Sheffield Wednesday (A)

[fox_favourite]

Be prepared for the embarrassment that is Leicester at Sheffield Wednesday today. All signs are pointing to their first home win of the season. 

[LCFCJohn]

29 minutes ago, OntarioFox said:

Pure optics. They didn't want a game of Spot The Difference to break out.

 

I can see 3 differences.

 

1. Plain glasses vs sunglasses

2. On the right is smiling dimly

3. Left has a white collar on the shirt

 

Other than that, I do believe that is the same person 

[BeaumontFox]

11/2 for Wednesday to win. Worth a tenner at least.

[OntarioFox]

6 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

I can see 3 differences.

 

1. Plain glasses vs sunglasses

2. On the right is smiling dimly

3. Left has a white collar on the shirt

 

Other than that, I do believe that is the same person 

Congratulations! Your prize: your season ticket has auto-renewed ready for League One football 🎉🎊🎉🎊

[Spanner73]

6 hours ago, lcfcfoz said:

Game day! I want us to score at least 2 and win

I want us to lose the game, get relegated, with no hope of a return, a dead, empty KP stadium until the inept boy upstairs finally realises that he’s done here, sells up and goes home to Thailand to ride his donkey into the sunset 

 

Thats what happened in my dream anyway ! 

[Enyoueffsea]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

Ashley was at Newcastle for 14 years.  I'd say he left at a time of his choosing. 

 

It is 'totally wrong' to say that he was booted out of Rangers by the fans.  A fan's group partially bought out some of his shares (less than 9%) There were board room disputes, high court cases, dual ownership problems, and his shyster merchandising deal.

 

 

You deciding something doesn’t necessarily make it true. Ashley left due to a combination of reasons including:

 

a. The negative impact long term, consistent negative protests had on his own business.

b. An acceptable offer.

 

Negative fan reaction also caused a number of decisions during Ashley’s dreadful tenure to be reversed or a change of course, including, as one example, the renaming of St James’ Park.

 

To suggest fan protests had no impact on him leaving Newcastle or Rangers is simply wrong and misinformed.

 

The only way you could get this so wrong is if you expect an owner to leave a club the following day after one protest. It takes significant and consistent protest.

Sharing a post I shared in December on here, maybe you’ll want to consider all of these scenarios whilst claiming fan protests do not lead to any change:

 

An empty St James’ Park is the most powerful message this fanbase can send to its owner, the Premier League and the rest of the world. It is the single most authoritative act we can take. Because without fans, there is no Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United.

 

As we enter the next chapter of this dismal era, scrabbling around trying to understand what our purpose is, and what effect we can have, in this perpetual battle against self-destruction – it is vital to know that other fanbases have tried and succeeded in stadium boycotts. It doesn’t have to be taboo… because it’s effective.

 

In recent seasons, it’s difficult to look past seasiders Blackpool when it comes to deliberate and effective vacancy. For a good three seasons, supporters swapped Bloomfield Road for the beach, leaving behind wave upon wave of orange plastic: a palpable vision of a malevolent regime headed by the ultimate donkey: Owen Oyston. The achievements of the ‘Not A Penny More’ (NAPM) campaign, led by the tenacious and unrelenting Blackpool Supporters Trust, were recognised nationwide and ultimately made a difference to the club they loved. Their efforts provide something that the Toon Army should take inspiration from, especially given the positive outcome which eventually arrived at Blackpool.

 

On the 11th of February 2017, only 2046 home fans rocked-up to see Blackpool play out a feeble 0-0 draw with Crawley Town, which represented the Tangerines’ sixth consecutive League Two game without a win. Perennial Football League journeyman Neil Danns was on loan at the time; he whacked a penalty wide in the first half. Little else happened, but that wasn’t the story: the real story was the attendance. Blackpool hadn’t experienced turnouts this low since their dismal days at the foot of the old Division Four in 1990, where barely more than 1000 were turning-up to see them flop to miserable defeats against the likes of Aldershot and Scarborough… two sorry eras which barely differed in their shades of desperate.

 

The club has risen and then fallen spectacularly since then. Recently, the action taken by the Blackpool Supporters Trust was necessary and – alongside their admirable battles in the courtroom against the Oystons – demonstrated the significant impact of organised protest.

