FA Cup winners - was that the final piece in the jigsaw?

[Lambert09]

Not to diminish our achievement, but we have the same amount of Fa Cups as Oxford University, clapham rovers and the royal engineers and we hake 1 less than Old Etonians 

Edited 28 September 2021 by Lambert09

[volpeazzurro]

20 minutes ago, Vestan Pance said:

Not for me no. I've always believed that history shows we have underachieved. The size of our City and being a one Club County would suggest we should have had more success. 

There's no reason why we shouldn't keep dreaming of winning more and bigger prizes. 

Yes, I agree with that. We're still a bit of a loose canon for the big clubs and unpredictable. 

 

Yes, absolutely we can't compete with quite a number of other teams financially, but we of all people know that that isn't all that counts. We have been recruiting so well in general over the last few years in a way I would suggest that we put some of the so called bigger clubs to shame with what we've unearthed. It really isn't that dissimilar to Dortmund as a model at times.

 

If we can continue that type of successful recruitment, then for me, this isn't the end of the fairytale. Whilst we may have a couple of injuries to two key players in particular at the moment, I still think we're left with a very strong squad to compete very effectively. I personally don't think we're seeing or getting the best out of our squad at the moment for whatever reason.

 

Do we honestly believe that even without Evans and Fofana, that Everton, Villa, Brighton and Brentford have got better players than we have? No, I just think that sometimes, like them, you have to find a way to win with what you've got available to you at the time regardless of whether the methods used offend your eye or philosophical beliefs. They can be re-introduced when you have the luxury of everyone fit. In the meantime, crack on with a bit of self belief. I believe we have enough to be fighting for 5th place and a decent run in Europe. 

[indierich06]

I feel genuinely sorry for my three year old lad. By the time he's proper into the football, our best days will probably be behind us!

[Vazman]

No way is that jigsaw finished half way through it, with serious investment in Training facilities, and continued purchasing, and development of young talent we are not done yet, with hard work and determination we won the Prem, with the same attributes we won the FA Cup, granted there will be bumps along the way, injuries, form, etc but I'm proud to be a true blue, Leicester Foxes Fan and always will be! 

[Hoopla10]

7 hours ago, Spudulike said:

City no longer owe me anything

I'm confused. Is that normal? I've never thought City owed me anything. That was never a part of the agreement as far as I remember. It felt like any relationship, that it was a journey and the experience would be its own reward. Be it away games in the first division or watching us win the PL. There's no jigsaw, finished piece or even a single picture. It's a journey. With highs and lows. And if I get bored or lose interest I'll get off and give everybody still on for the ride my best wishes. 

[JamesfromlondonLCFC]

honestly, the thought of Vardy and Kasper getting their hands on any sort of European gold is my only real dream left. Like at that point, they will undeniably be our two best players ever (quite likely already are) and youd probably bet they would never be matched. Also would pretty much force European football to accept us as legitimate, which i dont necessarily care about, but is an added bonus.

[BoyJones]

Mate, if we suffered three relegations in succession, it wouldn’t stop me one iota going to watch the lads. This win at all costs is alien to me. If we lose, we lose. I love my team. I love us to win and if we lose my weekend is ruined. But without the downside, you can’t really appreciate and cherish the successful times. I’ve probably been to over 1500 games. 
 

This constant denigration of the manager, team and certain players when we lose or are in a bad patch saddens me and it looks like lots of so called fans are jumping on this band wagon. The vendetta against Maddison and Pérez is frankly disgraceful. Are you all perfect at your jobs? I don’t understand the mentality, we are a top 20 side in Europe and people still bitch. I’m not a happy clapper, but I am a realist. I don’t expect other teams to roll over. Look at Burnley, played their hearts out and got their point. 
 

This team owes us nothing; we owe them for the joy they have brought us over the last six years in particular. A lot of our fans have short memories. 
 

I’m glad I’m approaching my seventh decade supporting Leicester, not many years left, but what a brilliant journey. I just feel sorry for my grandchildren because they won’t experience the highs and lows I’ve had. The current set of the many toxic “fans” who inhabit this forum and who jump on every mistake are determined to take away the joy of supporting Leicester because unless we win every game, they will criticise and point blame to the Nth degree. 

[Daggers]

I didn't go to a match or look for a result after the title win - for two years. Nothing.

 

I'm back in, but I'm hankering for third tier football more than ever. European nights have an allure that I love, but the rest of it I can take or leave. It's not that it's done, it's just I struggle to summon any enthusiasm for the league stuff any more.

 

Football for me is about those days that are events in themselves. The stuff we have now is just continual expectation and griping - there's precious little joy in it. Give me 3-0 away to Hartlepool in the Johnston's Paint Trophy any day of the week...but preferably a Tuesday in winter when it's raining.

