Bitterness, an lcfc view.

Its fair to say that being a lcfc fan, that i am enjoying the current season. Having looked at other clubs forums throughtout the season, the common theme on several boards is real bitterness towards lcfc. So far we have been accused of arrogance, lack of respect, financial dodgy dealings, as well as many other things.
Other lcfc fans have posted on here to try and explain, so as a middle aged lcfc supporter i'd like also to give hopefully a reasoned opinion.

Over the last 10 years or so lcfc has been at various times been very poorly handled and managed. I'm not proud, and i'd doubt any decent lcfc supporter is of the administration affairs a few years ago. It was shoddy at best, and the club imo deserved a certain degree of stick for it. The current regime and manager are not responsible for that period. Milan Mandaric came to lcfc in 2007, and we all thought that the saviour had arrived. What followed was another disastrous period in which Mandaric dismissed one after another of his own very poor choices for managers. When Mandaric sold out to the Thai consortium, the new owners wanted a marquee name for our manager to make a statement of intent. Sven Goran Eriksson was appointed, and once again through very poor management the club was heading both financially and in league terms downhill. Sven spent astonishing amounts, £5M on Matt Mills and £3M on Jermaine Beckford. Other players like Neil Danns came in and the wage bill was going through the roof. Thankfully the Swede was gone and Nigel Pearson has come back for a 2nd spell.
Pearson has done a very good job in offloading those expensive signings and players who were earning ridiculous amounts.
Last season lcfc was in an auto promotion slot in January. A very poor run of results ended ultimately in the well known play off failure at Watford. During the summer most City fans were somewhat deflated by Pearsons very low key additions to the squad. Most thought that the failure to freshen up the squad, would result in a mid table season, with play-offs at best. The fact that the club is now being more sensibly run, as proven to be the vital ingredient for this season. The players have had a year longer together and have gelled well as a team. The results speak for themselves. The £34M debt for the year is also partly due to the tail end of the disastrous SGE reign. The current team is assembled at a total cost of no more than 3 or 4 of QPR's signings. The financial side of lcfc is not a thing i will defend, but the supporters are certainly not responsible for what the owners and managers have done. Like anybody else we will love our club even if we are relegated to the non league. Like Barnsley you are born with that blood in you, and thru good times and bad you will still support the club.

Regarding the arrogance of the lcfc fans, its something that makes me smile. Many opposing fans go on a lcfc called Foxestalk. Its probaly fair to say that whilst there are good posters on FT, there are also some younger ones who come accross as rather immature. Make no mistake the true nature of most decent lcfc is one of a much more cautious dare i say pessimistic nature. There is not a single game this season despite our position, where i thought or expected us to win. Teams dont give you the game, and when we played Barnsley on Tues night i was just as nervous as any other game.
Leicester fans are enjoying the season, what club wouldnt when you are having a 1 off wonderful season.

As for Barnsley, obviously you are in a tough fight for survival. I expect it could go down to the final game. As an outsider i have always regarded Barnsley as a well run and respectable championship level club. At best the premier lge may be achievable, and at worst you may drop to lge 1. Everything said i have plenty of respect for Barnsley fc.
The financial problems that lcfc found themselves in, may also run deeper than a bad owner/manager. There are different expectation levels at every football club. If lcfc line up against the countries elite next season, then there are probaly at least a dozen teams that Leicester will not be able to compete with. The spending power of those clubs will be on another planet to what lcfc can afford. That is where financial problems occur. Barnsley are usually a good solid championship club, and imo the supporters accept better than leicester a mid table season at this level. Lcfc has spent most of its history between the top flight and 2nd division. Its in the supporters mindset that the club should be challenging for promotion, every time we are at this level. That push to be in, or stay in the top flight can often lead the regime to step out of its comfort zone. lcfc are not the only club who gets trapped in this financial meltdown situation. The Championship is littered with prem league fails, and quite often it takes years to recover. Once again i'm not defending Leicesters financial problems, just trying to put some reasoning behind it.

Finally, whilst enjoying reading over the last week comments from Barnsley fans on here, i cant leave without a mention of something that i find somewhat troubling. The miners strike.
A poster i cant remember, suggested that 'Leicester should get the same treatment as Nottingham' . Why ? I am acutely aware that communities were devastated because of the strike in the 1980's, but probaly over 99% of Leicestershires population, certainly today, have no association to that strike. Of todays generation, most young ones probaly dont even know who Scargill is.
Imo an accurate assessment was made by one of your posters Homer........

British coal needed pruning, but it did not require cutting all the branches off.
The miners were in the middle of two people who could and would not compromise.
After saying that Thatcher had an agenda, which was to smash all Unions, and if she smashed the miners she was well on her way.
She then destroyed Wapping st, the Steel men, the shipbuilders and dockers.
She then Americanised us into small units on industrial estates, totally divided and no power in strength.
So after the working class had built up a voice via unity we are now back to square one.
People work all hours or not at all.
Employers do what they want, and you are told you are lucky to have a job

Anyway sorry for the dreadfully long post, and all the best in your fight for championship football

 

Bloody hell how long did that take to post. I gave up after the first paragraph. All the best for the rest of the season.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for that, and good luck going forward. Just look after Drinky.

 

Yep, apologies for that. Not usually my style.

 

Long read that . Good luck in the premiership and enjoy it if you can

 

I find myself agreeing with everything you say, BIA.

First up, Leicester played absolutely superb football on Tuesday night. Pearson deserves enormous credit, because he's stuck to his gameplan and got your lads working together, and very, very hard. Their organisation contrasts notably with the wreck of a team which the Hill/Flitcroft era has left us with at Oakwell.

