnley

But i hope we win all of them!!!

[Thracian]

Question now is, will SIRFOOT make a wager?

[breadandcheese]

As far as I can tell, Sheffield Utd have one main difference over us and that is confidence.

When we played them on the opening day of the season, we were much the better team for 80 odd minutes. Two goalkeeping errors, and a defensive slip or two allowed them to beat us.

Since then, our defence has improved (albeit our attack has been weakened by the departure of Conolly).

Either way, I think we can and should beat Sheffield Utd on our own patch.

I'm going for maximum points from our next 3 games. EIther that or 7 points allowing for a draw against Burnley.

[Thracian]

As far as I can tell, Sheffield Utd have one main difference over us and that is confidence.

When we played them on the opening day of the season, we were much the better team for 80 odd minutes. Two goalkeeping errors, and a defensive slip or two allowed them to beat us.

Since then, our defence has improved (albeit our attack has been weakened by the departure of Conolly).

Either way, I think we can and should beat Sheffield Utd on our own patch.

I'm going for maximum points from our next 3 games. EIther that or 7 points allowing for a draw against Burnley.

I wouldn't say seven points is out of the question either although predicting anything with City - except perhaps low scores - is folly.

[Gené and Tonic]

I doubt we will play well for a whole three games

[Thracian]

I doubt we will play well for a whole three games

I didn't say anything about playing well.

Belief, my friend. There is more to come from even this side as it stands.

[Scow]

As Louise pointed out, all Levein wanted to do was improve on last season.

Off the field, the club has made great progress. The academy seems to be making steady progress and the overall age of the squad is down significantly.

On the field, we seem to be playing better football, with potential to improve further.

Results may not reflect this, but bear in mind that Levein hasn't enjoyed one full season yet.

I've had my doubts about Levein - however, I'm more than prepared to give him time, as long as we're not struggling at the foot of the table.

I would be more than happy with a steady midtable finish (Above 15th place) - that would signal progress.

The team is still gelling as we had another high turnover of players in the summer. It will take more than 17 games for things to click. Unfortunately, we're not Chelsea. At the same time, a rotating line up adopted by Levein won't help.

If we're being honest, promotion didn't seem an entirely realistic propsect at the start of the season (Except for the ultra-optimistic minority). I said we would finish between between 8th-12th, and I can't see why I would deviate from that prediction. Whilst we're comfortbaly defensively (now), we don't seem to have enough goals in us. The midfield in particular don't look to have the ability to create or score enough goals for us to be in the shake up for promotion at the end of the season.

[Michael Doyle]

In an earlier post by Anish he mentioned that "its a business after all" and that we needed to stop the fall in attendances. As we all know, any successful business needs investment to take it to the next level and compete in a competitive environment. At this point in time we have very little to invest in the club meaning we need to nurture what we have got to survive in the immediate environment and have to be patient. We have no other choise unless Roman wants to drop a few Million our way.

If we can nurture the team into a consistent and competitive unit we will survive and as part of this survival we will develop a lot of skills by persons who are unknown to us. We are not a Chelsea, Arsenal who are big cash clubs, We are not Charlton or Blackburn who invest their massive TV gains back into the club just to survive at that level. If they drop into the championship all bets are off and their big earners go and they have to rebuild. Add administration and very poor management by T@#$%r, mediocre management by Bassett and Adams to this calculation and we have a Leicester City.

We should be thankfull for MON seasons and the 1997,1999 and 2000 glory days. It was truly a fantastic time for our great club. That's our benchmark for the future and getting there will be the hardest journey of all. After all it took us 33 years (from 1963 - 1964 to 1996 -1997) to win the Football league Cup for the second time. Yes, its frustrating to draw and play poorly but in reality this current squad is showing signs of improvement and we should all get behind them in a positive way.

Lisa`s points are valid. CL wanted improvement on last season and he never said we would be challenging for promotion. In this area Levien is guiding the club well. Slowly but well.

Martyn I think your post was a good one.

SIRFOOT, Looking at it positively, I would like 7 points from the three games you mentioned. Watford we have beat this season already so it would be nice to get three points there. Burnley will be a test of our improvement and hopefully we will get three points there. Sheffield United will be a great test for the club. I hope for a win but think we can get a point.

Now lets look at Sheffield United in a little more detail when we talk about us (LCFC supporters) being patient. How many times do you think Sheffield United should have been promoted in the past four seasons?.... Clearly they have been one of the stronger clubs in the Championship but have not gone up. I feel this is their year and IMO if they go up they will have a considerable better chance of surviving in the Premiership because of the manner in which the team performs as a unit, the fact that they have nurtured a team over a period of time and because they have stuck by a manager that has not provided what all of us want and that's to be in the Premiership. Realistically its far to soon for LCFC.

I hear the call from some that I am setting for mediocrity and I am prepared to take that knock because realistically we need to develop as a team and as far as I can see we should follow Sheffield United stance and support CL over a number of years not seasons.

One thing is for sure that the passion of all the people posts on this site is a true testament to the great support of the Mighty (not so much at the moment) LCFC.

COME ON

MadMick

[Ric Flair]

I really wanted to read all 5 pages of this thread, but after a few posts I ended up putting my fist through my monitor. The I.T guys have just installed me with another one but only allowed me to have a 14 inch brick instead of the flatscreen I used to have, so cheers everyone!

