Expectation and entitlement.

[João Miguel da Cunha]

As another season supporting Leicester City comes to a close, I can’t help but not start to question my own expectation level for what ‘success’ means for me following an institution that was created in the late 1800’ that has ultimately given me some of the best days of my life in such a short period of time… 

 

And without wanting to come across as reactionary and ‘divisive’ I can’t help but think as a fan base we’re a little bit spoilt by our recent success.. and before getting absolute leathered that’s not excusing the failings of the last 18 months on and off the field. I’m just a bit at odds with the future of Leicester City and footballing fandom in general. In my opinion, I think at times despite how abhorrent we are on the pitch, do we need to give our heads a wobble, step back and think, could be worse… shiny new training ground, recent history of winning actual trophies with genuine history and pedigree, pathway for young players representing the first-team etc etc 

 

(I’m not Guy Branston, and I’m certainly not employed by King Power, or Leicester City) 

 

Honest. 
 

 

Edited 19 April by João Miguel da Cunha
Tiredness and lack of comprehension.

[Lambert09]

1 hour ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

As another season supporting Leicester City comes to a close, I can’t help but not start to question my own expectation level for what ‘success’ means for me following an institution that was created in the late 1800’ that has ultimately given me some of the best days of my life in such a short period of time… 

 

And without wanting to come across as reactionary and ‘divisive’ I can’t help but think as a fan base we’re a little bit spoilt by our recent success.. and before getting absolute leathered that’s not excusing the failings of the last 18 months on and off the field. I’m just a bit at odds with the future of Leicester City and footballing fandom in general. In my opinion, I think at times despite how abhorrent we are on the pitch, do we need to give our heads a wobble, step back and think, could be worse… shiny new training ground, recent history of winning actual trophies with genuine history and pedigree, pathway for young players representing the first-team etc etc 

 

(I’m not Guy Branston, and I’m certainly not employed by King Power, or Leicester City) 

 

Honest. 
 

 

I’m always curious about the age of people who post things like this.

 

For those of us who have been here since the last premier league era, the reason we’re so annoyed, is because we know how hard this journey was. We were a nothing club for a decade and when you hit the lows we had, you realise just how unique of an opportunity we had. We were finally an established premier league club. 
 

We aren’t spoilt or expecting too much, we’re just completely let down by an establishment that had allowed for us to fall from such a stable position. Poor footballing decisions have undone so many people’s hard work and that’s very hard to take. The good fortune that fell on us may never happen again and tbqh it almost certainly won’t. 

[João Miguel da Cunha]

3 hours ago, Lambert09 said:

I’m always curious about the age of people who post things like this.

 

For those of us who have been here since the last premier league era, the reason we’re so annoyed, is because we know how hard this journey was. We were a nothing club for a decade and when you hit the lows we had, you realise just how unique of an opportunity we had. We were finally an established premier league club. 
 

We aren’t spoilt or expecting too much, we’re just completely let down by an establishment that had allowed for us to fall from such a stable position. Poor footballing decisions have undone so many people’s hard work and that’s very hard to take. The good fortune that fell on us may never happen again and tbqh it almost certainly won’t. 

Admittedly I’m too young to remember the Peter Taylor era, administration and subsequent Football League horror stuff with Holloway & Martin Allen et al but surely the club is an absolute million miles away from ever being in such situations again? 
 

 

[Pliskin]

Oh yay, another pointless thread rambling about nothing. Give your head a wobble. 

[João Miguel da Cunha]

6 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Oh yay, another pointless thread rambling about nothing. Give your head a wobble. 

Fair enough chap. Merely trying to pass the time until another season in the SkyBet, I hope I haven’t offended you. 

