Micky Adams' Dramatic Tenure In Charge At Leicester City

[davieG]

Nineteen years ago today (8 April), Micky Adams was named as Leicester City's 27th full-time manager, days after the Club's relegation from the Premier League.

 

 

https://www.lcfc.com/news/1653606/micky-adams-dramatic-tenure-in-charge-at-leicester-city/featured

[HybridFox]

There are clubs that would have 27 managers in a decade these days

[Izzy]

I'll always have a soft spot for Micky Adams. Thought he was an honest bloke.

[bovril]

Good guy who had to deal with some horrendous stuff. Slightly out of his depth in the PL though, and I hold him mostly responsible for our relegation in '04.

[Uncle Monty]

Seems an article about Mickey and Leicester come out every 6 months or so. 

 

Nice to see the warm regard he still has and that nobody really has I'll feeling towards him in a difficult time for us.

[SemperEadem]

Did well for us in really tough times.

[Jon the Hat]

That promotion in the administration season was essential for the club.  We should have given him more time in the end I think, although I probably said the opposite at the time.   

[Kilworthfox]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

That promotion in the administration season was essential for the club.  We should have given him more time in the end I think, although I probably said the opposite at the time.   

He walked, he wasn't sacked.

[Jon the Hat]

7 minutes ago, Kilworthfox said:

He walked, he wasn't sacked.

Such a rarity I had forgotten!  

 

Chief executive Tim Davies said: "This is a very sad day for Leicester City Football Club. "Everyone connected with the club wanted Micky to stay and we did our utmost to try to persuade him to change his mind.

"However, we have now accepted that Micky's decision is final. We would like to place on record our sincere appreciation for the tremendous commitment, passion and success Micky has brought to the club.

"He has been manager during arguably the most difficult period in the club's modern history and his achievement in steering the club to promotion in the season in which the club went into administration is a truly remarkable feat."

[Corky]

50 minutes ago, bovril said:

Good guy who had to deal with some horrendous stuff. Slightly out of his depth in the PL though, and I hold him mostly responsible for our relegation in '04.

We should've stayed up that season. We weren't a great side by any stretch but we had enough good leads in matches, late leads, to see out and make sure we survived. Southampton, Wolves (that game), Middlesbrough (3-1 up in injury times and failed to win!), Newcastle, Tottenham at home. 3 home wins all season was pathetic.

 

He's a good bloke but I think the troubles in his first season cloud the fact we threw away a great chance to stay up and his signing policy before he left (dragging in any over-35 player available) left the club with an aging, past-it squad full of has-beens with serious egos.

 

For all the good work he did, it seemed fitting he started by losing a 2-0 lead to Everton and pretty much his last game was throwing away a 2-0 lead to QPR. Summed up his reign of lots of promise but ultimately not doing enough.

[Fox92]

Absolute hero. I'll not have a bad word said about Micky.

[bovril]

6 minutes ago, Corky said:

We should've stayed up that season. We weren't a great side by any stretch but we had enough good leads in matches, late leads, to see out and make sure we survived. Southampton, Wolves (that game), Middlesbrough (3-1 up in injury times and failed to win!), Newcastle, Tottenham at home. 3 home wins all season was pathetic.

 

He's a good bloke but I think the troubles in his first season cloud the fact we threw away a great chance to stay up and his signing policy before he left (dragging in any over-35 player available) left the club with an aging, past-it squad full of has-beens with serious egos.

 

For all the good work he did, it seemed fitting he started by losing a 2-0 lead to Everton and pretty much his last game was throwing away a 2-0 lead to QPR. Summed up his reign of lots of promise but ultimately not doing enough.

I vaguely remember a quote from one of the players that Adams always stressed they should try and get a 3rd goal when 2-0 up, because of the dangers of that scoreline. Which summed up how fragile we were at that time. We didn't seem to know how to hold onto any kind of lead, even 3-1 up at Boro coming into injury time. It was quite baffling. 

[Corky]

8 minutes ago, bovril said:

I vaguely remember a quote from one of the players that Adams always stressed they should try and get a 3rd goal when 2-0 up, because of the dangers of that scoreline. Which summed up how fragile we were at that time. We didn't seem to know how to hold onto any kind of lead, even 3-1 up at Boro coming into injury time. It was quite baffling. 

