Why we should all be worried.

[Babylon]

Such a ****.......

But a correct one.

[Blueforever]

Why we should be all worried about paying for Arsenal away tickets after winning the championship next season

[Guest Basildon Fox]

Labeling this season as a "disaster" is, mildly put, pure nonsense.

We didn't get to where we wanted to go, but still there are some positives to draw from this campaign.

Onwards to the next, ahem, attempt.

If it is not a disaster then how would you describe it? At best it has been a major let down after the hope and promise at the start of the season. What positives have come out?

[BNET]

This season has been a disaster, it has been embarrassing for many fans. Another season like this and many will give up. It now seems we are to rely on Pearson getting together a team good enough for promotion for next season. Let's be caustically honest, he has been a failure this time around, so far!

Most fans point to the so called inconsistencies this season - poor against teams lower in the league, better against those above us. Rubbish, but then you can't expect most fans to understand what is actually wrong. However we might hope that Mr Pearson has some sort of idea. So far he has not demonstrated the remotest indication that he has any grasp of what is wrong with the team, and that is what should worry us all.

Sven had no idea what was going in with Championship football, but if given time he may have learnt, obviously we will probably never find out. Pearson however has vast experience in the football league and yet seems to have no clue of what it is all about, of what is required to have the best chance of promotion.

Yes we lost to 'poor' teams near the foot of the table, but we lost to teams above us as well. The truth is we were entirely consistent throughout the season, not as most people seem to think, including our management team that we were inconsistent, simply based on the fact that we could not put together any decent runs in the league at any stage throughout the whole season.

We were consistent because we almost always failed to beat teams who were physically stronger in the midfield area, who would be hard and ruthless, who would be busy, committed, and 'in our faces'. These teams did not care how much our team was worth, they were up for the physical challenge and were aggressive in their approach when playing us. Our midfield is largely made up of a bunch of 'girls' who could not kick the skin off a rice pudding. I have been shouting that this has been our problem for about three years now, and we are no nearer putting it right under Pearson than we were under Sven.

I am known as a major critic of Wellens, Gallagher, Dyer and King, however in truth my despair is when I see three or even four of these in the starting line up together. They are so easy to 'bully', any team who has a manager sharp enough to understand this has had an excellent chance of stopping us winning, and too many know it and have done it. Yes, there was Barnsley and Bristol City and Millwall and so on, but there was also West Ham and Reading who both have some skill in their teams, but also have physicality throughout their midfields.

Pearson obviously has no clue, which was unfortunately proved with his selection of the midfield for the recent match at the 'new' lions den - Wellens, King and Gallagher together - Pillock! That was a match we had to win!

If Pearson does not get a grip with the midfield he will be gone by Christmas. Marshall, Drinkwater and Danns can form the basis for the midfielders in next season's squad. Add some steel, vigour and enthusiasm to that and next season could be good.

Last chance Nigel!

Great post, my thoughts exactly, but put better than l ever could. Nail on the head.

[Blueforever]

Nigel shouldn't be sacked

The board should go now!

Followed by Birch

[cc_star]

If it is not a disaster then how would you describe it? At best it has been a major let down after the hope and promise at the start of the season. What positives have come out?

Disaster was aiming for promotion and ending up relegated 07/08

Yes, major let down based on pre-season expectations... but expectations are an individual thing, some people actually predicted the team wouldn't gel & we'd miss out on the playoffs, whereas some people thought we'd bought the league and would be scrapping it out with West Ham for 1st or 2nd... It's those people who seem particularly bitter & beyond just a bit disappointed.

Positives are... the 2nd half of the season was better than the first (eg... table to 31st Dec has us 14th... but table from 1st Jan to end has us in 6th)

Some great young talent in Marshall, Moore & maybe Drinky & Schlupp with some great prospects in the academy who won their Premier Academy League group

And with some strong signings we will be able to get the most out of the talent expensively assembled last summer

[Guest Basildon Fox]

Disaster was aiming for promotion and ending up relegated 07/08

Yes, major let down based on pre-season expectations... but expectations are an individual thing, some people actually predicted the team wouldn't gel & we'd miss out on the playoffs, whereas some people thought we'd bought the league and would be scrapping it out with West Ham for 1st or 2nd... It's those people who seem particularly bitter & beyond just a bit disappointed.

Positives are... the 2nd half of the season was better than the first (eg... table to 31st Dec has us 14th... but table from 1st Jan to end has us in 6th)

Some great young talent in Marshall, Moore & maybe Drinky & Schlupp with some great prospects in the academy who won their Premier Academy League group

And with some strong signings we will be able to get the most out of the talent expensively assembled last summer

I would love the last bit to be true but recent history suggests that our younger lads will be in the main left out in the cold again next season. I doubt there will be more than a couple of home grown players in the matchday squad come the first game of next season...

