davieG Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Leicester Aren’t Lucky, They’re Lethal Fans in other countries might have to rub their eyes in disbelief when they see Leicester City on top of the Premier League in December, but everyone concerned with English football can see they are not just a flash in the pan. As dominant as Chelsea were last season, Leicester City are only four points off the tally the champions obtained at the same point 12 months ago. As form goes, the Foxes haven’t lost since the 26th of September at the hands of Arsenal and even since then, they have only dropped four points in the process. Leicester’s next match is at home to struggling Chelsea on Monday night and if Chelsea lose to Porto and get knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday, they may well be manager-less for next week’s clash. The strange thing is, with or without Jose Mourinho in the opposition’s dugout, Leicester should be favourites. Their reign as leaders is not undeserving, it is a true reflection of how the league has gone so far and they have simply been the best. Record-breaking Jamie Vardy and equally impressive Riyad Mahrez between them have scored 24 goals. That is more than the combined efforts of teams like Southampton (21), Man United (20), Crystal Palace (19), Liverpool (18) and Chelsea (17). They also have two more goals scored in combination than Real Madrid’s trio of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and last but not least, Cristiano Ronaldo. What a change in fortunes it is to this time last year. Under Nigel Pearson, bar the famous 5-3 victory at home to Manchester United, newly promoted Leicester were poor and highly tipped to go back down to the Championship, but earning significant results in the last handful of games, they managed to safely avoid the drop. Pearson departed Leicester surprisingly, but the sophomores brought in the vastly experienced Claudio Ranieri who has managed quality sides in Italy, Spain, France and England. Claudio Ranieri Even though it is widely believed that Leicester are over-achieving, Ranieri is a man who knows how to get a team who haven’t been in contention for many years, inside the top four as previously seen with his Chelsea side at the start of the Millenium. The real barometer to indicate if Leicester are true title contenders is in their next 12 games. With Chelsea, Everton, Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City (twice) and Liverpool (twice) all to be played between now and the end of February, many may predict Ranieri’s honeymoon period ending sooner rather than later. This might be the case, but a win at the start of this difficult run of games next Monday at the King Power Stadium against Chelsea will evidently show how times have changed in English football. It will also send a message to anyone in the league who hasn’t received it – Leicester are ruthless, Leicester should be taken seriously and Leicester should receive the respect they deserve. Brein McGinn, Pundit Arena http://www.punditarena.com/football/english-football/bmcginn/leicester-arent-lucky-theyre-lethal/?
EGBFitness Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Just been on Sky Sports discussing our title winning chances. Fairly decent cover but didn't believe with their comment about leaking goals, we've conceded 7 goals in our last 8 games which I don't think is a particularly bad record especially when you have scored 17 goals
tom27111 Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Can you imagine winning at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season to win the league.....and relegate Chelsea? Sky would just talk about how Chelsea are going down, probably wouldn't even show the trophy presentation!
davieG Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 At 9.30am on Saturday, a New York winter's morning, a small crowd of men and women in blue and white scarves will make their way down 33rd Street in downtown Manhattan. Above them, dominating this famous skyline, is the Empire State building. Below, in the basement of the Legends bar and away from the hustle of the world's busiest city, is The Football Factory. The Football Factory – all the clues are there – is a bar that shows football. All it shows is football, from all around the world. This where the men and women in their blue and white scarves are heading – to perch in front of one of the bar's 20 enormous plasma TV screens and watch, live, as it happens, at 10am, with a beer in their hand if they wish, Leicester City play Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium, south Wales. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, Leicester City are making a lot of new friends. The New York Foxes – the stateside LCFC fans group – is growing. The group was started by twin brothers Jordan and Jason Becker, New York residents and Leicester City fans. "I've not been wearing my Leicester shirt for the past few weeks," says Jason Becker, an employee benefits consultant from Little Italy, Manhattan. "I started wearing my scarf a few weeks ago and that seemed to coincide with our recent good run. I feel like I can't change that now. So I wear my scarf, but not my top." Separated by an ocean and 100 years of footballing indifference, it's reassuring to know that US football fans are stricken by exactly the same pointless neuroses as their English counterparts. English football is, finally, big news in America – and Leicester City, top of the league and boasting the fairy-tale striker in his free-scoring golden boots, is capturing the imagination of every stateside football fan. It's taken a long time to get to this point. Jack Keane is the owner of the Football Factory. An Irishman from County Kerry, Jack left Ireland to travel around Australia, before settling in the Big Apple. "I fell in love with New York but I realised, quite quickly, that there was a huge gap in the market here. If you liked football, and you wanted to keep up to date with the English leagues, it wasn't really possible." The reasons for this were not just because Americans didn't like or understand the sport. It was because, culturally, they didn't like what they thought it represented. Despite several high profile attempts, Americans struggled with the concept of "soccer." "The game was treated with a huge amount of disdain by politicians and journalists," says Jack. Jack Kemp, a former Buffalo Bills quarterback-turned-senior-Republican politician, predicted English soccer would never catch on. "I think it is important for all those young people out there – who some day hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands – that a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism, whereas 'soccer' is a European socialist sport," he said. Soccer's main problem, he added, was that "it didn't have a quarterback". Kemp later insisted he was "just joking", but he was far from a lone voice. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, formerly a speech writer for George W. Bush, echoed similar sentiments, claiming again that "soccer was a socialist sport". "This is what it was like," says Jack. "There was almost a nationwide campaign against soccer, a sort of unspoken, patriotic rule that American sports were the best – and any imports, especially soccer, were not needed and best avoided." The 1994 World Cup, staged in nine cities across the States, did little to win over hearts and minds of American sports fans "It was actually the 2002 World Cup which changed people's perceptions," reckons Jack. "I was here, at the bar, and we had the matches on at 2am, 5am and 7am. "The US national team did well, qualifying from their group and winning the next round before being knocked out by Germany in the quarter finals." As the US national side progressed, interest increased. At the Football Factory bar, more people started coming in, watching games. A decade on, fans of Premier League football are better catered for in the States than they are in England. "We get better coverage here, in the States, than you do in the UK," says Jack. On a Saturday morning, City fans can watch their team – live, via satellite – wherever they are playing. "We get them all, and they're all live," says Jack. "You don't get that over there, do you?" Jordan Becker, twin brother of Jason, is perhaps the original Leicester City missionary in New York City, the man who has been spreading the Blue Army news since the late 1990s. "It started for me in 1998," says Jordan, a retail manager from Tarrytown, a northern New York suburb on the banks of the Hudson River. "I played soccer at school and, although coverage wasn't great back then, I used to dig around so I could read about the Premier League and watch games." Jordan started supporting Leicester City because of their American goalkeeper, Kasey Keller. "That's how it started, it was down to Keller," says Jordan. "I was 15, Kasey was an American playing well in the English Premier League. That was enough for me." But when Keller left City in 1999, Jordan stayed with Leicester. "I liked the way Leicester played," he says. "I liked the fact we were always the underdogs, that no-one really spoke about us in the same way they did about Manchester United or Chelsea or Spurs – and yet we'd go to those places and beat those teams." If it was difficult for Jordan to watch Leicester City while they were in the Premier League at the end of the 1990s, it was about to get worse. In the space of two years, Martin O'Neill left, Peter Taylor arrived, a winning team were systematically dismantled and City were plunged into administration and then relegated. And although interest in English football started to grow in America at that time, it didn't always spread to the Championship. Three thousand miles away, Jordan Becker must have cursed his initial choice. "But they were my team. Leicester are my club," he says. He got his brother, Jason, involved, and other friends. "It's great now. When Leicester win or do well, or there's a story about them in the American newspapers or magazines, my friend will text me. 'Great news about Leicester,' they say. And I love that." There have been a lot of those texts recently, as City escaped what looked like certain relegation and now perch in the upper reaches of the Premier League. "It's a brilliant time to be a City fan. I remember watching that goalless draw versus Hull last season and I thought we were down. "The run we've been on since then – Premier League survival with a game to spare, and now sitting at the top of the table this season – has been brilliant." Jack has witnessed a huge surge in Leicester City coverage in the American media and interest in his bar. "A year or so ago, no-one really knew who Leicester were," he says. "Now everyone knows. I have people from all over the world watching football in here – French, Italian, Brazilian, Peruvian, Americans – and they all know about Leicester City and Jamie Vardy. "Listen, I think it's brilliant. It's a great story, and I like watching them play. They play with so much pace and conviction." Leicester fans on holiday in New York are always welcome to join the New York Foxes at the Football Factory to see City play. The Beckers are both on Twitter. You can contact them here: @_Mrjordan @extrajason Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Keeping-blue-flag-flying-New-York-city-USA/story-28312297-detail/story.html#ixzz3td6cGduT Follow us: @@leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook
EGBFitness Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Can you imagine winning at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season to win the league.....and relegate Chelsea? Sky would just talk about how Chelsea are going down, probably wouldn't even show the trophy presentation! I was thinking about this the other day, kind of feels like it's written in the stars that Ranieri would return back to Stamford Bridge for his first competitive match since they unfairly sacked him lifting the premier league trophy with the underdogs and relegating Chelsea Sky would just be taking about Chelsea though and how they will run away with the championship etc etc
EGBFitness Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 At 9.30am on Saturday, a New York winter's morning, a small crowd of men and women in blue and white scarves will make their way down 33rd Street in downtown Manhattan. Above them, dominating this famous skyline, is the Empire State building. Below, in the basement of the Legends bar and away from the hustle of the world's busiest city, is The Football Factory. The Football Factory – all the clues are there – is a bar that shows football. All it shows is football, from all around the world. This where the men and women in their blue and white scarves are heading – to perch in front of one of the bar's 20 enormous plasma TV screens and watch, live, as it happens, at 10am, with a beer in their hand if they wish, Leicester City play Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium, south Wales. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, Leicester City are making a lot of new friends. The New York Foxes – the stateside LCFC fans group – is growing. The group was started by twin brothers Jordan and Jason Becker, New York residents and Leicester City fans. "I've not been wearing my Leicester shirt for the past few weeks," says Jason Becker, an employee benefits consultant from Little Italy, Manhattan. "I started wearing my scarf a few weeks ago and that seemed to coincide with our recent good run. I feel like I can't change that now. So I wear my scarf, but not my top." Separated by an ocean and 100 years of footballing indifference, it's reassuring to know that US football fans are stricken by exactly the same pointless neuroses as their English counterparts. English football is, finally, big news in America – and Leicester City, top of the league and boasting the fairy-tale striker in his free-scoring golden boots, is capturing the imagination of every stateside football fan. It's taken a long time to get to this point. Jack Keane is the owner of the Football Factory. An Irishman from County Kerry, Jack left Ireland to travel around Australia, before settling in the Big Apple. "I fell in love with New York but I realised, quite quickly, that there was a huge gap in the market here. If you liked football, and you wanted to keep up to date with the English leagues, it wasn't really possible." The reasons for this were not just because Americans didn't like or understand the sport. It was because, culturally, they didn't like what they thought it represented. Despite several high profile attempts, Americans struggled with the concept of "soccer." "The game was treated with a huge amount of disdain by politicians and journalists," says Jack. Jack Kemp, a former Buffalo Bills quarterback-turned-senior-Republican politician, predicted English soccer would never catch on. "I think it is important for all those young people out there – who some day hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands – that a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism, whereas 'soccer' is a European socialist sport," he said. Soccer's main problem, he added, was that "it didn't have a quarterback". Kemp later insisted he was "just joking", but he was far from a lone voice. Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, formerly a speech writer for George W. Bush, echoed similar sentiments, claiming again that "soccer was a socialist sport". "This is what it was like," says Jack. "There was almost a nationwide campaign against soccer, a sort of unspoken, patriotic rule that American sports were the best – and any imports, especially soccer, were not needed and best avoided." The 1994 World Cup, staged in nine cities across the States, did little to win over hearts and minds of American sports fans "It was actually the 2002 World Cup which changed people's perceptions," reckons Jack. "I was here, at the bar, and we had the matches on at 2am, 5am and 7am. "The US national team did well, qualifying from their group and winning the next round before being knocked out by Germany in the quarter finals." As the US national side progressed, interest increased. At the Football Factory bar, more people started coming in, watching games. A decade on, fans of Premier League football are better catered for in the States than they are in England. "We get better coverage here, in the States, than you do in the UK," says Jack. On a Saturday morning, City fans can watch their team – live, via satellite – wherever they are playing. "We get them all, and they're all live," says Jack. "You don't get that over there, do you?" Jordan Becker, twin brother of Jason, is perhaps the original Leicester City missionary in New York City, the man who has been spreading the Blue Army news since the late 1990s. "It started for me in 1998," says Jordan, a retail manager from Tarrytown, a northern New York suburb on the banks of the Hudson River. "I played soccer at school and, although coverage wasn't great back then, I used to dig around so I could read about the Premier League and watch games." Jordan started supporting Leicester City because of their American goalkeeper, Kasey Keller. "That's how it started, it was down to Keller," says Jordan. "I was 15, Kasey was an American playing well in the English Premier League. That was enough for me." But when Keller left City in 1999, Jordan stayed with Leicester. "I liked the way Leicester played," he says. "I liked the fact we were always the underdogs, that no-one really spoke about us in the same way they did about Manchester United or Chelsea or Spurs – and yet we'd go to those places and beat those teams." If it was difficult for Jordan to watch Leicester City while they were in the Premier League at the end of the 1990s, it was about to get worse. In the space of two years, Martin O'Neill left, Peter Taylor arrived, a winning team were systematically dismantled and City were plunged into administration and then relegated. And although interest in English football started to grow in America at that time, it didn't always spread to the Championship. Three thousand miles away, Jordan Becker must have cursed his initial choice. "But they were my team. Leicester are my club," he says. He got his brother, Jason, involved, and other friends. "It's great now. When Leicester win or do well, or there's a story about them in the American newspapers or magazines, my friend will text me. 'Great news about Leicester,' they say. And I love that." There have been a lot of those texts recently, as City escaped what looked like certain relegation and now perch in the upper reaches of the Premier League. "It's a brilliant time to be a City fan. I remember watching that goalless draw versus Hull last season and I thought we were down. "The run we've been on since then – Premier League survival with a game to spare, and now sitting at the top of the table this season – has been brilliant." Jack has witnessed a huge surge in Leicester City coverage in the American media and interest in his bar. "A year or so ago, no-one really knew who Leicester were," he says. "Now everyone knows. I have people from all over the world watching football in here – French, Italian, Brazilian, Peruvian, Americans – and they all know about Leicester City and Jamie Vardy. "Listen, I think it's brilliant. It's a great story, and I like watching them play. They play with so much pace and conviction." Leicester fans on holiday in New York are always welcome to join the New York Foxes at the Football Factory to see City play. The Beckers are both on Twitter. You can contact them here: @_Mrjordan @extrajason Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Keeping-blue-flag-flying-New-York-city-USA/story-28312297-detail/story.html#ixzz3td6cGduT Follow us: @@leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook My mates in one of those pictures
tom27111 Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 My mates in one of those pictures Is it one of the blondes? If so, hook a brother up! 2
Ric Flair Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Hahahahahaaa Maybes is on that picture on the right!!!!
