For Fox sake…Untold Leicester City

A couple of weekend ago Tony and I traveled a little north to see Arsenal play Leicester City who have recently been promoted back into the PL after a long absence. Its fair to say that the home fans had the best of the day; taunting us for large parts of the second half when our pre-Welbeck team struggled to capitalize on a decent enough start. In fact the Foxes might easily have won it and deserved at least a point.

Obviously the result against Man U now dominates, but here I want to reflect on what the media been saying about LCFC up to that point and how are their fans were reacting to their progress so far.

So before this weekend’s matches Leicester had W1 D2 L1 and they’d played us, Everton, Chelsea and Stoke.

Not an easy start by any means and they reached mid table. If they end up there I imagine their fans will be happy although after yesterday they are probably now thinking of a top four finish!

At the start of season the football experts in the media had mixed views about City’s chances of staying up. Phil ‘the hooter’ Thompson and Henry Winter (Torygraph) tipped them to go down, but Lawro and The Grauniad’s Daniel Taylor reckons they have enough about them to survive.

Robbie Savage also hopes they stay up but frankly I wouldn’t take much notice of Savage unless his studs were about to shred the skins off my shins.

Anyway, what about the bloggers…

Silverfox.blog.uk seems to be a sensible place. One of their writers has been around a long time as Alan ’meashamfox’ Bennett remembers seeing Dennis Law play*. The main man is enjoying the season so far, but makes a good point that we need to see how the next few weeks unfold.

“But what a start. Two draws and a battling defeat has seen our kudos raised in the eyes of a few TV pundits and I would imagine Premiership Survival hopes raised in the vast majority of Foxes Fans.

But I would say that the real test of how we will do in The Premiership is yet to come, with our next three games actually providing more of an indication of how our season will unfold than our first three.”

Can’t disagree with any of that. Nor can I have much argument that the signing of Cambassio was inspired. “Welcome to Leicester Esteban. We are a little bit excited”, writes the foxfanzine. He may be a little old but he must help.

Last season was amazing for Foxes fans; they won the Championship and promotion, no scraping in via the play-offs (that’s to you ‘Arry) and it looks like they may have enough to cope.

Let’s see how they get on when the initial excitement wears off. And the injuries hit. Personally, I hope they stay up because I like Leicester as a place. But a quick ‘Oi’ to the home fans against us. “Go back (or f*** off it might have been) to your tower blocks!” is not a particularly brilliant piece of banter. This is the Premier League boys, you need to up your game unless you want to appear like a load of country bumpkins.

See you at the Emirates and do say ‘Ulloa’ if you see Tony or me J

Update (Sunday) : well wow, I was in Leicester today (flying a plane with an ex-student and then sorting out my broken phone in the Highcross Apple store) and there were blue shirts everywhere. Tony texted me the score and me and the guy in the store were both delighted. Are Leicester that good, or Man Utd that bad? Time will tell but massive confidence boost for them.

That’s the sort of result that cheers us all up!

Blacksheep63

*we can beat that ed, Tony was at Stanley Matthews’ debut!.

[oh no I wasn’t – Tony]

There’s links to most of the big Arsenal anniversaries and details of recent posts, on the Untold Arsenal home page.

 

 

 

20 Replies to “For Fox sake…Untold Leicester City”

  1. Thanks Drew for this article. Obsessed with Leicester? 😉 Ok that silly line is out of the way now.

    Maybe Nicky was there when Stanley Matthews made his debut?

  2. Some shocking refereeing by Clattenburg let Leicester back into the match. If this had happened under Fergie’s reign, I am not sure we would see Clattenburg in the Premier League again before Christmas.

  3. I thought Mike Dean’s imitation of an offical was the more remarkable “performance” of the two myself. Fair play for Zabelta for taking the “debate” on to twitter. A fascinating example of closing of the ranks on MOTD last night. What did others make of it?

  4. if that poor decision had happened under “Fergie’s watch”,Clattenburg would almost certainly not been in charge of a match involving Manchester United, for around 18-22 months, the standard sentence for said crime.