[Mike Oxlong]

5 hours ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

As another season supporting Leicester City comes to a close, I can’t help but not start to question my own expectation level for what ‘success’ means for me following an institution that was created in the late 1800’ that has ultimately given me some of the best days of my life in such a short period of time… 

 

And without wanting to come across as reactionary and ‘divisive’ I can’t help but think as a fan base we’re a little bit spoilt by our recent success.. and before getting absolute leathered that’s not excusing the failings of the last 18 months on and off the field. I’m just a bit at odds with the future of Leicester City and footballing fandom in general. In my opinion, I think at times despite how abhorrent we are on the pitch, do we need to give our heads a wobble, step back and think, could be worse… shiny new training ground, recent history of winning actual trophies with genuine history and pedigree, pathway for young players representing the first-team etc etc 

 

(I’m not Guy Branston, and I’m certainly not employed by King Power, or Leicester City) 

 

Honest. 
 

 

AI Summary - Reading this will be a waste of your time 

[ALC Fox]

I'd say it's perfectly fine to be annoyed at the current state of the club. We shouldn't be in this position.

 

Getting relegated with a squad that included players who have just been eliminated in heroic fashion in the Champions League (Tielemans) and who are in top form chasing a CL place (Barnes) shouldn't have happened.

 

But Tielemans, Soyuncu and several others had been here too long as Rodgers sought to keep all our 'good' players and we recruited very badly in an attempt to supplement the squad.

 

This led to high wages and a stagnant feeling in the squad and we went down while being 'too good to go down'.

 

After being promoted back up on largely a feeling of real positivity and a thought that Maresca was going to change the club, the club's lies to Maresca (or hiding of the truth) were really laid bare and he left. Of course he would have gone anyway, but we then appointed the wrong man in Cooper, sacked him to appoint somebody a lot worse in RVN, and were unable to refresh the squad (the defence especially) to give us a proper chance of staying up.

 

We've deserved to go down all season. The amount of chances we've conceded, it's probably a miracle that we have any points at all.

 

This is the worst Premier League team we've ever had, and when you consider just how likeable our title winners and also Martin O'Neill's fighters were, that is just incredibly demoralising as a fan.

 

After witnessing the greatest escape under Pearson and comparing that to the capitulation all season long under Cooper and RVN, I think we're within our rights as a fanbase to expect a lot more than this.

 

I can accept relegation, but this is truly abhorrent.

Edited 19 April by ALC Fox

[Claudio Fannieri]

I don’t think I am entitled or have any unrealistic expectations, this season was always going to be tough and survival was the main objective, however the key point for me is how we go about that and how competitive we can be. 
 

As long as I can see positivity and a clear strategy and direction of travel, where we give a good account of ourselves and can be proud of our club then I am happy, this season has been anything but that, relegation was always a high possibility but for us to have been so poor and weak in our recruitment and then in how we have approached the season and so many of the games has been truly awful. 
 

We used to pride ourselves on being the Fearless Foxes, we are so far away from that currently, I am not angry at getting relegated again, but what hurts me is the manner in how we have performed or haven’t to be more honest which is so disappointing. 
 

We haven’t even gone down with a whimper, all hope was pretty much extinguished when we recruited Cooper and his merry band of ‘prem experienced dross’ and then pretty much from mid/late October onwards apart from the occasional result and performance the whole club has thrown in the towel. 
 

This season has been horrendous and I cannot wait for it to end in the vain hope this forces some semblance of serious and systemic change, but i won’t hold my breath as i am sure the self preservation society will gloss over yet another disastrous season and relegation and carry on regardless ……Nothing to see hear, PSR has restricted us, blah blah blah. 

Edited 19 April by Claudio Fannieri

[The Year Of The Fox]

48 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

Admittedly I’m too young to remember the Peter Taylor era, administration and subsequent Football League horror stuff with Holloway & Martin Allen et al but surely the club is an absolute million miles away from ever being in such situations again? 
 

 

It’s not just about a valid fear that we could stoop to those depths again. It’s about throwing away what we had recently. 
 

It’s not entitlement either. It’s recognising what we had and being staggered about how quickly it’s all unfolding. 
 

Just because we were once pony and traditionally we’re not a Top 10 English side doesn’t mean we couldn’t have been in the future, with the correct leadership 

[Pliskin]

23 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

Fair enough chap. Merely trying to pass the time until another season in the SkyBet, I hope I haven’t offended you. 