MC Prussian Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 (edited) Hahahahahaaa Maybes is on that picture on the right!!!! Proper Photobomber - has something eerie about that grin (Stephen Merchant-style)! Edited 7 December 2015 by MC Prussian
MC Prussian Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 My mates in one of those pictures Three FT posters are on those pictures, as well... Apart from Maybes, it's Jordan & his twin brother (The_77).
Guest Electric Yetis Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Three FT posters are on those pictures, as well... Apart from Maybes, it's Jordan & his twin brother (The_77).And Wilkesy
davieG Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Now predicted to finish 3rd in the http://www.express.co.uk/pictures/galleries/3730/Predicted-Premier-League-table-2015-16-sportgalleries/85185
filbertway Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Now predicted to finish 3rd in the http://www.express.co.uk/pictures/galleries/3730/Predicted-Premier-League-table-2015-16-sportgalleries/85185 Wow we're only going to lose 3 games. Nice.
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Now predicted to finish 3rd in the http://www.express.co.uk/pictures/galleries/3730/Predicted-Premier-League-table-2015-16-sportgalleries/85185 That says we're going to win 8 away fixtures all season... we've won 5 already!
EGBFitness Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Is it one of the blondes? If so, hook a brother up! Haha unfortunately not mate, his one of the guys but can try and put a good word in for you
EGBFitness Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Three FT posters are on those pictures, as well... Apart from Maybes, it's Jordan & his twin brother (The_77). Ah ok cool, good to see we have good following and also using FT. Don't think my mate is on here but he is from Leicester, think he has gone over to see family over there
filbertway Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 That says we're going to win 8 away fixtures all season... we've won 5 already! We do still have Spurs, United, Everton, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal to play away haha. We'll do pretty well to win any of them.
ithuriel Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 We seem to have a lot of Algerian fans if you look on the Facebook page. My brother said it was quite funny earlier in the season when Mahrez scored and an Algerian supporter, who had somehow managed to get a ticket in the away supporters section having travelled to the UK, was jumping for joy and they had to quickly get him out before things kicked off.
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 We do still have Spurs, United, Everton, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal to play away haha. We'll do pretty well to win any of them. We'll win at least one of those - they'll all be playing to win at home and that'll give us a great chance to hit them on the break. Wouldn't be that surprised if we won half of those (and took a few batterings) We've also got Villa, Watford, Palace, Sunderland
foxes_rule1978 Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 We do still have Spurs, United, Everton, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal to play away haha. We'll do pretty well to win any of them. We are better away than at home
Steven Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Now predicted to finish 3rd in the http://www.express.co.uk/pictures/galleries/3730/Predicted-Premier-League-table-2015-16-sportgalleries/85185 31 points stays up; ; we are staying up!
AKCJ Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 If we finish 3rd above Spurs and UEFA cut one champions league spot from the Premier League I will give all the money I own to see Harry Kane's face at the moment they tell him.
The_77 Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 Three FT posters are on those pictures, as well... Apart from Maybes, it's Jordan & his twin brother (The_77).Haha-- yep, that's us. If anyone from FT finds their way to New York, we'll be at the bar for the game. We're also pretty active on @newyorkfoxes.
Babylon Posted 7 December 2015 Posted 7 December 2015 If we finish 3rd above Spurs and UEFA cut one champions league spot from the Premier League I will give all the money I own to see Harry Kane's face at the moment they tell him. It's written in the stars now that we finish fourth and we lose a champions league spot
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