  5. The continuous attack by the BBC upon Arsene Wenger:

    I’ve quoted some strange comments from the BBC so far this season, my favourite so far being “Jack Wilshere bruises easily”. I think that it is interesting to continue to record and discredit the content which some media sources are using to try propagate their gibberish –

    The first Arsenal caller on 606 on Saturday spouted the disingenuous meme that has had much groundwork put into it this summer:

    “Arsenal can’t beat the big teams, Arsene Wenger doesn’t do tactics (still! Yet he still somehow gets his teams into the top four. What a fluke!) etc.” which begs the question: If AW doesn’t do tactics why did former England international Mark Chamberlain send his son to train with Wenger?

    I use Chamberlain Snr as my reference because I heard five minutes of a podcast this weekend before exiting. These hopeless podcastateers attempted to use Sterling and Chamberlain of examples of Rodgers vs. Wenger – Rodgers is the better modern coach and Wenger doesn’t do tactics they said. Because Vengarrgggghhhh has lost it. Or some crap like that. They didn’t really quantify how someone “loses it” after building and coaching the Invincibles which included a rookie and RM at the back. Therefore “the letting great players get on with it ” meme which is the one that these Ezxperts tried to use doesn’t really cut the mustard I’m afraid. In fact using this argument and ignoring the actual composition of that defence only underlines the complete disingenuity and stupidity of what they are attempting to say. We couldn’t ask the to undermine their attack on AW any better then that.

    What do we know about Chamberlain’s coaching at AFC? We know that in Chamberlain’s first six months he was held back a little and given “defensive” training and conditioning whilst the Groaners andRedzone experts groaned at Vengargggh for not doing tactics and not picking the player. It is also worth bearing mind that AFC appear to be giving less exposure to their eighteen year olds to all those kicks of late, Gnabry was never meant to play more the ten odd games last year and he’s been very unlucky with injury. Probably would’ve played in the final at some point. But back to Sterling and Chamberlain:

    Chamberlain has obviously had a season long injury and recovery period, so he’s only now just finding his peak form after all that time, as the player himself said last week. Sterling although in great form has been played in spurts by Rodgersin order to protect him.
    No doubting Sterling’s good league form (well, actually it took him about twenty minutes to make a pass as a No.10 on Saturday!) but when we look at their England record it’s clear how well Chambo has done, compared with Sterling. There is no debate to be had, Sterling is not yet at Chambo’s level, but then he is a little younger and in spite of injuries less experienced then the Arsenal player so to my mind it’s not even a debate that makes any sense! They’ll both be very good players. There is only a “debate” if you are desperately seeking and failing to slur the Arsenal manager. Chambo has great goals where for England Raheem has none. Chambo can also tackle (not brilliantly, but at least he’s been taught!) unlike Sterling, hence no red cards! So much for the idiotic doesn’t do tactics or defensive coaching meme that some have destroyed their minds and credibility with I’m afraid. The evidence is there staring these people in the face, and available from interviews with Chambo etc. Sterling has yet to achieve the level shown by Chamberlain when he played in midfield against Munich. He may get there later this season, if he’s lucky with injuries, but for now that is not a debate! These back rubbing ever so gallant podcastateers and their guests lose all credibility through such disingenuity and misplaced arrogance I am afraid. How foolish can one make oneself appear to be in public without even realising it?

    As for the wider Rodgers vs. Wenger meme, ignoring the strong contrast for England with the two players above, only an genuine idiot would try and use the work by Rodgers to try and attack Arsene Wenger or his record or his style, given the admiration expressed by Rodgers in public, many times, for AW, his coaching, his style of play etc…
    The same Rodgers who chose to play three at the back with one of three an aging Toure away to an in form Arsenal last year, by the end Liverpool were happy to lose only 2-0? On Saturday he tinkered again and got it wrong again! Good manager but fair to say that his players look confused at times. Are these people serious?

    …the AAA feed upon an incredible and unbelievable cocktail of stupidity, vanity and ignorance.

  6. Ooops. I meant to post the above comment under the previous “Negative” article. Apologies to the high-flying Blacksheep!

  7. finsbury
    September 22, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    Also on 606* were Liverpool fans denouncing Roberts and claiming he had no idea about tactics and that he should do this that and the other.

    In our frustration about what is said about Arsene and Arsenal by those who seem incable of thinking beyond the moment we must remember that Arsenal are not the only club to attract such people.

