Brian Little

[-blue-]

I think your right, it was 4-4 I stand corrected.

As for the Notts Co game, I was on the football special, probably the only one who actually paid it was as if we took over Nottingham that night.

I'd also include the game against Charlton when they played at Upton Park, although we lost the match our support was amazing that day.

Fans going over the pitch into one of the side stands.....fantastic memories

[David Lowe]

In my time supporting LCFC, which is similar to the OP, I would list my managers in this order;

Martin O'neill- goes without saying.

Nigel Pearson - I was thinking he should go last year but he seems to have a longer plan and he has achieved so much with us so far. I was wrong.

Brian Little- the early fun years from the turn around with a little help from Tommy Wright.

Micky Adams- did so well with pretty much every problem possible thrown at him.

Then in this order;

Rob Kelly.

Sven.

Mark McGhee.

Gary Megson.

Ian Holloway.

Craig Levein.

Martin Allen.

Paolo Sousa.

Peter Taylor.

Bit of a joke! A manager who finished 13th in the Premier League below managers who couldn't get good results in the Championship or even took us down.

[bovril]

Bit of a joke! A manager who finished 13th in the Premier League below managers who couldn't get good results in the Championship or even took us down.

 

Are you referring to Taylor?!?

[Hugo Sanchez]

Taylor only kept us up the first season because of the team MON had left him. Wycombe game finished Taylor and we never got over it, even now. Untill we become a regular top flight team again.

[ithuriel]

If he is referring to Taylor then the original post is correct, Taylor was an unmitigated disaster who destroyed us as a Prem force whilst wasting huge amounts of cash to do it.

He should have been axed at the end of his first season, absolutely garbage manager for us.

[inckley fox]

Bit of a joke! A manager who finished 13th in the Premier League below managers who couldn't get good results in the Championship or even took us down.

 

Are you kidding? Taylor inherited the most successful ever Leicester City side. After an incredible start, with O'Neill's squad largely intact, they ended the season with one of the club's most humiliating ever cup defeats and our worst ever losing run. He spent more money in his 14 months than O'Neill, McGhee and Little combined, but spent it on making Akinbiyi our record buy and persisting with him at Collymore's expense, on replacing Lennon with Jones and Lewis, or Guppy with Davidson.

 

At the start of his second season he broke the club record for biggest opening day defeat and equalled our record for biggest ever home defeat, against newly promoted Bolton. We were 0-5 down at half time. By this point he was playing Izzet on the left wing and had brought in Wise, who would later fracture the cheekbone of one of his own players and then try to get the club closed down when they fired him, to replace him at the heart of midfield. Taylor was sacked with us firmly rooted in the relegation zone, we never recovered and then we went bust as a result of the over-spending. We nearly ceased to exist. Adams' took the remnants of the old squad back up, but our financial collapse - the result of how appallingly misspent the investment was under Taylor - restricted his squad-building.

 

We came back down and took ten years - till now - to return. That's why he's listed Taylor below the likes of Kelly and Levein. Even Sven, Holloway and Sousa don't come close.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Taylor was a disaster for us, he dismantled in the space of 6 months all the hard work that had been put in over 7 or 8 seasons, getting rid of Collymore, Guppy, etc and replacing them with players from lower league sides reserves, Junior Lewis, Trevor Benjamin and Lee Marshall. Only now are we recovering from his time in charge. Wasted millions of pounds on sub-standard players. Maybe he was a decent coach but stepping up to manager, no, awful.

I forgive him Matt Jones, he showed promise but injury put paid to his career.

[BoyJones]

Speak to Walshie, Izzet or Lennon and they will confirm that Taylor dismantled the MON side on purpose to create his own side and then realised that he didn't know how to put a premier league side together. He was also a very poor man manager.

Taylor was and still is an absolute disgrace as a man and manager. He destroyed our team and left us to 10 years plus of difficult times.

No problems with Little, did his best for us and left us to go to his dream job.

In my opinion, having watched City since 1963, Pearson is clearly the most professional manager we have ever had, but MON although more of a "back of fag packet" type planner, was obviously a great motivator and could get the best out of average players, such as Savage, Marshall, Guppy et al.

Will give 1st place to MON, but this may change next year. 2nd Pearson, 3rd Bloomfield for buying top players. Adams and Wallace were genuine men, but not got a lot of time for our other managers - the worst by a country mile Frank McLintock.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

Looking back fondly at managers is only part of the story. Looking back at the context in which they were managing is as important, if not moreso.

Football, around Little's time, was brilliant IMO.

Rather than some of the diving/cheating toe-rags we have nowadays, paid mickey mouse money and moaning if your mate is 'earning' 100k per week, whilst you are only on 80, back then we had some real characters. Big Ormondroyd, Tommy Wright on the wing, Walshy scoring goals up front, Coatsworth coming in and doing a job...

Coupled with these characters were stadia with character.

Filbert St could be quiet, but could be absolutely fookin rockin too. There was tension, sometimes menace and the songs sung had you in stitches. Crowd control was a few older blokes who larked about with the fans, rather than the Police State we have at the KP now.

So Little will always have a special place in my heart for what he did, on not much money and given the context in which he did it.

Having been fortunate enough to watch City back then, and now, the whole football thing these days, pales by comparison IMO. But maybe thats just an age thing.