Even three goal leads weren't a guarantee. I remember we played Sheffield United just before he left, cruised into a 3-0 lead and were holding on at the end to avoid a draw.

 

I've no idea what happened when we got into a 2 goal lead, I'm sure we failed to win at least 8 matches from that position in his tenure.

[Strokes]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

I vaguely remember a quote from one of the players that Adams always stressed they should try and get a 3rd goal when 2-0 up, because of the dangers of that scoreline. Which summed up how fragile we were at that time. We didn't seem to know how to hold onto any kind of lead, even 3-1 up at Boro coming into injury time. It was quite baffling. 

We gave away points for fun that season. It wasn’t always just the leads that we gave away, we missed a fair few chances to put games to bed late on too.

[coolhandfox]

3 hours ago, Corky said:

We should've stayed up that season. We weren't a great side by any stretch but we had enough good leads in matches, late leads, to see out and make sure we survived. Southampton, Wolves (that game), Middlesbrough (3-1 up in injury times and failed to win!), Newcastle, Tottenham at home. 3 home wins all season was pathetic.

 

He's a good bloke but I think the troubles in his first season cloud the fact we threw away a great chance to stay up and his signing policy before he left (dragging in any over-35 player available) left the club with an aging, past-it squad full of has-beens with serious egos.

Hard to do anything else when you are fishing in the free transfer market, he spent 300k and already had an aging squad, not sure what else he could do.

 

Steve Howey – Manchester City, 5 June, undisclosed

Riccardo Scimeca – Nottingham Forest, 24 June, free

Paul Brooker – Brighton and Hove Albion, 24 June, free

Danny Coyne – Grimsby Town, 3 July, free

Keith Gillespie – Blackburn Rovers, 8 July, free

Lilian Nalis – Chievo, 11 July, free

Les Ferdinand – West Ham United, 11 July, free

Ben Thatcher – Tottenham Hotspur, 17 July, £300,000

Craig Hignett – Blackburn Rovers, 18 July, free

Steve Guppy – Celtic, 13 January, free

Lee Morris – Derby County, 2 February, nominal fee

Nicolas Priet – Lyon, free

 

Quote

 

For all the good work he did, it seemed fitting he started by losing a 2-0 lead to Everton and pretty much his last game was throwing away a 2-0 lead to QPR. Summed up his reign of lots of promise but ultimately not doing enough.

I just don't think there was quality in the squad to complete, in his tenure he spent around 2m over 2.5 season.

 

He did well with with mission impossible in my view. 

Edited 8 April 2021 by coolhandfox

[The People's Hero]

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

I'll always have a soft spot for Micky Adams. Thought he was an honest bloke.

I'll always remember the first time he doubled our efforts on the training ground. You can only 'double' them once; then its all about 're-doubling'; a seemingly exponential increased in training intensity. No wonder they always looked tired.

[coolhandfox]

Let be honest we did a lot worse once he left...........

[Dan LCFC]

Too young to really appreciate the ins and outs but I think really when you look back you've got to say he did a good job in horrendous circumstances.

[Paninistickers]

12 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Hard to do anything else when you are fishing in the free transfer market, he spent 300k and already had an aging squad, not sure what else he could do.

 

Steve Howey – Manchester City, 5 June, undisclosed

Riccardo Scimeca – Nottingham Forest, 24 June, free

Paul Brooker – Brighton and Hove Albion, 24 June, free

Danny Coyne – Grimsby Town, 3 July, free

Keith Gillespie – Blackburn Rovers, 8 July, free

Lilian Nalis – Chievo, 11 July, free

Les Ferdinand – West Ham United, 11 July, free

Ben Thatcher – Tottenham Hotspur, 17 July, £300,000

Craig Hignett – Blackburn Rovers, 18 July, free

Steve Guppy – Celtic, 13 January, free

Lee Morris – Derby County, 2 February, nominal fee

Nicolas Priet – Lyon, free

 

I just don't think the quality in the squad to complete, in his tenure he spent around 2m over 2.5 season.