[Foxxed]

The jigsaw analogy, like jigsaws, was fun while it wasn’t complete.

[Duquesne Whistle]

9 hours ago, Lambert09 said:

Not to diminish our achievement, but we have the same amount of Fa Cups as Oxford University, clapham rovers and the royal engineers and we hake 1 less than Old Etonians 

 -=

 

 

[Vazman]

6 hours ago, BoyJones said:

Mate, if we suffered three relegations in succession, it wouldn’t stop me one iota going to watch the lads. This win at all costs is alien to me. If we lose, we lose. I love my team. I love us to win and if we lose my weekend is ruined. But without the downside, you can’t really appreciate and cherish the successful times. I’ve probably been to over 1500 games. 
 

This constant denigration of the manager, team and certain players when we lose or are in a bad patch saddens me and it looks like lots of so called fans are jumping on this band wagon. The vendetta against Maddison and Pérez is frankly disgraceful. Are you all perfect at your jobs? I don’t understand the mentality, we are a top 20 side in Europe and people still bitch. I’m not a happy clapper, but I am a realist. I don’t expect other teams to roll over. Look at Burnley, played their hearts out and got their point. 
 

This team owes us nothing; we owe them for the joy they have brought us over the last six years in particular. A lot of our fans have short memories. 
 

I’m glad I’m approaching my seventh decade supporting Leicester, not many years left, but what a brilliant journey. I just feel sorry for my grandchildren because they won’t experience the highs and lows I’ve had. The current set of the many toxic “fans” who inhabit this forum and who jump on every mistake are determined to take away the joy of supporting Leicester because unless we win every game, they will criticise and point blame to the Nth degree. 

I agree with most of what you have written and totally respect what your saying. 

 

However in some instances, I dont see the levels of performance from some players that you'd expect, and I also get there are reasons for that, if that's the case they should be dropped and replaced by someone who has more to give it's about maximum team effort equals best performance, if we win great if we lose so be it at least we tried with the best motivated team available.

 

The wages these lads are on is incredible and I earn half of what some of these guys make in a week in an entire year, and like alot of people have to work damn hard to get it, and often use, like many others here a good whack of what I earn to watch  matches, I dont think its unreasonable to expect a decent team selection based on in form players and best effort from the team collectively.

 

I do love this club and will follow it forever no matter what, and have like many others enjoyed the highs and lows, but I'm not happy to sit back and just be happy with what we have done based on what's been achieved, and I dont think the club is either, i dont applaud having ago at players etc, and understand the impact it can have but if I underperform at work, consistently for a number of weeks I'll either be moved to an easier less paid position, or worse case sacked, it should be no different for a footballer earning buckets of cash per week so in a long winded explanation yes players should be critisised constructively, if they're not performing, like they are celebrated when performing well, we have a good manager and talented players and I'm sure it will all click soon, we have had some bad luck and some injuries, but there is enough in this squad at present, our results for me are not matching what's its capable of given the best team selection, that's not an unreasonable suggestion at this stage.  Do some on here go over the top and not consider all mitigating circumstances yes but it's out of passion and wanting to do well, are some expectations to high, probably I dont think we should just be happy with what we've got we should aspire for more, in a realistic constructive manner.

[Fox92]

Gotta go for the Europa League while we can. We'll not be in the position forever.

 

A European trophy would be superb. 

[Monk]

Growing up in the 90s the thought that we might one day win the premier league was an unthinkable fantasy. 
 

Winning the FA cup was imaginable - it’s a cup competition and anything is possible in knock outs.

 

We are now in a bizarre situation where many of our younger fans have unreasonably high expectations because of the success of the last 5 years.
 

I expect we will continue to develop and grow as a club, but competing with the mega rich clubs of the world is very difficult in the long run. We need to be constantly finding great value transfers and selling them on at a profit to sustain that growth within FFP.
 

I hold out hope that we will continue to win things but having been a fan for 25 years prior to the league win I have zero expectations.  

[filbertway]

Just now, Monk said:

Growing up in the 90s the thought that we might one day win the premier league was an unthinkable fantasy. 
 

Winning the FA cup was imaginable - it’s a cup competition and anything is possible in knock outs.

 

We are now in a bizarre situation where many of our younger fans have unreasonably high expectations because of the success of the last 5 years.
 

I expect we will continue to develop and grow as a club, but competing with the mega rich clubs of the world is very difficult in the long run. We need to be constantly finding great value transfers and selling them on at a profit to sustain that growth within FFP.
 

I hold out hope that we will continue to win things but having been a fan for 25 years prior to the league win I have zero expectations.  

 

I'm 31 and saw us in league one, getting relegated, being also rans in the championship.

