The "do they mean us?" thread

[Hungry Hungry Fox]

I wish people would wait unitl the end of the transfer window before they condemn us

[C-man]

QPR are the Old Boys Network dream at the moment. Redknapp, Hoddle, Jordan- can you get more Real Football Men than those?

 

You've got Redknapp who took Spurs to fourth, Hoddle one of the brightest coaches ever, Jordan with all his experience, I think mere survival is playing it down. Top six minimum I would expect.

 

The Holy Trinity (featuring Glenn Hoddle)

[Captain...]

Good preview on BT sport just then, Mark Bright knew enough about us which was refreshing.

 

 

Ex-Leicester so might have more of an interest in us, glad to see the Leicester Mafia is spreading to pay channels, not broken into the big one yet, SKY, but all over the BBC and ITV, Lineker, Claridge, Savage, Lennon, O'Neill, Keown   and Manish is a Leicester fan.

[Captain...]

Just seen the morning view on SSN, Paul Walsh and Curbishley, asked about the promoted teams all they said was QPR best equipped, Harry Redknapp, experience, Rio Ferdinand, Caulker, Mutch, Isla, and still time to sign more. He's building a good squad again. Leicester and Burnley don't have the backing.

 

It really is just clueless, QPR have signed people I've heard of, yeah you heard of them last season when they massively underperformed, 2 were relegated and one was in the worst Man United side this millennium.

 

Not a single mention of anyone we or Burnley have signed.

 

I kinda want our owners to come out and say we have £300m to spend again, so they realise we have the backing, but actually that wouldn't improve on what we have.

 

The QPR love-in continues with a press conference:

 

Now QPR are linked with Van de Vaart and De Guzman, but apparently Deeney was too rich for them*. Also after Leroy Fer and Andros Townsend. I really hope we do them again this season everything that is wrong with football, just the pointless acquisition of players.

 

*Although rejecting Deeney could show that Tony F at least has released that he can't just throw money around, but Redknapp is still just chasing any player he can think of.

[kingcarr21]

fvck them all let them condemn us to relegation. Gives us the perfect opportunity to prove them all wrong.

[dorsetboy]

the problem here is they are asking pundits who just watch the prem if you asked people from the championship who have actually seen us play then you would get a different reply. 

 

i really do think knockeart and mahrez could be our key to survival the tricks and close ball control they posses will be important and mahrez also has pace and good vision with his passing and knockeart has a great shot and dead ball skill.

 

when this is paired with the vision and finding space that nugent possesses and now under the wing of kevin phillips jamie vardy is showing then our attack could be real dangerous if underestimated. 

 

 

for me im not silly enough to say we will finish in a silly position but in your first season you want survival and thats enough to build on. 

 

should the two french boys seriously do well up until xmas then i think the biggest threat we have of relegation is fending off bids from much better teams and trying to keep them for the fight for prem status

[wakeyfox01]

Danny Murphy tipped us to do well on Talksport.

[kristianity77]

Only way I can see us going down is if we have that bad a start and cannot recover. For the record I think we'll be fine but our last 9/10 games being against teams around us means nothing if we're already 6pts adrift.

 

Well thats rubbish.  If we are playing all the teams around us with ten games to go and are 6 points adrift then thats the best set of games we could hope for to get out of it.  Better that than being in the bottom 3 and having Norwich's run in from last season no?

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Ian Baker in The Express - a pretty balanced piece, he watched us a fair bit last season

 

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/498929/Foxy-tactics-needed-as-Leicester-City-prepare-for-Premier-League-return

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Ex-Leicester so might have more of an interest in us, glad to see the Leicester Mafia is spreading to pay channels, not broken into the big one yet, SKY, but all over the BBC and ITV, Lineker, Claridge, Savage, Lennon, O'Neill, Keown   and Manish is a Leicester fan.

 

I've heard him say that he is, but he's usually quite quick to slag us off.

 

I'm looking forward to Lineker trying to contain his joy the first time we beat one of the big teams this season. Although I'm guessing it would go something like this:

 

 

John Motson - "…and it's Chelsea one... Leicester City three - my word!"

 

*cuts back to studio*

 

Lineker - "My word indeed. Alan - your take on that one?"

 

Shearer - "Chelsea were dire. All over the pitch. Dire. What was Mourinho thinking? Let's outline the mistakes with this fancy computer gadget. Look here.

 

[rambles on about Chelsea mistakes for 3 minutes]

 

Not taking anything away from Leicester, they weren't bad. But Chelsea. What was Mourinho thinking? Dire."

 

Lineker - "What about you, other baldy in the tight fitting shirt?"

 

Pundit two - "I agree with Alan. If we bring up this computer again we can highlight more things that Chelsea should be doing."

 

[rambles on about Chelsea mistakes for 3 more minutes]

 

Lineker - "Well it was no mean feat by Leicester City. We can go over to Nigel Pearson now. Nigel: what did you make of that?"

 

Pearson - "Fvcking balloon head."

 

Lineker - "Well congratulations anyway. Next up - the last time these two teams met blah blah blah."