 

He did well will with mission impossible in my view. 

That summer was dave Bassett as DoF wheeling and dealing. Used every number in his little black book to call in favours. It was a marvellous effort with f all money (the Premier.money we'd normally have had being used to service the admin buy out)

 

Adams did the signings on his own the following summer; keown etc. A disaster. 

 

Adams was a credit in the promotion season. And very nearly pulled off an unlikely survival in his second, but for the much documented last.minute disasters. 

 

Credit to the man's honesty..He resigned after the QPR farce but prior to that, had offered his resignation after the nightmare wolves away game, so sickening was the score. 

 

Oddly, he did know how to coach us to close a game. After wolves, we went on to win the next two v Blackburn and 3-0 away at man City. I remember being amazed at man City how professional we managed the game after being so inept at wolves trying to do the same a week earlier. You could seenthe coaching that had gone into it. Sadly, such game.management was short lived

[Nalis]

It was a bit of a bizarre season 03-04.

 

We had a misfit squad where most were surprisingly better than I thought they would be. Also had a bit of bad luck in matches and genuinely thought we should have stayed up if not for bad luck and bad decision.

 

It wouldnt have been sustainable though and think we would have been relegated the following season anyway.

[norwichfox]

Performed a miracle for us...

[Jaspa]

An exceptional chin on that man.

 

You've gotta say he did a decent firefighting job, the club post Taylor was ablaze and while he didn't leave us in the best state it could've been alot worse. Getting us back up straight away was a great achievement.

[coolhandfox]

27 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

That summer was dave Bassett as DoF wheeling and dealing. Used every number in his little black book to call in favours. It was a marvellous effort with f all money (the Premier.money we'd normally have had being used to service the admin buy out)

 

Adams did the signings on his own the following summer; keown etc. A disaster. 

 

Adams was a credit in the promotion season. And very nearly pulled off an unlikely survival in his second, but for the much documented last.minute disasters. 

 

Credit to the man's honesty..He resigned after the QPR farce but prior to that, had offered his resignation after the nightmare wolves away game, so sickening was the score. 

 

Oddly, he did know how to coach us to close a game. After wolves, we went on to win the next two v Blackburn and 3-0 away at man City. I remember being amazed at man City how professional we managed the game after being so inept at wolves trying to do the same a week earlier. You could seenthe coaching that had gone into it. Sadly, such game.management was short lived

Dave Bassett was still at the club, so hoe do you know MA was responsible for the signings that summer?

 

He even took over management responsibilities as caretaker when Micky left...

Edited 8 April 2021 by coolhandfox

[Corky]

51 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Hard to do anything else when you are fishing in the free transfer market, he spent 300k and already had an aging squad, not sure what else he could do.

 

Steve Howey – Manchester City, 5 June, undisclosed

Riccardo Scimeca – Nottingham Forest, 24 June, free

Paul Brooker – Brighton and Hove Albion, 24 June, free

Danny Coyne – Grimsby Town, 3 July, free

Keith Gillespie – Blackburn Rovers, 8 July, free

Lilian Nalis – Chievo, 11 July, free

Les Ferdinand – West Ham United, 11 July, free

Ben Thatcher – Tottenham Hotspur, 17 July, £300,000

Craig Hignett – Blackburn Rovers, 18 July, free

Steve Guppy – Celtic, 13 January, free

Lee Morris – Derby County, 2 February, nominal fee

Nicolas Priet – Lyon, free

 

I just don't think the quality in the squad to complete, in his tenure he spent around 2m over 2.5 season.

 

He did well will with mission impossible in my view. 

Not that season, the year after (summer 2004). Dublin, Keown, Pressman, Gemmill, Wilcox, Blake- all past it.

 

Surely the lower leagues had up and coming players who were relatively cheap?

[coolhandfox]

25 minutes ago, Corky said:

Not that season, the year after (summer 2004). Dublin, Keown, Pressman, Gemmill, Wilcox, Blake- all past it.

 

Surely the lower leagues had up and coming players who were relatively cheap?

Maybe, but we got much worse when he left!