 

I also recognise that we are now an incredibly intelligently ran club that more often than not gets things right, also a rare thing is that the people running the club continue to improve. So not only do they consistently make decisions that benefit the club, they improve on their weaknesses.

 

I find it really odd how you can't expect a club that operates as well as we do, to not compete with the top 6 and do well in cup competitions. We'll always struggle to genuinely compete with the top teams consistently because they;re much better off than us. The longer we're around the top 6 though, the more commercial revenue we'll generate and we can start to try and bridge that gap.

 

There won't be any people that genuinely expect us to go and compete for the title, but at the moment, people should be expecting us to finish in an around the top 6 on a regular basis and challenge for trophies. Based on the strength of our squad, our recruitment and our 200k p/w manager.

 

If the owners leave, or we see negative changes at the club, then you adjust expectations on the pitch. Right now though, given where we are and quality of our squad, it's perfectly reasonable to have relatively high expecations of the the management and team. No team/manager in our history has been paid as much or had better facilities or options available.

 

[fuchsntf]

12 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Yes, I agree with that. We're still a bit of a loose canon for the big clubs and unpredictable. 

 

Yes, absolutely we can't compete with quite a number of other teams financially, but we of all people know that that isn't all that counts. We have been recruiting so well in general over the last few years in a way I would suggest that we put some of the so called bigger clubs to shame with what we've unearthed. It really isn't that dissimilar to Dortmund as a model at times.

 

If we can continue that type of successful recruitment, then for me, this isn't the end of the fairytale. Whilst we may have a couple of injuries to two key players in particular at the moment, I still think we're left with a very strong squad to compete very effectively. I personally don't think we're seeing or getting the best out of our squad at the moment for whatever reason.

 

Do we honestly believe that even without Evans and Fofana, that Everton, Villa, Brighton and Brentford have got better players than we have? No, I just think that sometimes, like them, you have to find a way to win with what you've got available to you at the time regardless of whether the methods used offend your eye or philosophical beliefs. They can be re-introduced when you have the luxury of everyone fit. In the meantime, crack on with a bit of self belief. I believe we have enough to be fighting for 5th place and a decent run in Europe. 

I am a BvB fan( 60yrs) though City still Top priority, even with their ups & downs, we are still quite Away off, comparing & matching up to bienja-maya...

& Our fans cant compare with the Gelbe Wand..Nor their fans input...

[MalletFox]

The short and simple answer to this is … no!

 

With the investment in the training ground and the soon to be extended East stand and associated development, I genuinely believe the not too distant future for us is incredibly bright! Khun Top and the club hierarchy won’t accept mediocrity, the vision they have for us is to be constant trophy challengers (which we have been under Rodgers). If or when that starts to fall away (every manager/club has a lifecycle where things start to fall below expectations & change is required), I expect the calibre of manager we can now attract to be of genuine top European/world class calibre.
 

I never really have the expectation that we will win this or that, or be guaranteed of top 5 in the Prem etc, but that’s possibly more of an engrained Foxes fan coping mechanism than a  reflection of what level we are genuinely at.

[ScrumpyJack]

Final piece of the jigsaw will be this image immortalised with a statue after the stadium development, add in Khun Vichai for good measure!

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, Monk said:

Growing up in the 90s the thought that we might one day win the premier league was an unthinkable fantasy. 
 

Winning the FA cup was imaginable - it’s a cup competition and anything is possible in knock outs.

 

We are now in a bizarre situation where many of our younger fans have unreasonably high expectations because of the success of the last 5 years.
 

I expect we will continue to develop and grow as a club, but competing with the mega rich clubs of the world is very difficult in the long run. We need to be constantly finding great value transfers and selling them on at a profit to sustain that growth within FFP.
 

I hold out hope that we will continue to win things but having been a fan for 25 years prior to the league win I have zero expectations.  

I think it is healthy that supporters,  say, 20 and under are developing a different connection to the club  to those of the over 40s. 

 

I have that loser mentality. My era is is football equivalent of being brought up on a council estate wearing hand me downs... kids however are being brought up in a 5 bed detached and complain if the rainforest shower isn't blasting at full strength. 

 

I hope the club continues to build a support that demands more than mediocrity.

 

As.for the OP, the fa Cup final has just about capped it for me. It meant more than the PL. City's relationship with the fa Cup was very deep. We've never had that same depth of feeling or history with top-flight football ..63.apart, no near misses or could've beens or classic top of the table clashes....

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, fuchsntf said:

I am a BvB fan( 60yrs) though City still Top priority, even with their ups & downs, we are still quite Away off, comparing & matching up to bienja-maya...

& Our fans cant compare with the Gelbe Wand..Nor their fans input...

