The Journey

[elangLCFC]

From top of the league last season,

And then the collapse,

Knockaert scraping us into the play-offs against our biggest rivals,

The moment when Nugent headed in at the KP,

And Knockaert winning the penalty,

The tension and heartbreak when he missed,

Watching Watford break down the wing,

Deeney smashing home in the 96th minute,

Seeing the team on the pitch heartbroken,

Barely any signings over the summer,

Start of the season, 1-0 down at HT first match,

Drinkwater and Vardy, two players who were not liked last season, pull it back for us,

Grinding out our results,

Knockaert's free kick vs Derby in the cup,

Yeovil on a cold Tuesday night,

Beating Fulham in the cup with Dyer's last minute winner,

Chris Wood's face goal and Knockaert burying his demons vs Watford,

Crashing back down after Forest beat us 2-0 at the KP,

The blip, two losses in a row, and we were all nervous,

Taking a good point of Burnley before ruining QPRs home record and starting this unreal run,

Smashing Derby 4-1 with a Premier League performance,

'It's fallen to James... DRINKWATER... OH THAT'S SPECIAL' vs Watford,

Mahrez gets his first LCFC goal to salvage a point with 10 men vs Forest,

Forest collapsing and falling away,

Mahrez vs Blackpool,

Schmeichel scoring vs Yeovil to rescue a point in injury time,

Two brilliant goals show our dominance against Burnley,

Coming from behind twice against a very good team in Wigan,

Alan Young's bet still being on,

Knockaert scoring the free kick vs Wednesday that eventually sends us up,

Watching the scores come in and cheering for Bournemouth and Boro,

QPR having a header cleared off the line in the dying seconds,

Full time whistles go...

 

It's been a journey, but we're Leicester City and we're PREMIER LEAGUE!

[Guest Mickyblueeyes]

When you look at the entire ten year period from our last relegation it has been one hell of a journey.

Went down under Adams and lost the last bit of talent in the squad we had. Muzzy left for brum, Ferdinand had one last crack at the prem and Dickov went to Blackburn. Adams spent the entire summer building a brand new team. Most of the summer was spent on the speculation and transfer of one Gareth Williams from Forest. He was seen as the long term replacement for Izzet and Adams number one target. He flopped and if it wasn't for a lack of scouting from Aidy Bothroyd we would've made a substantial loss.

The other signings of note were an ageing Martin Keown, Dion Dublin returning home and David Connolly came with an impressive record at this level of football.

The first game against fellow promotion hopefuls West Ham ended in a 0-0 draw. Decent start, we won't play much better teams and if we perform like that we'll be back up by may. The reality was very different. The ageing squad results were quite indifferent. Adams left and relative unknown young scot manager from Hearts took over. He set about reducing the age of the team however his signings were not of championship level. The team started a slow decline down the league. Dire home performance were creating a chance was as rare as scoring one. Levein was sacked.

Rob Kelly the new man who kept the team up. Unfortunately he didn't have the guile of signing bargain players to build the club up (albeit he did sign McCauley who seems to have gone from strength to strength) the teams core was rotten. Now that we experience a club with 'team

Spirit' we realise how bad it was back then.

Mandaric took over and Kelly was sacked for Worthington. The next year was probably the worst season any Leicester fan ever witnessed. Allen, Megson and finally Holloway with a disjointed squad and mediocre players saw the side relegated to league one. A lot of the memories from that season are suppressed in my memory.

Holloway sacked, who next? George Graham? Iain Dowie? Paul Tisdale? Maybe bring Allen back. None of the above ( thank god) a Mr Nigel Pearson. All of a sudden signings were coming in and contributing to the team. We saw talent like Mark Davies and Gilbert ( can't believe how poor his career has been) and the club romped to the title of the third tier of English football. Pearson set about building a promotion contending team. So close to wembley. Two of the best seasons we had as fans for years!

The summer brought about bad news. Pearson gone due to non footballing reasons. In came Sousa. A new philosophy, a new start. It didn't work. Signings didn't work ( apart from Vitor) and the club found themselves bottom. In the interim, mandaric brokered a deal to sell the club to Thai millionaire.

In came Sven, while there was no structure to his madness it was fun. Yakubu, Naughton, Kamara etc all came in with high hopes. The club never got into the play off zones under him. Sacked.

Who's next this time? O'neil? Nope. The man who had been our best manager since him. Welcome back nige and to nick a line from

Our neighbours with unfinished business.

He set about building a team. Reducing the wage bill and setting up a structure where we felt safe again.

The next two and half years saw us play some of the best football I haven't ever seen leicester play.

What a story. The boys are back and it's been a tough few years!!

[LC/FC]

Amazingly from looking back, it's only Big Nige who has actually been able to manage this club for an entire season or more.

None of the previous lot since Mickey Adams has. And when you have that sort of stabilty in your club, you know you have the right person for the job, especially when year on year the team always improves.

Long may this new era reign!