The "do they mean us?" thread pt 3

[urban.spaceman]

 

[OntarioFox]

On 21/05/2021 at 08:26, davieG said:

I'm not convinced we have to stick a label on ourselves especially one created by the media, we have our own plans and strategy identified and by all accounts we're progressing as per that. Leicester City FC in the current football environment is somewhat of a unique club and our Identity is developing naturally and organically.

 

Besides it doesn't matter how we see ourselves people will make their own minds up about us, everyone's an expert aren't they so even if we wanted to be seen as part of the big heads you can't force that view onto people.

 

 

FA Cup and League Title in the past decade. Maybe more.

 

 

I can just stare off into the middle distance and smile while everyone argues around me. Not in a weird, living-in-the-past Forest kind of way, but an in-the-moment, why even rise to it kinda way.

 

[urban.spaceman]

 

Leicester give their all to the very end but the richest clubs prevail

Jonathan Liew45m ago

Brendan Rodgers’ side were unlucky to miss out on top four after a season racked by injuries, while Chelsea imploded but held on to fourth and Liverpool stormed to third

 

Brendan Rodgers applauds the fans during the lap of appreciation after Leicester’s 4-2 home defeat by Spurs left them agonisingly outside the top four. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Reuters

 

Sun 23 May 2021 21.20 BST

Last modified on Sun 23 May 2021 21.28 BST

As you were, then. At the end of this most unpredictable and turbulent of seasons, a time of pandemic and insurrection, the top four places in the ended in the hands of its four biggest and richest clubs.

Eight restless months after we started, English football’s new order – it turned out – looked largely like the old.

Liverpool’s season of angst, anxiety and crippling injury crises ended in a third-placed finish, a and bracing hugs all round. They may have shed 30 points from their title-winning season but what Jürgen Klopp’s side never mislaid was its unswerving belief in its own methods, its own principles, its own people. They were eighth in March, many of the club’s own supporters urging them to jack in the league and concentrate on winning the Champions League. Instead they ended with 32 points from a possible 36.

Behind them Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea claimed the final Champions League place despite a , at one stage of which it looked as if their entire team was taking it in turns to foul Bertrand Traoré.

For most of the afternoon were doing a passable impression of a side in the grip of implosion, in danger of slipping from third to fifth in the space of an afternoon. Ultimately they managed to find someone else to do their dirty work for them.

And so to the King Power Stadium, where Leicester’s dreams finally ran aground against a rampant, nihilistic Spurs.

Those who will inevitably point to as evidence of another classic Brendan Rodgers late-season choke miss the point: this campaign has been far tougher than last, for numerous reasons. Virtually all of their first-team regulars have spent time on the treatment table this season.

Europa League football and a squeezed calendar have shrunk Rodgers’ training time. Even here their defender Wesley Fofana limped off after 20 minutes. Cursed, crippled and doubtless exhausted at the end of a 53-game season, they nonetheless managed to finish a point ahead of last season and win the FA Cup.

Still, if there was a prevailing theme to be drawn from the two hours of slaloming drama in , Leicester and Birmingham, it was the invisible but inexorable power of self-image.

 

Sadio Mané (right) celebrates with Andrew Robertson and Roberto Firmino after scoring Liverpool’s second goal in the 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace. Photograph: Paul Ellis/PA

To fixate on Liverpool’s and Chelsea’s superior financial muscle is to view only a part of the broader picture. More accurately, it is the heady brew of money, pedigree, privilege and expectation, the muscle memory that reminds perennial contenders and plucky challengers alike of their true place in the world.

How else to explain Kasper Schmeichel’s injudicious decision to come for a cross with 15 minutes remaining and end up punching the ball into his own net?

Until that moment Leicester were still in the driving seat, 2-1 up against a poor Spurs side spearheaded by an unsmiling star striker who wants to leave and led by a manager who looks as if he has walked straight out of an advert for cryptocurrency. From that moment the day began to slip away from them. And as with Jamie Vardy’s poor cross that allowed Gareth Bale to break away for Tottenham’s third goal, Schmeichel’s brain-fade underlined one of the keys to securing the big prizes: an ability to make the right decisions when it matters.

Not that Chelsea were necessarily distinguishing themselves in this respect either. As Traoré put Aston Villa ahead and ostentatiously refused to celebrate against his former club (albeit one for whom he played a total of 10 league games in four years and whose fans probably had to remind themselves who he was), one could feel Chelsea’s composure melting away little by little. Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and Timo Werner all flew into reckless challenges. Tuchel himself hardly gave off the air of a man in control of proceedings when he greeted the half-time whistle by legging it down the tunnel.

And in a sense these sorts of situations have always been the achilles heel of Tuchel teams, which are set up for rehearsed, immaculate control but often come unstuck in more fluid, chaotic games. It happened frequently in his final season at Borussia Dortmund, in Paris Saint-Germain’s games against Marseille and Monaco earlier this season, in the 5-2 defeat against West Brom last month. Here it was most evident in César Azpilicueta’s late red card for throwing an arm in the face of Jack Grealish: his first in seven years and a measure of how comprehensively Tuchel’s team lost the plot.