[indierich06]

Lineker - "Well it was no mean feat by Leicester City. We can go over to Nigel Pearson now. Nigel: what did you make of that?"

 

Pearson - "Fvcking balloon head."

 

 

   

[Simmo86]

Dan Roan

BBC Sport

#PLPredictions

Posted at

 

11:11

"1. Liverpool, 2. Chelsea, 3. Man City, 4. Arsenal, Bottom three: Southampton, Burnley, Leicester.

 

"Most people will understandably write Liverpool off having lost their best player & with the added burden of Europe again. But last season was no fluke. The runners-up have reinvested the Suarez cash wisely, and for the first time in years have proper strength in depth and a solid defence.

"In Sterling, Coutinho and Sturridge they also possess the kind of young, attacking talent that will only improve, and which can compensate for the departure of their former talisman. Liverpool can go one better than last year, and be the surprise champions the premier league so desperately needs. There will be life after Luis, just you watch."

[Max Power]

Liverpool winning the league is worse shout than us finishing bottom.

[yorkie1999]

Take no notice of these pundits, QPR were shit last year when they everyone tipped them to piss the championship, they're not adding, they're rebuilding because they lacked the quality in the first place. What us and burnley are doing is adding to already accomplished sides.

[Jordan]

There is a lot of empirical evidence that demonstrates how bad 'experts' are at predicting. In this context 'expert' would be categorised as 'controversial celebrity mouth-piece employed to give newsworthy sound bites'. This not the same as subject matter expert using data and probabilistic models....who themselves are far beyond infallibility. Football pundits fall into the same category as political pundits (with the noteworthy exception of Nate Silver who did use data and models to successfully and very accurately predict US elections) and most others dragged up before the cameras or in print.

This is a long winded way of saying that we should ignore them; they are tw*ts with very little history of getting anything right. We should just use all this negativity and writing off of our club, as fuel for our assault on the pretentious pri*ks who seem to populate the PL either as pundits or fans...bring it on Baby!!

The standard of analysis in English football punditry is shockingly bad. When pundits try to justify their predictions, so rarely do they rely on strategical/tactical analysis, meaningful statistics (advanced stats are used even more sparingly), trends from all the data we've been able to collect all these years, etc.

Instead, we're all served BS about how Player A is good but Player B might not be, that Player Y scored this amount of goals but player Z scored that, that teams need to play "attacking" and "exciting" football yet they need to be "solid up the spine" and "be able to grind out results," nonsense about "experience" as if they had any clue how experience correlates into success, and woefully inconsistent feelings about how teams handle their transfer business.

A lot of these folks are paid to attract attention and get people talking, yes--and I suppose this thread is proof that they are getting people talking. But I think those whose jobs may be to stir the pot really believe what they say and write, and the quality of analysis from the "experts" isn't all that much better than what one can get from an average fan.

Edited 14 August 2014 by Jordan

[Manwell Pablo]

 

Dan Roan

 

BBC Sport

 

#PLPredictions

 

Posted at

 

11:11

"1. Liverpool, 2. Chelsea, 3. Man City, 4. Arsenal, Bottom three: Southampton, Burnley, Leicester.

 

"Most people will understandably write Liverpool off having lost their best player & with the added burden of Europe again. But last season was no fluke. The runners-up have reinvested the Suarez cash wisely, and for the first time in years have proper strength in depth and a solid defence.

"In Sterling, Coutinho and Sturridge they also possess the kind of young, attacking talent that will only improve, and which can compensate for the departure of their former talisman. Liverpool can go one better than last year, and be the surprise champions the premier league so desperately needs. There will be life after Luis, just you watch."

 

 

Well fair play if you're right Mr Roan but I think there's more chance of Kingfox kicking off a successful stand up career this season than Liverpool winning the league

[Stadt]

Michael Cox from Zonal marking

http://www.bettingexpert.com/blog/premier-league-preview-relegation

fair enough bar saying our squad still looks like a championship one

Edited 14 August 2014 by Wookie

[leicesterseddon]

The standard of analysis in English football punditry is shockingly bad. When pundits try to justify their predictions, so rarely do they rely on strategical/tactical analysis, meaningful statistics (advanced stats are used even more sparingly), trends from all the data we've been able to collect all these years, etc.

Instead, we're all served BS about how Player A is good but Player B might not be, that Player Y scored this amount of goals but player Z scored that, that teams need to play "attacking" and "exciting" football yet they need to be "solid up the spine" and "be able to grind out results," nonsense about "experience" as if they had any clue how experience correlates into success, and woefully inconsistent feelings about how teams handle their transfer business.

A lot of these folks are paid to attract attention and get people talking, yes--and I suppose this thread is proof that they are getting people talking. But I think those whose jobs may be to stir the pot really believe what they say and write, and the quality of analysis from the "experts" isn't all that much better than what one can get from an average fan.

 

Indeed.

 

The one that makes me laugh is how little attention is paid to the form of the 3 promoted sides during the previous season. We finished 22 points ahead of QPR last season, for example - you'd think that might count for something in the various analyses.