 

Notably, the Crawley game was played only seven years after Blackpool’s unlikely Premier League campaign. In 2011, Bloomfield Road was accommodating over 16,000 fans which were – amusingly – hitting decibel levels of 85, apparently the fifth highest in the league that season! But, following their immediate relegation, supporters were soon remonstrating as the Oystons ‘illegitimately stripped’ the club of £26.77million – money dropping into their salary packets and conveniently into other businesses under their control. This despicable behaviour came at the expense of Blackpool rapidly tumbling through the divisions; its identity muddled by a board and fanbase in conflict.

 

Numerous non-attended football matches later and the Oystons are gone, after a court ruled that the club enter receivership on account of the financial misdemeanours. Regardless, the Blackpool Supporters Trust – and their NAPM campaign – established themselves as an example for other supporters to follow – including Newcastle ones.

 

The Tangerines actually ended their 2018-19 campaign on the wrong side of a 3-0 battering at home to Gillingham but, like the Crawley game, the scoreline wasn’t the story: the real story was the quadrupled attendance. 9,571 people – who presumably sat glumly as Gills’ Tom Eaves notched a quick-fire brace to put the visitors 3 up at the break – knew, above all, that they’d got their club back.

 

Now, I know the obvious point to counter this is the disparate club size between Newcastle and Blackpool. But these major protest events aren’t only feasible in the lower leagues. For instance, in March 2014, Serie A superpower Lazio played in front of an empty stadium as fans protested against their president – Claudio Lotito.

Bad form. No transfers. A neglecting owner. Banners read “Lazio is ours and we will leave it to our children.” The message was ultimately the same as ours to Ashley, only this one packs a punch. It really hits home. Since then, Lazio have qualified for the Champions League and Lotito has sanctioned impressive signings like Stefan De Vrij, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Ciro Immobile and Joaquin Correa – to name a few. Lotito remains at Lazio and is still unpopular (things flared spectacularly with the bizarre departure of Marcelo Bielsa after four weeks in charge in 2016), but strong and definitive supporter action has made a difference to the immediate fortunes of the club.

 

Elsewhere in Europe, Borussia Dortmund and their famous ‘yellow wall’ protested against Monday night football (no, not you, GNev and Carra) by vacating an entire stand for games against Wolfsburg and Augsburg in February 2018. Well over 20,000 of their noisiest supporters decided to take a stand because they passionately believed in overrulling something that they felt wasn’t right (it doesn’t always have to be ownership issues!) Come the end of the calendar year, the German FA discontinued the Monday night fixtures. Immediate boycott results.

 

Back to Italy (and club ownership), in April of this year, the Fiorentina Supporters Association – which represented several thousand supporters – didn’t appear for 45 minutes of a game against Bologna – making a stand against their owners – luxury shoe magnates Andrea and Diego Della Valle – due to a lack of investment. Impactful, meaningful, notable protest.

 

There are more examples in Europe. The soon to be demolished San Siro has witnessed both Inter and AC fans boycott their respective clubs’ matches. In Spain Valencia fans did the same. All of these are massive and important clubs at the centre of their communities, with unhappy supporters who are entitled – perhaps even duty-bound – to attempt to make a difference.

 

In order to really emphasise the point (that disgruntled football supporters really do speak the same language, wherever they’re from and whoever they support), let’s go even further afield and consider Kerala Blasters, of the Indian Premier League. This well-supported team normally see attendances of 20-30,000 but played in front of a virtually empty stadium in December 2018, after a long run of really poor results. Their fans, the ‘Manjappada’ (Yellow Army) held up banners during a 0-0 draw against Jamshedpur FC reading: “Supporters, Not Customers. We Deserve Better.” Doesn’t that sound familiar?

 

But let’s not forget ourselves: in April 2015, thousands of Newcastle fans took a stand together and avoided the Spurs game. A few months later, we had a new manager with a transfer budget of £80million (author note: choice of manager irrelevant to wider point…)

 

These things work. When football fans make a stand together, they can make a difference. Let’s learn from these examples, Newcastle fans. Let’s be like Lazio. Let’s be like Blackpool. Let’s be like Kerala Blasters. Let’s be like Us.