Everyone is well aware of what has unfolded in the last decade. But the point some really fail to grasp, is that this decline is not normal, nor should it be accepted as a “little indiscretion”. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to bang the drum. If you won £200m on the lottery, and in ten years threw it away, no one would have such a relaxed view. 
 

The salient points are….

 

We have seen close to £600m pass through the club, yet we have been relegated (set to be) twice. In three years, whilst teams like Brentford and Fulham, who’ve achieved nothing, are striding ahead of us. 
 

There isn’t a positive slant you can put onto this situation, it’s slapstick comedy. We’re an embarrassment.

[Edingleyfox]

I’ve heard these comments about Leicester’s fan base being entitled and unrealistic in their expectations multiple times- usually by journalists and pundits who don’t watch them regularly. 

IMO most City fans are realistic but this year the recruitment has barely added to the first 11, there has been very little encouragement for the younger players and so little energy on the pitch. Ruud has been talking up the youth being the future of the club but he hasn’t taken risks until the season is virtually done. I was totally expecting a relegation scrap this season but we seem to have been way too negative from day one

 

Edited 19 April by Edingleyfox

[Bert]

I’ve learnt in life to never expect anything, because expectation generally leads to disappointment.
 

The annoyance hasn’t just started over a few months. It’s been in motion for a few years now, starting half way through a season where relegation was so avoidable with better decisions on and off the pitch. We had a team full of players capable of challenging the European spots. We had a great platform to build on, a great structure, a great transfer policy. A high percentage of fans could see what was happening, yet those that needed to make the decisions, couldn’t. 
 

We could quite easily be doing what Newcastle are doing in the league now but we’ve failed to build on what we had, now we are looking into the abyss with a very uncertain future, a chance of a points deduction, a rough ride in the championship coming up for god knows how many seasons. 
 

It’s not about being entitled, it’s about being disappointed. 

Edited 19 April by Bert

[João Miguel da Cunha]

4 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Everyone is well aware of what has unfolded in the last decade. But the point some really fail to grasp, is that this decline is not normal, nor should it be accepted as a “little indiscretion”. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to bang the drum. If you won £200m on the lottery, and in ten years threw it away, no one would have such a relaxed view. 
 

The salient points are….

 

We have seen close to £600m pass through the club, yet we have been relegated (set to be) twice. In three years, whilst teams like Brentford and Fulham, who’ve achieved nothing, are striding ahead of us. 
 

There isn’t a positive slant you can put onto this situation, it’s slapstick comedy. We’re an embarrassment.

Okay so, 100% on being an embarrassment this season, nobody in their right mind can disagree. You mention teams like Fulham & Brentford, striding ahead, striding ahead to what? Merely existing in a closed shop operating outside the ‘top six’ 
 

We mixed it with the big boys, the club tried to sustain that by pushing the envelope, not once but twice breaking into the top four, and as a result we’re paying the price for that now, but if the barometer of success these days is to just compete with the likes of Brentford & Fulham, then Christ we may as well all sack it off. We’re the lucky ones, not them. 

[nnfox]

Taking a long term view, I've no issue with Leicester City playing in the Championship.

 

What I do have an issue with is not fulfilling potential.  Life is a mixture of opportunity and difficulty.  Sometimes there's a little more difficulty than opportunity, sometimes there's more opportunity than difficulty.  

 

We were gifted a fantastic opportunity to cement our place in the top half of the Premier League for years to come but the upper management of this club made a series of poor decisions and when needing to act, they failed to do so.  It's the worst combination... Don't do anything and when you do, get it wrong.

 

I don't think we would ever have been a club competing for the league year in, year out but we should have been secure in our premier league status with a squad capable of good domestic cup runs and the odd European adventure here and there.  Instead we are now getting relegated for the second time in three seasons.  The situation we are in was completely avoidable.