Yes, I don't disagree with that. However, for a while now, my son and I have taken an interest in them and they do exceptionally well it would seem by being very shrewd operators in a good way. I think if we could ever actually get over to Germany it would be the team we'd want to go and watch. I just see some mild similarities that's all which can only be a good thing. Like us, I think they've experienced a few up and downs over the years. Have you actually been over to watch them?

[fuchsntf]

4 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Yes, I don't disagree with that. However, for a while now, my son and I have taken an interest in them and they do exceptionally well it would seem by being very shrewd operators in a good way. I think if we could ever actually get over to Germany it would be the team we'd want to go and watch. I just see some mild similarities that's all which can only be a good thing. Like us, I think they've experienced a few up and downs over the years. Have you actually been over to watch them?

I Live here...But a few 100km from Dortmund Westfalenstadium. Before my disabilities, my Son ( Now over 30), used to go regular...for league/ cup & Europe.

I have stood Incognito in a few Kops including The Great Classic Anfield...The Gelbe Wand is something else...

Then I moved to the seats. Though to be fair, I have probably seen more live City games over 62+yrs...Home & away.

Even when my own sporting-path curtailed Saturday & some midweek games.

Before I go the Grim Reeper comes a calling, I would Love nothing more than to see City vs BvB   in Champions-league...

 

But just holding onto that thought alone....

 No matter how we have developed over these 10years,  its still a massive Chasm for city to

 hit a period of season after season to achieve consistently the top 6 & occasionally drift into those covetted top 4 positions..

 

Edited 29 September 2021 by fuchsntf

[iancognito]

Getting there is the easy part, staying there is far tougher.

 

We can't ever hope to have long dynasty of trophies & success like United, Arsenal or Liverpool. But someone has to be the next Chelsea or Spurs, regularly being in and around that top 6. Equally, that super league shambles last season showed that anything can happen in this game and if there ever is a breakaway, "the other 14"  will all have a chance to step up.

Nothing will match the first title or the first cup but the "honours" bit of our club profile is still far too short for my liking.

[volpeazzurro]

4 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

I Live here...But a few 100km from Dortmund Westfalenstadium. Before my disabilities, my Son ( Now over 30), used to go regular...for league/ cup & Europe.

I have stood Incognito in a few Kops including The Great Classic Anfield...The Gelbe Wand is something else...

Then I moved to the seats. Though to be fair, I have probably seen more live City games over 62+yrs...Home & away.

Even when my own sporting-path curtailed Saturday & some midweek games.

Before I go the Grim Reeper comes a calling, I would Love nothing more than to see City vs BvB   in Champions-league...

 

But just holding onto that thought alone....

 No matter how we have developed over these 10years,  its still a massive Chasm for city to

 hit a period of season after season to achieve consistently the top 6 & occasionally drift into those covetted top 4 positions..

 

Yes, it's a big ask and regular top cannot reasonably be expected. That's why perhaps when we have a really good chance of achieving it on the odd occasion we can, we should really throw everything at it and not shy away. 

 

Yes, wouldn't a meeting between the two teams be fantastic though!

[Swalshed]

It's always going to be a bit of a puzzle with our little, but incredibly special and unique football club. Could be top 5 or maybe bottom 5; FA Cup winners or knocked out in the 3rd round by Newport County! Whatever Leicester City serves up, just enjoy the ride, however puzzling, exhilarating or frustrating it proves to be. But as Claudio said "Never stop dreaming" 

🙂👍

[TAFKA Castroneves]

I get what you’re saying and I have a similar feeling of, “completion” about it all since we won the FA Cup.

 

But I think a lot of that for me is more of the story that exact FA Cup journey completed in our modern history than that of our overall existence.

 

It felt to me (and maybe others as well) we completed a promise that the players held to Vichai, to win a trophy for him (it was just great it was the one we were missing) after he brought us to the Premier League Title and after what happened.  That felt like a promise we had to complete and we did 🦊 

 

As for now going forward I feel my expectations have dropped a bit, my logic was we could be really competitive this year (and still could) but deep down sometimes what you feel doesn’t quite match up with logic - and it feels to me we might now be settling into a few more quieter years just ticking along, top ten with some occasional scalps and flirtations with the European Leagues. Were going though another cycle of replacing a few key players - which will get tougher for us now.

 

i hope it isn’t it but the journey we’ve had for the past amount of years - since League One - has been utterly staggering, i feel we’ve been blessed (quite literally by monks 😂) and we’ve been through every emotion. If it was a film that would be it. However I reckon once this seasons a bit more underway I’ll probably get back more fully excited about things, a good question!

[HybridFox]

I thought this too but went absolutely nuts at the Napoli game.

 

As a standalone football match, I don't think anything will top that FA Cup final day. But hell am I craving Europa League success this season!