 

[BeaumontFox]

20 minutes ago, Spanner73 said:

I want us to lose the game, get relegated, with no hope of a return, a dead, empty KP stadium until the inept boy upstairs finally realises that he’s done here, sells up and goes home to Thailand to ride his donkey into the sunset 

 

Thats what happened in my dream anyway ! 

The problem is, once we drop there is absolutely no guarantee we’ll get back in the championship. Damage to finances and loss of the good few players we have could cement our future as a League One team. 

[GrobyLCFC31]

Most obvious 1-1 in a long time, these players are the masters of throwing opportunities away 

[Nick]

We have to win and Portsmouth and Oxford need to draw, then things begin to look like there's a possibility of a miracle.

[murphy]

5 minutes ago, Enyoueffsea said:

 

You deciding something doesn’t necessarily make it true. Ashley left due to a combination of reasons including:

 

 

 

I'm not "deciding something", I'm simply expressing an opinion the same as you.

 

I'm sure you make a lot of good counter arguments in your post that I can't be bothered to read.  I've just spoken to a Sheffield Wednesday supporting mate and asked him if he thought protests made a difference.  His response was "It made a difference" (man of few words).

[kiddo]

3 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Same said about Lorenz Hutchinson…. Why the **** is Richard’s in the squad? Clear he isn’t going to play, so why not out him in the academy and Lorenz on the bench. Ridiculous.

I so agree with this.

Just think of the impact on the fan base if he included say Hutchinson and Page instead of Richard’s and Aribo.

He doesn’t have to bring them on, although it’d be good if he did.
Such an easy win for Rowett.

[Enyoueffsea]

8 minutes ago, murphy said:

I'm not "deciding something", I'm simply expressing an opinion the same as you.

 

I'm sure you make a lot of good counter arguments in your post that I can't be bothered to read.  I've just spoken to a Sheffield Wednesday supporting mate and asked him if he thought protests made a difference.  His response was "It made a difference" (man of few words).

 

Think this fairly well summarises your lack of knowledge on a subject you’re keen to express an opinion about. 

 

We’ll end this here, bizarrely, on you proving your own opinion wrong.

[Enyoueffsea]

Anyway, good luck today lads 

 

Cannot see any scenario where this doesn’t result in a win, but, this is football and it’s not played on paper.

[Happy Fox]

Jayden Heskey scoring the winner against us would Emile celebrate this? 

[Spanner73]

16 minutes ago, BeaumontFox said:

The problem is, once we drop there is absolutely no guarantee we’ll get back in the championship. Damage to finances and loss of the good few players we have could cement our future as a League One team. 

Yes that’s fine and the longer we stay there the better if the greater good comes from it and he finally Fu*** off 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Today could be one of the most tragic/funny days in the club's history.

 

Strap in!

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Another disappointing 2-2 

[Lad1966]

11 minutes ago, Happy Fox said:

Jayden Heskey scoring the winner against us would Emile celebrate this? 

I was thinking that. Just our luck if that happens☹️

[Twitcher]

Are there any tickets available?

[Collymore]

Just dawned on me that if we don't win today it could be the end of Leicester City FC. 

 

We go on about big games but this really is! 

[Swarles Barkley]

Must win game against Sheffield Wednesday with league 1 a high probability if we don’t. What a horrible throwback

[Officer Doofy]

9 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

You know what I thought earlier. I can't remember what's gone on longer. The last time I enjoyed going to watch Leicester or the last time my Wife served up a reasonable meal.

 

Think I decided it was the Carbonara in May 2013

I knew my missus was cheating 

[Officer Doofy]

31 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Today could be one of the most tragic/funny days in the club's history.

 

Strap in!

It's got the smell of Leicester City all over it 

[Katy]

14 minutes ago, Collymore said:

Just dawned on me that if we don't win today it could be the end of Leicester City FC. 

 

We go on about big games but this really is! 

I and a lot of other people have been saying this for months but seeing the way you’ve written this, is like a hefty punch to the stomach this morning. I’ve suddenly become really nervous 

[Collymore]

2 minutes ago, Katy said:

I and a lot of other people have been saying this for months but seeing the way you’ve written this, is like a hefty punch to the stomach this morning. I’ve suddenly become really nervous 

I don't think the end like Bury, but maybe a Rangers style rebirth which would be very very weird still.