 

 

[LCFCJohn]

3 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

Okay so, 100% on being an embarrassment this season, nobody in their right mind can disagree. You mention teams like Fulham & Brentford, striding ahead, striding ahead to what? Merely existing in a closed shop operating outside the ‘top six’ 
 

We mixed it with the big boys, the club tried to sustain that by pushing the envelope, not once but twice breaking into the top four, and as a result we’re paying the price for that now, but if the barometer of success these days is to just compete with the likes of Brentford & Fulham, then Christ we may as well all sack it off. We’re the lucky ones, not them. 

Sorry but this is just incorrect. 
 

We have broken into the top 4 once, in 2016. Otherwise we failed and fell short. Look at the fact Villa and Newcastle did finish in the top 4 in the seasons straight after we failed. The ‘rich 6’ are not anywhere near what they were. Top 4 has been there for the taking. The fact we fell short, whilst justified at the time, history shows was a massive failure, twice. 
 

And we are paying the price by spending on absolute dross, not showing ambition. 
 

I don’t know why people have to justify us falling so far behind the likes of Brentford, Fulham, Bournemouth, Palace, Forest etc because we won the league and cup. 
 

If we have no ambition and are happy to fall down the leagues until we are a non-league side, surely just pack the club up and give our league place to someone else?

[MattFox]

The seasons we were building the squad that bottled the Top 4 twice (Bottled not broken in too) we were financially sustainable 

 

The issue was abandoning the model that pushed us into that position 

 

And even in abandoning that model we still shouldn’t have been relegated in 2023, the most shameful relegation in PL history 

In fact even accounting for the horrendous mistakes we made 21/22 off the pitch if we’d have stayed up in 2023 we’d probably be in a decent position to challenge again now

[Hammo]

The club’s recent logic-defying, dream-fulfilling trophy triumphs inevitably raised future expectations because the foundations were firmly in place for a period of sustained success.

 

‘Entitlement’ is just a recently introduced buzzword into the footballing lexicon that the media and fans of other clubs use to try to insult or belittle supporters of a club that has fallen on hard times and are (inevitably) angry and disappointed at how that has come to pass.

The sharp decline of Leicester City is a case of mismanagement and misplaced loyalty on an embarrassingly grotesque scale that has left many fans, like myself, so numb with despondency at the way the club is now run that we no longer take up our season ticket seats because the experience is so overwhelmingly negative that it borders on the masochistic.

 

I have followed the club for over 50 years and I have never felt so detached from it that I didn’t want to attend a game that I have already paid to watch.

 

I feel more ‘p***** off’ than ‘entitled’.

[Pliskin]

20 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

Okay so, 100% on being an embarrassment this season, nobody in their right mind can disagree. You mention teams like Fulham & Brentford, striding ahead, striding ahead to what? Merely existing in a closed shop operating outside the ‘top six’ 
 

We mixed it with the big boys, the club tried to sustain that by pushing the envelope, not once but twice breaking into the top four, and as a result we’re paying the price for that now, but if the barometer of success these days is to just compete with the likes of Brentford & Fulham, then Christ we may as well all sack it off. We’re the lucky ones, not them. 

We did push the boat out yes, but we also financially gained along with it, no club of our size has ever managed to see close to half a billion £ come through the club…… clubs who should feel fortunate are the likes of Wigan, who’s FA cup exploits were a momentous achievement for a small modest club. 
 

What we did was establish ourselves as a top club, and were dining at the table with the big boys. We’re not paying the price for trying to be ambitious, we’re paying the price because we failed to take advantage of the situation we were in, decided to move away from the model that generated that success, and made a string of fatal errors that has lead to the greatest demise in premier league history. 
 

The fact we’ve generated close to £600m and can’t even comply with PSR is remarkable….. 

 

The football league is a rancid league, the standard of football is horrendous and it looks very much like we’re on the verge of being sucked into the black hole of the EFL pyramid. I’d take sitting mid table in the PL for eternity over watching up play in this horrific league. We had a chance to become a powerhouse, and we needlessly frittered it away.  

[João Miguel da Cunha]

8 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

Sorry but this is just incorrect. 
 

We have broken into the top 4 once, in 2016. Otherwise we failed and fell short. Look at the fact Villa and Newcastle did finish in the top 4 in the seasons straight after we failed. The ‘rich 6’ are not anywhere near what they were. Top 4 has been there for the taking. The fact we fell short, whilst justified at the time, history shows was a massive failure, twice. 
 