[ithuriel]

Have you escaped from a zoo, or a mental hospital?

You can talk, you looney

[ithuriel]

But a correct one.

Indeed.

[Zingari]

pfft

This is nowhere near as worrying as El Empty's dire warnings .

[Daggers]

pfft

This is nowhere near as worrying as El Empty's dire warnings .

He's not used the FT toilet again?!

[Weller in Tights]

This forum is soooooooo depressing sometimes, dont you think????

Football has been my life in many ways:

Playing (at a rather poor level; at school / on Sundays / as a student)

Watching, as a city fan since I was 8 and a follower of 'the beautiful game'

Managing ( a very broad term there), I have ran a ridiculous amount of teams as a teacher and as a dad.

Get over yourselves, get down there next season, vow to be louder than last season and support your team.

YES, FOOTBALL IS TRIBALISTIC, get involved in supporting City and enjoy

[Grewks]

My friend you claim Pearson has 'no clue' and that Danns, marshall and drinkwater would be good enough to be the base of our midfield next season, well guess what, 2 of the 3 players were bought by pearson himself, and therefore suggests to me that he knows what is wrong and is trying to fix it, but attempting this is january - to make a huge change within our squad was not possible.

From what I have seen Pearson has got maximum effort our of his signings, drinky, morgan and marshall, unlike sven who could not motivate Beckford, and could not persuade michael johnson to stay fit.

These attacks on Pearson and unfair, a man who has inherited a squad clearly not able to meet the expectations of the club and fans. Pearsonm is what a would call a 're-rooted'. When he arrives at a club he evaluates the strengths and weaknesses in all levels of our squads, including the academy, and begins to make arrangements for positive change. He will see that the problem at our club is the mentality of the players, we have had many big egos such as Mills, and other players who would rather be at other clubs, Beckford. As a result he has brought in players who wish to play for this club, when playing forest we did not see signs of morgan acknowledging their fans throughout the game, kissing their badge etc. He, along with Marshall and Morgan have shown immense proud in wearing our shirt (especially Marshall) and Pearson knows we need more of this in the summer.

From my view, Pearson has a job this summer similar to that he had at hull during his first season, remove the high wage earners who are not living up to expectation (Beckford, mills) and get rid of the dead wood (wellens, Gally etc). IMO the percentage of transfers which Pearson has made during his time at our club, almost all have been beneficial....

Before we had the likes of Cleverly, davies and spearing, all now have the ability to play in a Premier League side,

we had the astute signings of brown and Hobbs, who complicated each other amazingly well. Since Brown left we have had severe problems finding another 'voice' at the back, who marshalls the back line very well, and since Hobbs went to Hull he has become (or in my eyes continued) one of the best defenders in our league.

Even the likes of Kermogant and N'guessan showed some signs of promise, although we all let Kermogants mistake overshadow his actual technical ability, which he is now showing with his quality of goals at Charlton, he was 'decent' just not a goal scorer, he was the future 'replacement' for Howard. Where as N'guessan looked like a world beater on his debut, and played well for a few games, but sadly it did not work out.

One thing we should know about Pearson, he will leave us in a better position, long-term, compared to when he first arrived. Marshall and Drinkwater have much greated things to offer than Sven signings such as Pantsil, Johnson and Beckford. We will not be linked to the big name players, but our fans must realise that at this club it seems s though the more we pay for a player the 'worse' he is due to expectation. We have always benefited from signing players such as (Ben) Marshall, Izzet, drinky, lennon, Waghorn, Heskey, Hobbs, Walsh, who arrive with less pressure and less expectation.

Unless we have a squad full of players who wish to make a name for themselves, the reputation of our club cannot increase.

I for one am happy with the current position of our club, remember it wasnt so long ago that we were fighting administration and then fighting in league one. With our current management team, we have the 'contacts book/expeirenced' Walshy, 'Tactician/fitness expert' Shakey, and 'the figurehead' NP. We have a young manager who will continue to learn and progress his ability through expeirence, and as a result of his determination. He never wanted to leave the club and jumped at the chance to come back.

I am far more happy of the rumours of signing Harry Kane/Stewart/Chester etc. Than the names i heard about this (or last?) Pre-season.

You need to 'build a squad in football, not buy it', and this is certainly what Big Nige will do. Unlike all other Leicester fans I do not demand promotion next season, a top six finish would be great, but our club is not yet ready. Our squad is not large enough and does not contain enough quality to compete at a higher level, Nigel Pearson led us to a play-off place on a shoestring budget in what I believed was a harder division (top two spots pretty much guaranteed for Albion and Newcastle).

