Iain Hume believes his £1.2million transfer move to Barnsley will help Leicester City quickly re-establish themselves in the Championship.</p> </p> The 24-year-old Canadian international striker admitted there was a lot of raw emotion felt among the players when they were relegated on the final day of last season - and he indicated then he was going to stay at the Walkers Stadium.</p> He said: "That's how I felt. I wanted to do what I could do to get the club back up there.</p> "I don't know any players who would have gone in after relegation and said: €˜I want to go' and I certainly wasn't one of them.</p> "I wanted to stay, but now I've helped the club out in another way.</p> "They are now building up some of the money they will have lost from being relegated.</p> "The club have got a good price for me. They've not just off-loaded me for a couple of hundred grand, they've got good money and that gives them a stepping stone to bring in the players who will get them right back up there."</p> Hume was back at the Walkers Stadium just 24 hours after his switch to Barnsley and was joined by Wolves capture Richard Stearman.</p> The pair had asked for the opportunity to put on record their thanks for the backing they had received from the club and the supporters during a turbulent time in City's history.</p> The former Tranmere striker was a firm favourite with the Blue Army - and admits he will miss the "Huuuuuume" roar. "I've been witness to it for three years and I'm just hoping to get some rapport going with the Barnsley fans," he said.</p> The highlight of his City career was "playing at the Walkers." He said: "It was massive to come here from League One where I had been playing in 5,000 and 7,000-seater stadiums."</p> Hume joined City in September 2005 for £500,000 and scored his first goal for the club against East Midlands rivals Derby at Price Park on October 1.</p> He said: "I struggled to get into the side at the start but got the goal against Derby and that was very important because it helped me to make the step from League One to the Championship.</p> "It's been a good three seasons for me, the best time of my career as I've progressed so much as a player.</p> "I will always have a soft spot for the place and I don't want anyone to think I'm jumping ship just for the sake of it."</p> Hume's switch to Barnsley followed months of tracking by Tykes boss Simon Davey. "Barnsley said they were now glad to have me on their side. They reckon the goal I scored against them a couple of months ago (a 1-0 win at Oakwell on April 19) sealed the deal for me.</p> "Simon put up a very good case for the club when he stated their ambitions and they put in a good offer accepted by Leicester," said Hume.</p> He is one of only four £1m players ever signed by the south Yorkshire club, their record fee being £1.5m for Macedonian striker Gjorgji Hristov.</p> Hume said: "That's massive, so I've just got to live up to it now. I hope I can repeat some of the things I did here and at Tranmere, hit the ground running and have a good season."</p> Stearman drove back from his first training session with Wolves to say his farewells to the staff at the Walkers.</p> The 20-year-old defender said he owed a particular debt of gratitude to City's Academy staff, including Jon Rudkin and Steve Beaglehole.</p> He admitted: "The lads at the Academy were my rock during all the time the changes have been going on at the club. It's a very successful set-up and I think you are going to see a lot more lads coming through.</p> "There are some special players emerging and it's going to be exciting for the fans."</p> Stearman, who has represented England at under-21, under-18 and under-17 level, joined the Academy as a 10-year-old after being spotted playing for Harborough, the town his family had moved to from his Wolverhampton birthplace.</p> "It's a big wrench to leave Leicester - it's all I've ever known," said Stearman, last season's player-of-the-year. "Training at Wolves was like your first day at a new school. It was strange and there were some unfamiliar faces.</p> "Humey and myself have had some great support from the fans here at Leicester and, hopefully, we've given a bit back to them.</p> "I've always given it my best and played everywhere except in goal and on the left side of midfield. I've been well used around the pitch."</p> The highlights for him were "scoring against Forest last season, and against Coventry, as well as chipping in with the other odd goals too."</p> Stearman would love to land City in a Cup draw and maintains the belief that they will rise back.</p> He said: "Relegation hit me hard, but I hope in the coming season that Leicester are challenging for titles and doing well in the cup competitions."</p> City chief executive Lee Hoos described Hume and Stearman's public farewell as "an extraordinary gesture."</p> He said: "In 11 years in football, I've never previously witnessed what these lads have done in coming back to say goodbye to the fans and the staff like this.</p> "It tells you how much Leicester really meant to them. What they have done shows why they are fans' favourites."</p>
A Majority Of Leicester Fans Think He's A ****....... and we would think the same of one of our players in the same situation. He was part of the reason they got relegated (having played in nearly ever league game) and said he would stay to get them back up, only to go back on his word and leave at the first chance he got. I'm sure they wouldn't have minded if he had just left without saying he would stay.
No sorry Dreamboy, if you scour the Leicester forums, i think you will find the majority of Leicester fans actually think he was their best player for some years. First rule of management...always get your facts straight!
As usual db3k.. absolute rubbish. Firstly, how the heck would you know what the majority of Leicester fans think? I'd say at least 90% of the Leicester fans comments Ive seen regarding Hume have been very positive.
RE: As usual db3k.. this guy is a *****.. full stop an how the **** he got the name dreamboy is beyond me, you just gotta see this cnt on facebook. blind an dogs spring to mind