And we are paying the price by spending on absolute dross, not showing ambition. 
 

I don’t know why people have to justify us falling so far behind the likes of Brentford, Fulham, Bournemouth, Palace, Forest etc because we won the league and cup. 
 

If we have no ambition and are happy to fall down the leagues until we are a non-league side, surely just pack the club up and give our league place to someone else?

I wish I had the intelligence and vernacular to go with you all the way but I flip so easily from annoyance to apathy to revisionism, I’m all over the place when it comes to Leicester. Comparing success to the likes of all the clubs you’ve mentioned above is the problem.

[LCFCJohn]

4 minutes ago, MattFox said:

The seasons we were building the squad that bottled the Top 4 twice (Bottled not broken in too) we were financially sustainable 

 

The issue was abandoning the model that pushed us into that position 

 

And even in abandoning that model we still shouldn’t have been relegated in 2023, the most shameful relegation in PL history 

In fact even accounting for the horrendous mistakes we made 21/22 off the pitch if we’d have stayed up in 2023 we’d probably be in a decent position to challenge again now

The worst thing is, we have got even worse at making clueless off the field decisions since going down. Not only did they not learn from it, they have doubled down. If you list the main culprits  that are classed as deadwood or financial burdens:

 

Signed/contract extended since relegation:

Vestergaard

Coady

Ndidi

Winks

Ayew

BDR

Skipp

 

Signed before

Ward

Soumare

Faes

Kristiansen

 

Obviously Faes and Kristiansen were signed during the relegation season.

 

There’s just not sign of things even improving which is the worst bit.

[LCFCJohn]

2 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

I wish I had the intelligence and vernacular to go with you all the way but I flip so easily from annoyance to apathy to revisionism, I’m all over the place when it comes to Leicester. Comparing success to the likes of all the clubs you’ve mentioned above is the problem.

Who should we compare to then? Preston, Cardiff, Rotherham and Hull?

 

It sounds like you are saying we shouldn’t expect to be able to take the field and compete with the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth and Palace. We should just accept that if we place these sides it is an easy 3-0/4-0 win for them?

[TeamRocket]

Why do some people have so low standard for the club. The club should always look to improve from last season never go backwards ever. Players, Staff and owner is to blame for the backwards progress. Why build a state of the art training place only to never use our young hungry talents? Why investment in poor players and managers. Really disappointed with lcfc. Honestly knew us winning the PL was a one off but being a PL team each year was a given before everyone does tooled. Also feel like certain player should have been sold and we should have invested in younger talent who wanted to be at the club now hold on to em for them to down tool, poor management and poor ownership 

[MattFox]

The “Top 6” have only all finished in the Top 6 together once since 2019

 

Hardly the closed shop people think it is

[stu]

46 minutes ago, João Miguel da Cunha said:

Okay so, 100% on being an embarrassment this season, nobody in their right mind can disagree. You mention teams like Fulham & Brentford, striding ahead, striding ahead to what? Merely existing in a closed shop operating outside the ‘top six’ 
 

We mixed it with the big boys, the club tried to sustain that by pushing the envelope, not once but twice breaking into the top four, and as a result we’re paying the price for that now, but if the barometer of success these days is to just compete with the likes of Brentford & Fulham, then Christ we may as well all sack it off. We’re the lucky ones, not them. 

Competing against Brentford and Fulham is not even an option for us anymore.

 

The gap between the Premier League and the Championship is huge and has caused a closed shop to anyone outside of the top 17.

 

This is where the disappointment is, that we have fallen out of the top 17 clubs in England and it is highly likely we will never get back even to that level, never mind top 6 and major silverware challenging.

 

Those days are long gone and those who have overseen this have not taken any accountability for this decline.

[Blue ROI]

We should not expect  to be relegated twice in 3 seasons from where we were in the years before that.

 

So we should feel entitled to be rightly upset by what's happened and nothing being done at board level to put it right.