Give him time, a full season at the very least, none of this 'only til christmas' because then we have the same situation as this season, where we blame the manager who joins midway through the season with an 'incapable'/unbalanced squad due to the previous managers poor signings.

NP has always bought a balanced squad with fowards who are poachers (fryatt) target men (adebola - not a great player but NP had no budget), midfielders who are creative (Koren,marshall), put a tackle in and read the game (Evans) and expeirence (Mckenna/wellens). As well as quick exciting wingers (stewart/brady/dyer). Defenders who are dominant (Hobbs/morgan) and others who can read the game well (chester/brown).

Np will build us a squad we can be proud of, and that is the most important thing. Roll on next season.

[MC Prussian]

If it is not a disaster then how would you describe it? At best it has been a major let down after the hope and promise at the start of the season. What positives have come out?

Labeling it a "disaster", one could mean we've just been relegated. Way too drastic a term.

We didn't finish in the Top 6, but then again, we weren't that far off. More of a disappointment maybe, then a disaster.

Positives? Decent cup run, inclusion of several young and upcoming talents in multiple games. All players back from injury.

We can build on that. So we should.

[flowwolf]

When you know you are taking this all a bit too seriously - really, death?????

Hang on old chap I did not mean it to hit the mark that much. I should have used a smiley or something to denote it was just macabre humour , sorry for that.

[kimsalabim]

This season has been a disaster, it has been embarrassing for many fans. Another season like this and many will give up. It now seems we are to rely on Pearson getting together a team good enough for promotion for next season. Let's be caustically honest, he has been a failure this time around, so far!

Most fans point to the so called inconsistencies this season - poor against teams lower in the league, better against those above us. Rubbish, but then you can't expect most fans to understand what is actually wrong. However we might hope that Mr Pearson has some sort of idea. So far he has not demonstrated the remotest indication that he has any grasp of what is wrong with the team, and that is what should worry us all.

Sven had no idea what was going in with Championship football, but if given time he may have learnt, obviously we will probably never find out. Pearson however has vast experience in the football league and yet seems to have no clue of what it is all about, of what is required to have the best chance of promotion.

Yes we lost to 'poor' teams near the foot of the table, but we lost to teams above us as well. The truth is we were entirely consistent throughout the season, not as most people seem to think, including our management team that we were inconsistent, simply based on the fact that we could not put together any decent runs in the league at any stage throughout the whole season.

We were consistent because we almost always failed to beat teams who were physically stronger in the midfield area, who would be hard and ruthless, who would be busy, committed, and 'in our faces'. These teams did not care how much our team was worth, they were up for the physical challenge and were aggressive in their approach when playing us. Our midfield is largely made up of a bunch of 'girls' who could not kick the skin off a rice pudding. I have been shouting that this has been our problem for about three years now, and we are no nearer putting it right under Pearson than we were under Sven.

I am known as a major critic of Wellens, Gallagher, Dyer and King, however in truth my despair is when I see three or even four of these in the starting line up together. They are so easy to 'bully', any team who has a manager sharp enough to understand this has had an excellent chance of stopping us winning, and too many know it and have done it. Yes, there was Barnsley and Bristol City and Millwall and so on, but there was also West Ham and Reading who both have some skill in their teams, but also have physicality throughout their midfields.

Pearson obviously has no clue, which was unfortunately proved with his selection of the midfield for the recent match at the 'new' lions den - Wellens, King and Gallagher together - Pillock! That was a match we had to win!

If Pearson does not get a grip with the midfield he will be gone by Christmas. Marshall, Drinkwater and Danns can form the basis for the midfielders in next season's squad. Add some steel, vigour and enthusiasm to that and next season could be good.

Last chance Nigel!

Ahhh the armchair critic. I'm guessing you have won multiple league titles, champions league trophies, fa and league cups sat in the comfort of your own bedroom on FIFA. In fairness a more steely bunch is needed in the middle of the park, but to decide that Pearson isn't doing the job well without having had a pre-season to prepare is ridiculous. The actual problem with Sven's team in the midfield was that everything came through the centre, there was not a lot going when it came to width. This was highlighted when we lost at Birmingham. Pearson came in and has on the whole had to work with what was left to him. Yes, a set of strikers as good if not better than any others in the division, but a defence that has been chopped and changed so many times over the last 2 years it hasnt had any time to settle. (Paulo Sousa, anyone), and a midfield where King has gone off the boil, Wellens hasnt got the legs for a 46-game season anymore, Gally is just NOT a winger and Dyer's one trick is his pace, when it comes to final delivery, it doesnt usually come off. Think we need to seriously rethink the engine room. But as for Nigel Pearson, judge him after this season, with his own team.