davieG Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Source Tour of third tier a success for Pearson as Foxes finally show signs of stability With a blend of Premier League experience and England youth internationals, Nigel Pearson has taken Leicester City clear at the top of League One At the start of the season supporters of at least one League One club were irked by the "Leicester City On Tour 2008/09" T-shirts on sale in the Foxes' club shop. With Leicester set for their first season in the third tier since joining the Football League in 1894, the implication was that this might all be a nice little jolly, a revivifying tour of the provinces ahead of their triumphant return to the West End. Never mind that with regular home crowds of above 20,000 (Yeovil, at the other end of things regularly draw under 5,000), Leicester really should expect to be heading north again. League One is no walk in the park. The Foxes, however, had found a manager for the moment in Nigel Pearson, a man with an interesting CV and a progressive approach to a season of on-the-hoof reconstruction. So far his team have been as good as their fans' T-shirts words. Last weekend's 3-0 win at home to Leyton Orient left Leicester four points clear at the top and nine clear of Millwall in third place. They've got history on their side too. For the last five seasons the team that has topped League One at this stage has gone on to win it in May. There's no reason to expect anything different here. This is a dressing room full of Premier League experience: Marc Edworthy, Steve Howard, Paul Dickov and Chris Powell have all played in the top tier. There is a little more to it than simply a busload of old lags, though. The most significant paragraph in Pearson's managerial CV to date is his time spent as an FA coach. He was recruited in 2002 ahead of the Under-20 tournament in Toulon and spent time coaching every England Youth team from Under-16s to the Under-20 team. It shows, too. Vaguely troubling as it might be to contemplate some of England's finest young talent finding its level at the third tier, this has been the USP of the Pearson reign so far, as his Leicester have shown signs of becoming a rehabilitation clinic, halfway house and fame academy for past and present junior England internationals. Matty Fryatt is the most obvious example. A forward of promise who seemed to have lost his way, right now he looks like perhaps the most interesting English striker outside the Premier League. Still only 22, Fryatt scored a hat-trick for England's Under-19s in the semi-final of the European Championships against Serbia and Montenegro in 2005 and found himself tentatively dubbed "the new Robbie Fowler" in some quarters (based on precocious goalscoring rather than style). He moved to Leicester from Walsall two years ago and scored just six times in his first 60 games. This season he has 23 goals in all competitions, including a run of 13 from 10 games in November and December. Linking up with Pearson, a coach who knows something of him from his FA days, turns out to have been just what he was waiting for. There are others who have been through the system: Stephen Clemence played for England Under-21s. Matt Oakley was one of the great hopes of the 1990s at junior international levels. Plus, the players Pearson has introduced on loan this season are all young and English: Kerrea Gilbert, also of Arsenal, has played for the Under-19s, as has Jack Hobbs, borrowed from Liverpool. David Martin, also on loan from Anfield, has kept goal for the England Under-17, Under-19 and Under-20 teams. Mark Davis, also of Wolves, captained the U-17s. English players, and particularly young English players, don't often get the chance to blaze a trail in a table-topping team, but all four of these loanees have made significant contributions, while Fryatt has been the headline act in the division and Oakley a key midfielder. It's all cautiously invigorating for a team whose recent history has taken in the familiar snakes and ladders of the ambitious mid-size, mid-tier club: the new stadium in 2002, administration the same year, the takeover by a populist multi-millionaire (Milan Mandaric) in 2007; and twin relegations: after dropping out of the Premier League in 2004, Leicester finally made the big drop into League One last year. A change of manager last season, with Ian Holloway arriving midway through a run of one win in 11 league matches, only highlighted one of Leicester's biggest recent problems, the extraordinary turnover in the dugout. Get this: since Martin O'Neill left in June 2000, Leicester have had 10 managers, including six (Pearson, Holloway, Gary Megson, Martin Allen, Nigel Worthington and Rob Kelly) in the last two years. Happily, the current manager looks like being one of their major assets. The real test for Pearson and the spine of his FA-approved and rubber-stamped team might come, you sense, at a higher level. Racing away with League One hasn't exactly been a springboard to greatness in recent times. Since the 2000-01 season only Plymouth and Wigan have managed to win the division without falling back down into it again. There seems no reason why Leicester can't have a happier experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyB Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Nice write up their. Sings Pearsons praises and highlights what he has done for us. Very good article about Pearson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GLC Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 i forgot most of the players are english. nice to know we have good solid english players in the team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davieG Posted 16 January 2009 Author Share Posted 16 January 2009 No mention of Tunchev's influence and yet Clemence gets a mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanSP Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Lovely to read (especially after the disappointment of Tunchev's injury). As long as we keep winning, I couldn't care less what any other team in the league does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morris1234 Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Nice write up their.Sings Pearsons praises and highlights what he has done for us. Very good article about Pearson. people on here could write a better article than that! nice to get some praise but a pretty easy article to right i think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkzzz_ Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Yeah that's a nice read. Forgot Clemence was here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdb Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 average article but good to be mentioned. the clemence bit shows a lack of research. i think people need to write comments below it on the site - there's a man utd fan taking the piss re: the lack of response it's getting. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/...city-league-one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 At the start of the season supporters of at least one League One club were irked by the "Leicester City On Tour 2008/09" T-shirts on sale in the Foxes' club shop. With Leicester set for their first season in the third tier since joining the Football League in 1894, the implication was that this might all be a nice little jolly, a revivifying tour of the provinces ahead of their triumphant return to the West End. I don't recall the Club selling these T-shirts, which means they must be refering to my Leicester on Tour T-shirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickey O'Neil Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 i forgot most of the players are english.nice to know we have good solid english players in the team Exactly what I thought when reading it. people on here could write a better article than that! nice to get some praise but a pretty easy article to right i think. Still nice for Pearson & LCFC to get some recognition. I didn't like the very first sentence (in bold) of the article though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Monty Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Nice article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daggers Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 I don't recall the Club selling these T-shirts I do. And it my my idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrenchel Posted 16 January 2009 Share Posted 16 January 2009 Anyone could have knocked that out. Nice to see in there though I guess?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Claw Posted 18 January 2009 Share Posted 18 January 2009 Good write up, no mention of Mattock though which seems a bit of an omission. When on earth is Clemence going to be fit again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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