If Chelsea were fortunate here, then ultimately it was Leicester who were the real emotional fulcrum of the day: a team who for eight months had done a fine job of dressing and acting and talking like a Champions League team, only to find the cards stacked against them. Perhaps they will come back stronger next season. Or perhaps, in an age of cartels and financial polarisation, this was their best and last chance: a door that for all they heaved and shoved at it, was never truly open to them.

 

[Koke]

We're gonna get a kicking in the coming week but don't be offended by it. Take it as a compliment that there are high expectations on us. West Ham finish 6th and they get non stop praise, even though they also lost stupid games like we did. So don't rise to Durham's takes or other fans laying into us. Enjoy the summer, enjoy the Euros and we go again in August. 

[UniFox21]

26 minutes ago, Koke said:

We're gonna get a kicking in the coming week but don't be offended by it. Take it as a compliment that there are high expectations on us. West Ham finish 6th and they get non stop praise, even though they also lost stupid games like we did. So don't rise to Durham's takes or other fans laying into us. Enjoy the summer, enjoy the Euros and we go again in August. 

Any pundit worth their weight will see that our squad simply wasn't big enough to cope with 53 games and a rushed pre-season. 

Already seen lots on twitter, but none of them seem to want to remember the pennies we spend compared to Chelsea/Liverpool/United.

[HybridFox]

If anyone fancies a laugh

 

[don_danbury]

18 minutes ago, TK95 said:

If anyone fancies a laugh

 

40 maddison 40m tielemans and 20 for castagne. great bit of business from arsenal fc

[urban.spaceman]

55 minutes ago, don_danbury said:

40 maddison 40m tielemans and 20 for castagne. great bit of business from arsenal fc

We can’t afford to turn down that sort of money. 

[don_danbury]

29 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

We can’t afford to turn down that sort of money. 

tielemans alone is worth 80m. i was joking with those numbers. having said that, i'd take 40m for maddsinon given how shit he is.

Edited 24 May 2021 by don_danbury

[Mark_w]

6 hours ago, don_danbury said:

tielemans alone is worth 80m. i was joking with those numbers. having said that, i'd take 40m for maddsinon given how shit he is.

Shush he’s English and arrogant, Man United will double the value of the club if we’re quiet about it.

[urban.spaceman]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/24/premier-league-10-talking-points-from-the-weekends-action

3) The right signings could make Foxes title challengers

A run of five defeats in nine games at a cost of Champions League Football^TM sounds like a miserable, ignoble way to end a season. But few fans get nostalgic for that time they qualified for a competition while, on the other hand, those who follow Leicester will be glorying in their FA Cup win until the end of times, and nothing that happened since diminishes that. Nevertheless, they do need to stop this from happening. Like their rivals at the top of the table they have a lot of good players, but unlike them they lack the elite-level talents who redeem injuries and poor form. Boubakary Soumaré, reportedly en route from Lille, has potential, but the onus is on those players already at the club to step up, with Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes and Wesley Fofana looking most likely. If they can, Leicester will not just challenge for the top four but for the title. Daniel Harris

[lgfualol]

10 hours ago, TK95 said:

If anyone fancies a laugh

 

Yeah they'll be desperate to join 8th placed Arsenal now

[Koke]

I totally get that we are better than Arsenal but they are much bigger than us, financially and everything else. That counts for a lot. Ian Holloway left Plymouth who were flying in the play offs to join City who were a total shambles and fighting relegation. He left Plymouth because we are a far bigger club than they ever will be. Players and managers care about this. Bigger salary, bigger transfer budget, bigger fan base which means more media spotlight. It's seen as a step up and managers will think they can turn around a sleeping giant.

[Blue ROI]

2 minutes ago, Koke said:

I totally get that we are better than Arsenal but they are much bigger than us, financially and everything else. That counts for a lot. Ian Holloway left Plymouth who were flying in the play offs to join City who were a total shambles and fighting relegation. He left Plymouth because we are a far bigger club than they ever will be. Players and managers care about this. Bigger salary, bigger transfer budget, bigger fan base which means more media spotlight. It's seen as a step up and managers will think they can turn around a sleeping giant.

Arsenal might have been as appealing as we were when Rodgers joined us but their reputation has taken a hit since then and ours has grown in a big way.  At this stage they are more attractive to a manager on the continent than they are to a top Premier League club.

[mozartfox]

14 minutes ago, Koke said:

I totally get that we are better than Arsenal but they are much bigger than us, financially and everything else. That counts for a lot. Ian Holloway left Plymouth who were flying in the play offs to join City who were a total shambles and fighting relegation. He left Plymouth because we are a far bigger club than they ever will be. Players and managers care about this. Bigger salary, bigger transfer budget, bigger fan base which means more media spotlight. It's seen as a step up and managers will think they can turn around a sleeping giant.