    *606 Is a BBC Radio 5 phone in programme broadcast in the UK after the games on Saturday and Sunday. It can be heard online any time for 7 days.

    The typical calls go like this. The team won ‘we have a great manager.’ The team lost, ‘Sack the manager’.

  8. Colario

    “In our frustration about what is said about Arsene and Arsenal by those who seem incable of thinking beyond the moment we must remember that Arsenal are not the only club to attract such people”

    Very true, wise words.
    The podcast I was referring to was not an Arsenal podcast, the person talking was meant to be some kind of Expert on coaching. But by using the examples of Chamberlain and Sterling he completely destroyed himself. A fascinating spectacle, listening the expert use such poor examples to the approval of his hosts, none of them considering that some of their listeners might actually have listened to Chamberlain talk about his coaching and experience at AFC since he arrived and how those simple words from the player himself, available and on record, exposed the speculative disingenuity of their gibberish.

  9. Not forgetting the performances of the player(s) in question on the pitch for club and country!

  10. While watching that match yesterday i couldnt help but wonder if Clattenburg was letting his frustration out on United. Something tells me Fergie must have really bullied him during his reign and now Mr Mark is giving it back. 2 matches and 5 penalties against United; if SAF was still here we would have never ever seen Clattenburg ref another united match again

  11. Mahdain,
    interesting remark you make.
    The fear has gone with the referees. And who knows some revenge for having behaved like fools with some? Or feeling guilty? Wanting to make up?

  12. @Walter certainly think so. Maybe Clattenburg is making up for all past misdoings he did for United or as said earlier it might be revenge. Whatever the case though United really seem to have lost their invisibility cloak as far as the referees are concerned.

  13. finsbury
    September 22, 2014 at 4:14 pm

    Arsene’s programme of ‘bringing on young players is there for all to see. Arsene adapts his programme to the need of the individual.

    Everyone is different and Arsene allows for this.

    The first time we see a youngester we see the player’s strengths and weaknesess. Arsene knows the player and sees more than what we see.

    A few matches after his debut there is a game where clearly that young player would make a great contribution to the team but Arsene doesn’t play him. The short sighters howl at Arsene’s blindness (to put it politely) but Arsene will not sacrifice the developement of a player for the benefit of the moment.

    We know from what many players say that Arsene builds a strong football relationship with every player who plays for him. That is all we know. In my opinion that is all we should know.

    There are a 101 reasons why Arsene doesn’t do what to us is ‘the obvious’. There is nothing we can do about it. We are fans if we can get to the stadium, we can give our vocal support to the team. At home at work where ever we are we can be proud of the club.

    When things are are down we can find ways of speaking ‘up’ the club. I give you an example of what I mean.

    In my life time of supporting Arsenal we had a manager of whom I despaired. I would let my view beknown but then add something like this: “If he was at any other club they would be in the conference league in two seasons, it shows just what a strong club Arsenal are.

    When we have lost a cup final especially when we have been the second team in the game. I will admit we were not the best team but then add but we will be back, can’t say that about your team.’

    Chamberlain is being brought back into the team at the speed that is best for Chamberlain of that we can be certain.

    We have to live with the fact that the AAA, the experts, the pundits and all the other know alls that football is awash with know better than Arsene. Some people never learn.

  14. Great post Colario

    I for one am happy to trust the experience and record of a coach who brought through players such as Weah, Henry, Anelka, Thuram (defender!), Toure (Invincible defender!), Cole (ditto), revived the careers of Hoddle, Petit (defensive type!), Graham’s entire back line, and fast forwarding through to the present era and Chambers (defender!*) we can see why these people may be on podcasts heckling whilst others are out coaching!

    *Dear Reader, please be aware that the AAA and their special allies who may or may not be friendly with Special Agents are trolling AFC fans quite hard at this moment with the “no defensive tactics” meme (please refer to the many examples of just players let alone ‘tactics’ above) and the “can’t win big games meme” (which ignores Dortmund and Liverpool, last seasons Liverpool, twice!), all of which are being rammed down the UK listerners throats with consistent repetition. The technical term for such formatted disinformation is Propaganda.

  15. Speaking of Special Agents, I think the frequency of AFC fans and others here and elsewhere laughing at the whole obvious jamboree down at the “market” may have prompted one or two hacks to write in recent times what they could have written years ago

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