I agree. My best memories go back to the Matt Gillies days,followed by the Jimmy Bloomfield era, when the game was more open and exciting, and players that are true blue legends, entertained enthusiastic crowds. 

 

Much as my heart is still with the club, those days will never come near to being surpassed. An "age thing"? I'don't think so, but I was certainly spoilt with sheer quality matches.

[Raj]

only have love for him.

my first season ticket under his reign

Dont even blame him fir going villa as he played for them.

Also always came across as a true gentleman

[davieG]

Speak to Walshie, Izzet or Lennon and they will confirm that Taylor dismantled the MON side on purpose to create his own side and then realised that he didn't know how to put a premier league side together. He was also a very poor man manager.

Taylor was and still is an absolute disgrace as a man and manager. He destroyed our team and left us to 10 years plus of difficult times.

No problems with Little, did his best for us and left us to go to his dream job.

In my opinion, having watched City since 1963, Pearson is clearly the most professional manager we have ever had, but MON although more of a "back of fag packet" type planner, was obviously a great motivator and could get the best out of average players, such as Savage, Marshall, Guppy et al.

Will give 1st place to MON, but this may change next year. 2nd Pearson, 3rd Bloomfield for buying top players. Adams and Wallace were genuine men, but not got a lot of time for our other managers - the worst by a country mile Frank McLintock.

1963 and no mention of Gillies

[Kitchandro]

Gordon Milne rarely gets a mention, which is a shame when he has been one of our most successful managers

 

It's funny, whenever these nostalgic threads come up people always go on about how great Jock Wallace was, Milne is almost never mentioned, even though he took us up and we stayed up. - whereas under Wallace we went straight back down. Why is that?

 

Similarly, why did crowds decrease throughout the 80s, even during the middle when we were in the top flight?

[Webbo]

It's funny, whenever these nostalgic threads come up people always go on about how great Jock Wallace was, Milne is almost never mentioned, even though he took us up and we stayed up. - whereas under Wallace we went straight back down. Why is that?

 

Similarly, why did crowds decrease throughout the 80s, even during the middle when we were in the top flight?

Just surviving in the top flight wasn't seen as a great achievement in those pre PL days.

[ceredigion]

It's funny, whenever these nostalgic threads come up people always go on about how great Jock Wallace was, Milne is almost never mentioned, even though he took us up and we stayed up. - whereas under Wallace we went straight back down. Why is that?

 

Similarly, why did crowds decrease throughout the 80s, even during the middle when we were in the top flight?

You'll find that attendances decreased at almost every football club during the 80s. It was certainly not a phenomenon confined to Leicester City.

 

Hooliganism at the games was one reason, which deterred lots of people. There were new leisure opportunities appearing in the 80s which meant football wasn't the only thing to do. Also many grounds had their capacity drastically reduced at that time for safety reasons. In the 70s you could get crowds of up to 35,000 at Filbert Street but by the mid 80s the capacity was down to around 25,000 so it simply wasn't possible for the same number of people to go to games.

 

Between the mid 60s and the mid 80s, attendances were pretty much halved across the football league and almost all clubs suffered. But the 80s were the low point. Back then Leicester often played in front of crowds of 7-8,000 in the old First Division.

 

However, tickets then were about three quid, a programme was 50p and a pie was about 25p, so it had its upsides.

[Guest Col city fan]

You'll find that attendances decreased at almost every football club during the 80s. It was certainly not a phenomenon confined to Leicester City.

Hooliganism at the games was one reason, which deterred lots of people. There were new leisure opportunities appearing in the 80s which meant football wasn't the only thing to do. Also many grounds had their capacity drastically reduced at that time for safety reasons. In the 70s you could get crowds of up to 35,000 at Filbert Street but by the mid 80s the capacity was down to around 25,000 so it simply wasn't possible for the same number of people to go to games.

Between the mid 60s and the mid 80s, attendances were pretty much halved across the football league and almost all clubs suffered. But the 80s were the low point. Back then Leicester often played in front of crowds of 7-8,000 in the old First Division.

However, tickets then were about three quid, a programme was 50p and a pie was about 25p, so it had its upsides.

Spot on..

[ceredigion]

Spot on..

And one could also add the fact the live TV matches started in the 1980s. Before 1983 the only domestic game you could watch live was the FA Cup Final. There were highlights on MOTD and Star Soccer, but only of 2 games. Those programmes didn't show all the goals from all the games as they do now. So up to the 80s the only way you could see anything of your team was to turn up at the match.

 

Even the BBC radio commentaries were absurdly restricted.  They could only broadcast live commentaries of the second half of a game for fear it would affect attendances, and commentaries on midweek league games didn't start at all until about 1985. Hard to believe now I know, but there was no 5-Live back then.

[BoyJones]

Hi davieG,

Apologies, I was a kid then and Gillies had a really low profile. He was a little bit shy, never really engaged with the fans and I have no real recollection of any interviews - however, he clearly put together a top side - no disrespect to him intended, he led us to our most consistent finishes in the top division in my lifetime.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Brian Little did a magnificent job, rescuing us from the dark Pleat years and bringing some pride back. Yes, the way he left did leave a sour taste but the LCFC board put him in a very difficult position and I don't really blame him for doing what he did because he was and always will be a Villa man. That said, he's one of the nicest, most genuine guys you can meet in football. We speak from time to time and he has nothing but wonderful things to say about us. He laid a lot of the groundwork for MON.