I'm tired of reading the same stuff at the minute and that isn't a criticism of everyone on here because i'm sure people aren't overly happy with things at the minute but i've got to be honest i'm glad there's a two week break coming up and there won't be alot to talk about.

People who are talking about what Watford, Luton and Cardiff are doing this season might need to take in to consideration that we could easily find ourselves doing the same next season. Cardiff and Watford showed no signs of challenging for a top 6 place last season and yet this season they are doing, I know they have got new managers and i'm sure they are the main reason for their good league position but it's not out of the question that Levein can't turn us in to a top 6 outfit. We are improving in certain areas and if we keep those areas of improvement at the required elevel and improve on the other areas such as attacking then we'll be a very good team in this league.

Our defence has imprved remarkably within a month or so, we could improve our attack within that amount fo time aswell. Nobody can say for sure that we can't, I would agree that it will be harder to sort the attack out than it was to ammend the defence but I still believe Hume can score goals at this level and if you look at some teams in this league who are scoring alot of goals it's not necessarily about talent. There are some poor players who score frequently in this league. Our midfield need to take a long hard look at themselves, we must have the poorest goalscoring record from the midfield in the entire country. Shocking.

I'm not putting a time limit on how long to give Levein, I think we are improving and that's all i've wanted from the manager and the team. I've supported Leicester long enough to know we haven't got the divine right to command a place in the top division in this country and I was extremely pissed off with the way this club was run once O'Neill had left us. I think O'Neill was very selfish in the way he managed this club, he knew fine well that once he left this club would deteriorate and he's said it himself. There were no measures in place for this club to survive a massive change like O'Neill leaving, but right now I feel that Levein is putting down the foundations to make this club improve each season without massive changes each season.

I might be in the minority but i'd rather watch the club as it is than watch it being ran like 90% of the clubs are in this league. I like Levein's ideas, I don't like the results at the minute but for me the results aren't that important at present. That can and will change very quickly though.

[lush]

Ric, do you have to write so much, my fist hurts now

[IDEA OR IKEA]

No points from nine coming up

Watford 1-0 loss

Sheff U spanking

Burnley - Spanking

[City_4_Life]

Do we look like a side that is supposed to be challenging for promotion?

No we dont!

[TAFKA Castroneves]

Well I thought I'd add my two cents to this argument - this though is bearing in mind I haven't read much of the posts in here, so forgive me if I say something someone else had or whatnot.

I think we do look like the basis of a side that can challenge for promotion, not now but in the future, maybe even the near future. We have got some players who on their day are premiership quality players: i.e. Stephen Hughes, Alan Maybury, Nils-Eric Johansson and Patrick Gerrbrand to name a few. Secondly we have players who would rise to the occasion of playing in the premiership: i.e. Rab Douglas, Momo Sylla and to a certain extent Mark de Vries. With some tweaking here and there I can imagine us next year being where the Watfords and Cardiffs are now, if we get hold of a striker who can score goals we're looking pretty good - and the results should follow. If that comes in January I don't see any reason why we can't get into the top 10 this year, if not playoff places. Palace done it, and if we arent too far behind the pack pointswise its always a possibility. Our defense is looking good, Levein has done a great job there, the midfield is variable but overall okay to above okay on it's day. Craig has done a lot and I think now finally I can see results coming in the future, if we do get a new striker who can compliment MDV up front we're singing. While I'm confident we are going to see further strides this season we might have to wait till the next. That's the way football is.

[Dr The Singh]

Well I thought I'd add my two cents to this argument - this though is bearing in mind I haven't read much of the posts in here, so forgive me if I say something someone else had or whatnot.

I think we do look like the basis of a side that can challenge for promotion, not now but in the future, maybe even the near future. We have got some players who on their day are premiership quality players: i.e. Stephen Hughes, Alan Maybury, Nils-Eric Johansson and Patrick Gerrbrand to name a few. Secondly we have players who would rise to the occasion of playing in the premiership: i.e. Rab Douglas, Momo Sylla and to a certain extent Mark de Vries. With some tweaking here and there I can imagine us next year being where the Watfords and Cardiffs are now, if we get hold of a striker who can score goals we're looking pretty good - and the results should follow. If that comes in January I don't see any reason why we can't get into the top 10 this year, if not playoff places. Palace done it, and if we arent too far behind the pack pointswise its always a possibility. Our defense is looking good, Levein has done a great job there, the midfield is variable but overall okay to above okay on it's day. Craig has done a lot and I think now finally I can see results coming in the future, if we do get a new striker who can compliment MDV up front we're singing. While I'm confident we are going to see further strides this season we might have to wait till the next. That's the way football is.

I agree, at the moment we don't but it's looking better. CL has sorted out our ability to defend, but I do have some doubts on CL's ability to make us a real attacking threat. Our strikers are not too convincing and we don't get too many goals from midfield. IF we are to get promoted he needs to bolster his squad in Jan, with possibly a attacking CM, and a natural goalscoring CF! Neither are cheap!!

[IDEA OR IKEA]

Nope.

I can't see us gaining it next year either.

I'm giving Levein until February to turn it round, if we are still mid table with no sign of improving, then I'm afraid it will be time for him to go. I can't believe some people are prepared to let this club turn into a mediocre championship side and still give Levein their backing in the hope that it will get better.

No