Second, your support was terrific. You are entitled to a bit of swagger about the way your lads are playing, and to the demolition job you've done on this division. If people class that as arrogance, then they can't remember our own ebullience when we marched into the Premiership in 1996-97.

Third, I think your view of the strike and Thatcher v Scargill is spot on. It's notable that Blair's government didn't reverse anything when they got to power. Divide and rule leads to an easy ride for the government of the day, and also to the situation where decent hardworking people are forced to accept zero hours contracts and other such crap.

Good luck in the Prem. I think that with Pearson, you will probably achieve safety and can hopefully build from there.

All the best mate.

 

Top post
I for one don't blame the fans for celebrating bragging etc as we would also in your predicument,just wish our laws made the people that run our clubs more accountable so they couldn't strip the assets then leave the fans with the mess.
As or the miners strike our town suffered and is still suffering from the effects of this namely the miners but also the thousands of connected jobs that ran alongside.
Some lost more than others hence the differing views and attitudes which to be honest I can understand. But as you say the workers in general lost out in this with hard fought rights which have now gone of of the window probably to never return whilst the fat get fatter.that's the real outcome of losing the strike and s exactly what Scargill predicted and although a Lt of people don't like him if you read his visions and predictions (not the media versions) you'll see they have mostly come true.

 

I too visited Filbert Street on maybe half a dozen occasions during the 80's and 90's. I have to agree that it was always a hostile environment but nevertheless I have happy memories of it (apart from the day we got relegated from the Prem). The atmosphere was always good as we generally took a sizeable following and we had a pretty good record there.
Leicester fans have always had a bit of arrogance about them though.

 

Interesting post.

I come from a slightly differently prospective from Fired above. I have a very good friend who is Leicester mad. When I lived in London I went to many Leicester matches and met some great people and when you went into admin last time I even did some collecting from you.

But as a Barnsley fan I'm at the end of my tether with teams like yours who just overspend and overspend causing a trickle down escalation in wages throughout the league and resulting price hikes etc. Additionally distorting the competition and making it almost impossible for teams that 'do things the right way' to compete. On other threads here we've had people saying well we lost £34 million last year but we didn't really and trying to defend the indefensible aspects of how your club is managed such as paying more out just in wages than your annual takeover. The real cost of getting you promoted will be the £103 million that was written off late last year.

As a fellow fan of course you support your team it's your roots your community your heart and soul. I would also expect your fans to be acutely aware that you have gone about things the wrong way and be unsurprised when opposition fans dislike you as a result. I would expect your fans to be able to say yes the way we have gone about things is completely unjustifiable and wrong but **** me I'm going to enjoy the good times while I can. In all honesty thats pretty much what I'd say. At the same time given the calculated actions of your last administration again I would be unsurprised that this calculated distortion of the notion of competition irritated people.

To be honest from my perspective, I think it will take a club with a strong loyal fan base to actually fold like yourselves or Bolton or QPR before the realisation hits home to the wider football community that the madness has to stop.

Don't in any way think we are bitter about losing. We lost to a better more skilful side who played some lovely football but given it's taken you a 100 million quid to get here it's unsurprising.

Here's the views of your promotion rivals.

http://nonaynever.net/4326/football-finance-an-uneven-playing-field/

I guess FFP has been brought in to stop clubs like Leicester manipulating the system and I for one hope it's a success and your legal challenge is a failure if you succeed I would like to see the Football League expel you from the league I think this is that serious.

 

Thanks very much for that post mate. There may be things I disagree with but I have no wish to start an argument. Hope you enjoy your time in the Premier League and that the club have learnt from past mistakes and don't over spend again.

 

I've got some very good memories of Filbert Street. I guess we all experience different stuff when we travel away from home.

Our 2-1 victory in the cup in 1990 is one of the best games, played in one of the best atmospheres, I've ever been to. I still get a tingle down the back of my neck when I remember Agnew going up to the crowd and geeing us up. The noise was incredible.

Steve Lowndes. Steve ******* Lowndes.

 

Steve ******* Lowndes. Great game. Greet memories. I always loved Filbert Street myself proper old school ground.

 

Steve Lowndes indeed! What a shame it was at the other end because I couldn't believe he had scored. He picked it up in our half and ran and ran and ran.....then this tremendous roar. Great cup tie in a proper football ground on a shocker of a pitch if I remember.
Those were the days when FA Cup ties meant something. All those poor Leicester fans going home shaking their heads wondering how on earth they lost to "little Barnsley"

 

The 2-1 cup win is the one I remember most too. Think Currie got the first then Lowndes the winner? My memory is of Shotton geeing up the fans though.

 

Shotton may have done it too.

We weren't behind the nets, we were in the stand down the side and when Agnew came over to take a throw in he did that thing with his hands, where you're lifting an imaginary box, to get us going. We'd been singing plenty anyway but from that point on it was just constant. Currie then Lowndes is my memory of it too. I can't really remember Currie's goal, but I can picture Steve Lowndes running through like it was yesterday.

 

Well i am sorry that you have only had bad experiences concerning Leicester. The club that i've followed since the early 80's as had at times a notorious reputation. Back in the 70's & 80's, the dark side of football was hooliganism and its firms. Leicester had its share of numpties who only went for trouble. I often remember that whilst waiting for a bus after a game at Filbo, a mob of undesirables heading towards the ground after the game had finished. They had no interest in football.
In the current era, the atmosphere and clientele that attend the KP stadium is far removed from the days of violence. There are still the immature arrogant young ones, but in general many more families (fathers & sons) and females attend games. The matchday atmosphere imo is completely benign compared to my generation.

 

Well i thank you for that. Its nice to know that not everyone is consumed by bitterness. After all we are just all slaves to our clubs, and what they do and how they conduct their affairs is way beyond any influence we may have on our football clubs.