 

But no, you couldn't possibly bear that in mind - because 'the Premier League is a completely different kettle of fish'. OK sure, it's a higher quality league, but it's the same bloody game at the end of the day.

 

Yes I know there are some obvious counter-examples to this from recent years, but I'd be surprised if, over a long period, the teams that have gone up as convincing champions and kept all their players and the same manager haven't generally fared better than the sides who have come up through the play-offs.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Some guy from the Racing Post amongst others is about to preview the chances of the promoted teams on TalkSport.

[foxoffderby]

This wound me up.

Taken from a blog on grandoldteam.com

 

So Leicester it is. It’s customary to have a cheap jibe at whoever were playing, sometimes mistakenly buoyed by Everton doing ace things. Problem is that I don’t mind Leicester folk – they’re alright. But it what is is.

Get the on you tits all buzzing as you found an arl king buried under a car park in your city. Is right. Applied for World Heritage Site yet?

The part of the island where Leicester is harbours some of the most inbred weird places that the British isles have to offer. Take your pick from Derby, Melton Mowbray, Peterborough, Coventry, Rugby and Nuneaton. It’s in esteemed company when it comes to mongville. It’s on that basis that Leicester by comparison don’t seem so bad. But ponder Leicester’s purpose in the great design of the isle? What does it do? Nothing really. Kasabian are from there, which is sound, but that apart it’s as close to the appendix of the metaphorical body of the UK as you can find.

If one of them mad space rocks entered the atmosphere and wiped out Leicester and surrounds it would get some news but in the scale of things not a lot would change. England would keep on turning. As inconsequential as a wee pot burn in the dark spare quilt on the spare bed. The news would be buried under the next thing that happens, like yet another Malaysian AIRLINES FLIGHT going wrong.

Back on track – Leicester has few redeeming features, so that coupled with our obvious superior footballing talents should see us get in there and get out with the three points whilst piping down at ease their scrotes who fancy themselves as a footballing giant.

Let’s have a look at their team. A brief look, as it’s clear I’m blagging it.

They have one of our own up front in England’s David Nugent. Doesn’t matter if he has only one or two caps from seven years ago, how many caps do you have to be sneering at him? He scored too. He shoulde be partnered by some Argentinian I’ve never heard of who they paid eight million for from Brighton. Soccer!

They’ve got a few injuries so we are meant to be spared some wonderkid called Varney apparently, and Allbrighton who was going to rip us apart from the wing despite being anxiety ridden every time a full back closed him down for a couple of years playing for a rubbish Aston Villa side. If the weird eye Belgian plays then he’s gonna blow their tiny minds.

Central midfield contains Drinkwater and James, of whom it’s said is like a disease without any cure.

I honestly don’t recognise any of the back four, apart from one time kopite ace full back Konchesky who isn’t guaranteed a start but has a sound mar who hates kopites. Son of the second best keeper of the past thirty years in Britain, Kasper Schmeichel is meant to be sound and completes the Leicester team.

Let it be known that revenge is on our mind. We’re coming to CLAIM BACKthat cup you cruelly snatched from our grasp in Thailand, in front of whatever king they’re worshipping now before the inevitable coup that is never more than three weeks around the corner there. Boss roundhouses though.

What’s our name?

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Some guy from the Racing Post amongst others is about to preview the chances of the promoted teams on TalkSport.

 

Out of the three predictions, we had a 15th, a 16th, and a 19th. Luckily the chap that said 19th sounded the least clued up about us out of the bunch. Not that this affects anything in the grand scheme of things.

 

This wound me up.

Taken from a blog on grandoldteam.com

 

Why would it wind you up? It's a load of toss but when the opening paragraph says it's customary to poke a few jibes at their next opposition you're setting yourself up to be insulted if you don't heed that and take everything written after with a hefty pinch of salt.

Edited 14 August 2014 by Miquel The Work Geordie

[C-man]

Kind of confirms that scousers still find English tough. Spatial awareness too if they think we're surrounded by shitholes and Liverpool ain't.

EDIT: clearly it's been a long day as I skimmed over the very first sentence. Oops.

Edited 14 August 2014 by C-man

[foxoffderby]

Out of the three predictions, we had a 15th, a 16th, and a 19th. Luckily the chap that said 19th sounded the least clued up about us out of the bunch. Not that this affects anything in the grand scheme of things.

 

 

Why would it wind you up? It's a load of toss but when the opening paragraph says it's customary to poke a few jibes at their next opposition you're setting yourself up to be insulted if you don't heed that and take everything written after with a hefty pinch of salt.

 

Your right. But I can't wait for this season. There are so many fans/bloggers/critics writing us off I really want to say in your face

[foxfanazer]

Kind of confirms that scousers still find English tough. Spatial awareness too if they think we're surrounded by shitholes and Liverpool ain't.

Please tell me you're being ironic?! If not this is my favourite post ever!

[Lionator]

I remember that great Reading side that got promoted with 100+ under Coppell and see similarities to us, they hardly added yet they hit the ground running and finished in the top half. There's no reason why we can't do the same.