Financially we may not be that far apart at the moment.  Historical standing - yes for sure we are well behind them on that one.

 

 

Arsenal have repaid the £120 million loan they took from the Bank of England due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

They took out the loan last year to help them through a tricky period financially. It was through the COVID Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), which was introduced by the UK government.

 

Arsenal have taken out a loan from a bank to repay the Bank of England loan.

 

[4everfox]

27 minutes ago, Koke said:

I totally get that we are better than Arsenal but they are much bigger than us, financially and everything else. That counts for a lot. Ian Holloway left Plymouth who were flying in the play offs to join City who were a total shambles and fighting relegation. He left Plymouth because we are a far bigger club than they ever will be. Players and managers care about this. Bigger salary, bigger transfer budget, bigger fan base which means more media spotlight. It's seen as a step up and managers will think they can turn around a sleeping giant.

I can't say I agree that Arsenal are a step up from us based on finances etc. 

 

Football has changed, and I seriously doubt that any player would sign for Arsenal right now if they knew we were also interested. I'd be willing to bet that every single one of their players secretly would rather play for Leicester.

 

As crazy as it sounds, Arsenal are a step down from Leicester currently. Only four clubs in England are realistically a step up from us, and none of those are Arsenal or Spurs.

[urban.spaceman]

15 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

Financially we may not be that far apart at the moment.  Historical standing - yes for sure we are well behind them on that one.

 

 

Arsenal have repaid the £120 million loan they took from the Bank of England due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

They took out the loan last year to help them through a tricky period financially. It was through the COVID Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), which was introduced by the UK government.

 

Arsenal have taken out a loan from a bank to repay the Bank of England loan.

 

Have they... taken out a payday loan to pay their payday loan off?

[StanSP]

Match of the Day Top 10 podcast: Lineker, Shearer & Richards rank Premier League winners - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57145394

 

Shearer and Richards vote us 1st for best PL Champions 

 

 

Claudio Ranieri guided 5,000-1 shots Leicester to their first league title after they had almost been relegated the previous season. The Foxes finished 10 points clear of Arsenal with Tottenham and Manchester City third and fourth respectively.

 

Shearer: This is all about the story - escaping relegation and then to win the league. No-one saw it coming - not even Leicester themselves. You just kept thinking, 'When is this run going to stop?' And it just never did.

 

Lineker: To this day I still get emotional - I put the tweet about presenting Match of the Day in my pants up in December thinking it would never happen. My personal trainer told me on the day to not eat or drink anything and do a few press-ups before it but I didn't, I was just conscious of Shearer and Ian Wright laughing at me!

But the closer it got to winning it the more worrying it became because they had this lead and if they blew it, it felt like it would be the end of the world. I watched that game Chelsea against Tottenham with all my sons, where Spurs had to win - when Eden Hazard scored that goal, I burst into tears. It was beautiful - the whole country was behind them, not just Leicester fans.

 

[urban.spaceman]

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

14 hours ago, StanSP said:

Match of the Day Top 10 podcast: Lineker, Shearer & Richards rank Premier League winners - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57145394

 

Shearer and Richards vote us 1st for best PL Champions 

 

 

 

Don't really care about the middle, just as long as Liverpool are last.

 

[Duquesne Whistle]

9 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Don't really care about the middle, just as long as Liverpool are last.

 

I know we came in 1st place but is this the official top ten? Man Utd fans will be livid their beloved treble winners don't figure in the top 3

 

[urban.spaceman]

2 minutes ago, Duquesne Whistle said:

I know we came in 1st place but is this the official top ten? Man Utd fans will be livid their beloved treble winners don't figure in the top 3

 

It’s my list. 

[StanSP]

7 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

It’s my list. 

Vastly similar to mine. I put Liverpool last too

 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, StanSP said:

Vastly similar to mine. I put Liverpool last too

 

How spiteful. I love it. 

[Yes]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alex-ferguson-documentary-leicester-city-5457255.amp?__twitter_impression=true
 

Some more of Fergies comments about us

 

”But then you take Leicester City. Four years ago, five years ago? When it got to November that year, I thought they would win it.

 

Because I think what happened then was they were six points clear, I think, in November. But you know this feeling at the top of the week: if all the big teams are the below you at the start, they want to beat each other.

They sort of forgot about Leicester City for a bit. And by the time it got to April, alarm bells were ringing." 
 

Ferguson added: "They were fantastic. You know, I enjoy watching Leicester, actually, because they play good football and they have a good recruitment operation. And they won the Cup (this season). 

 

"So it can be done. It can be done. There's no question. We never should destroy people's dreams. 

"The Leicester Cities make what we want in football today. It’s not always about United or Arsenal or Liverpool.

"It’s about a small club that can have its day in the sun, you know?"

"I always think that one-town teams have a chance," he added. "Like Leeds in Leeds, Leicester in Leicester – you've got a chance of having a whole city behind you."

 

Edited 26 May 2021 by Yes