Micky Adams' Dramatic Tenure In Charge At Leicester City

[Tielemans63]

02/03 was one of my favourite ever seasons. Mickey did an incredible job that season. 

 

The Forest game at home sticks out for me. They were really challenging us at that point and Ooooh Tommy Wright scored a cracking goal to win it. The atmosphere at the Walkers (as it was then) that night was amazing.

 

Most of you probably know this but something I didn't know at the time was that the players basically agreed to defer 80% of their wages for the whole season and the club promised them a massive bonus if we were promoted. If, for whatever reason, we hadn't been promoted those lads would have gone the whole season picking up just 20% of what they were entitled to. I particularly love that this was Gerry Taggart's idea. I'd like to think that the others thought it was a shit idea but were too scared of Tags to disagree.

 

You just wouldn't get that in today's game I don't think. If you go to 1:02:35 on this interview with Alan Rogers, he talks about it in a bit of detail. 

 

 

 

[Mike the Metal Ed]

11 hours ago, bovril said:

That was under Taylor.

 

The game I'm thinking of was when we surrendered a 2-0 lead against 9 men. I think Basset was mic'd up for some programme about managers' heart rates. I remember some great quotes - "what do we do now?", "where's Jonsey?". But I've never seen it again and sometimes wonder if I imagined it... 

I completely forgot Taylor started that season  and that we had two abject performances against Bolton

Edited 9 April 2021 by Mike the Metal Ed

[Rain King]

2 hours ago, Paddy. said:

The Forest game at home sticks out for me. They were really challenging us at that point and Ooooh Tommy Wright scored a cracking goal to win it. The atmosphere at the Walkers (as it was then) that night was amazing.

 

Good post but that's the first time I've heard a 1 yard tap in described as a cracking goal.

Edited 9 April 2021 by Rain King

[5waller5]

8 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Bent was surprisingly decent and probably ended up with double figures.

 

As I recall he ended up going to Everton after.

 

Sir Les scored some great goals. Remember when he just used to hit free kicks with pure power  

 

Dickov, no explanation needed, just a pest and a good goalscorer for us.

Dickov ..... in the words of my 17 year old son “is a Btech Vardy”!!😆

[when_you're_smiling]

Vaguely remember the stat being for the 03/04 season that if games had finished after 85 mins we’d have been fourth. We just collapsed late on seemingly every week, even if there were some memorable games.

 

To show how much more top heavy the Premier League is now compared to then, Liverpool finished fourth that season with 60 points. That’s only four less than we have now with eight games to go. We scored as many as fifth placed Villa.

[Blue ROI]

He did a fair to decent job overall given the circumstances.

 

It was a bit of a miracle to get us promoted so soon and the Premier League season was about what you would have expected given the state of us at the time.

 

Remember watching the Leeds 3-2 defeat in 2004 with a bar full of Leeds fans. One of the most memorable games even now despite the loss. The MON era had well and truly gone but even still that Elland Road defeat was like then end of our First Premier League era.

 

I'd say all of us in the bar that night wouldn't have expected to be waiting 10-15 years before we made it back to top flight.

[Steve_Walsh5]

17 hours ago, Heathrow fox said:

Sir Les was brilliant.Tbf Bent,Sir Les and Dickov were more than decent that season.

Ben Thatcher was a good signing that season. I vaguely remember him thundering a free kick against the crossbar one game. 
 

We were entertaining to watch that season as we couldn’t defend but we could score goals. 

[Durnerz]

Thatcher, Bent, Dickov and Ferdinand were top players. Sadly the back line was leakier than a broken colander. 

 

Micky did a cracking job but then again the league was poor in 02/03 and we had a genius in Izzet and a strike partnership hitting them in for fun. With everything he had to deal with he did incredibly well not to walk away sooner. 

 

Listening to former players on Under the Cosh speak about those times and the incentive to get promoted it's little wonder we ended up going up automatic. 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

Ben Thatcher was bang average and that's being generous.

[Golden Fox]

That Middlesbrough 3-3 game... I was house-sharing with a Boro supporter at the time & we were sat in front of Final Score watching the Vidiprinter as those goals came in. A coupe of hours later I was off for my first date with my now wife!

 

I remember we had an excellent team that year full of goals from Ferdinand, Dickov and Bent - the games I went to were 2-0 at Portsmouth, 4-4 at Spurs, 2-3 at Leeds, and Sky games at the pub of 4-0 Leeds at Home game & 2-0 Blackburn, with only memories of sitting through the Birmingham 1-0 loss at home (F*** Off Savage) and the relegation at Charlton where we looked like relegation fodder... and it was difficult to see how we ended up where we did. I've always thought Micky did a great job that year despite the end result.

 

But actually, there was big thrashings of to 5-0 Villa, 4-0 Chelsea, 4-1 Man Utd, and we only managed 6 league wins all season (1 of which was after we'd already been relegated). So there were only 2 other meaningful wins on top of those mentioned! All season! Looking back, I think I was just very lucky with the games I watched that year as I missed out on a lot of dross & maybe the team & Micky weren't as good as my perception.

[Tielemans63]

2 hours ago, Durnerz said:

 

Micky did a cracking job but then again the league was poor in 02/03 and we had a genius in Izzet and a strike partnership hitting them in for fun. With everything he had to deal with he did incredibly well not to walk away sooner. 

In hindsight, Muzzy playing in the Championship in 02/03 was obscene in every sense. He could have held his own in any Premier League side back then. I remember Muzzy and Paul Merson at Pompey basically destroying the opposition week in, week out that season.

 

Still pains me that he left for Birmingham of all places. Should have been given a chance at a top 6 side.

[foxes_rule1978]

On 08/04/2021 at 16:10, Jon the Hat said:

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."

Unfortunately there was worse to come 

[Spiritwalker]

I had a Keep The Faith sticker on my car window for years, I only changed it when we won the league.

 

[bovril]

49 minutes ago, Paddy. said:

In hindsight, Muzzy playing in the Championship in 02/03 was obscene in every sense. He could have held his own in any Premier League side back then. I remember Muzzy and Paul Merson at Pompey basically destroying the opposition week in, week out that season.

 

Still pains me that he left for Birmingham of all places. Should have been given a chance at a top 6 side.

Such a talented player and was at his peak around 2003/04. I also have some regret at how his career ended.

[inckley fox]

Adams did a great job at keeping heads above water. He benefited from the embargo in 2002-03, in that he was forced to work with a squad that had - for the most part - done well in the EPL for several years. It was getting on a bit, but was good enough to bounce back with the right man in charge.

 

Beyond that, it went wrong. Transfer policy was scatter-gun, flooding the place with veterans on one year deals, with very little affinity for the club: Blake, Wilcox, Gemmill, Hignett, Curtis, Howey, Keown, Scimeca, Makin, Gillespie, Pressman, Tiatto, Nalis, Brooker, Canero, Morris... the list was staggering, a turnover of players unlike anything we'd seen before. You could say that the revolving door transfer policy of those years was a necessary evil, but I didn't fully buy into that. We've had many managers who have had to build a squad without a budget - Pearson in his first term, Little, Pleat, Wallace, Levein and Milne all spring to mind - and with varying degrees of success they attempted to build long-term projects.

 

Adams' hand was, to an extent, forced, but on many occasions in his managerial career he struggled to provide for the long term, and that was also ultimately the case with us.