Friday 19 September 2014

Leicester City, the story so far....




So it's finally happened, Leicester City Football Club have made their long awaited return to the top flight after a ten year absence and we're up and running for the 2014/15 Premier League season.


Many worried that the current squad would suffer without a flood of new faces and a good portion of the reported £180m that the owners had said would get the club into the top five in the Premiership within five years.

Whatever the reason for the concern, manager Nigel Pearson has ignored the pleas to go gung-ho in the transfer market and at the time of writing has seven first-team signings and three for the development squad, most travelling from the red side of Manchester.

Season ticket sales hit a record high with over 22,000 sold and many memberships being snapped up by supporters crawling out of the woodwork after the ten year hiatus to fill the King Power stadium for the opener against Everton.

A talented opposition from Merseyside arrived boasting £28m worth of new firepower in the shape of Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea and fresh from some extended beach-time as a result of England's exit from the world cup were Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka, all three would start.



City lined up with the system that got many results on home soil last season with a familiar back four of De Laet, Morgan, Moore and Konchesky with £8m signing from Brighton Leonardo Ulloa leading the attack. Despite the blue army's intense atmosphere the Toffee's were not about to come unstuck as McGeady bent in the opener after failed attempts to scramble the ball away.

Ever resilient Leicester struck back almost as quick as the Everton supporters sat back down, Ulloa tucking away after a bout of pinball. Two more strikes followed as a respectable draw was declared, Everton left the pitch knowing they had been in a game, City fan's optimism shifted up a few bars.

A predictable away defeat followed at Chelsea although not by way of disgrace, a 2-0 defeat sealed by a pair worth a combined £64m. Fellow Londoners Arsenal were next to visit and found City's counter attacking style hard to handle, a well conjured Alexis Sanchez strike was cancelled out by the aerial prowess of Ulloa who was fast living up to his transfer fee.






2008 saw Leicester end their long standing record of never appearing outside of the top two divisions of English football by relegation from the Championship to League One. The venue was the Britannia stadium, Stoke.

Stoke City that day had the champagne on ice with promotion to the Premiership to be sealed on the day should they win, and win they did. An uninspiring City performance was worthy of a side fit for relegation and the Foxes left through the trap door with barely a whimper.

The irony of course was that the team who survived at Leicester expense, Southampton, were managed on that day by the man who would become adored by the Blue Army faithful, Nigel Pearson.

2014 and we were back at the same ground, Stoke fresh from a win over Manchester City at the Etihad and looking to keep the run going. City were bombarded early on by Stoke's insistence on firing crosses in on the penalty area to test Leicester debutant Ben Hamer in the away goal.

Hamer, despite being ruffled in the early exchanges, grew into the game with a performance as strong as his beard and just to round it all off Leo Ulloa bagged a third for the season and celebrated a much needed first win.

Tell any Leicester City supporter that his team would be sitting mid table in the Premiership and boast Esteban Cambiasso on the books and you would have got a fair few laughs or recommendations to the mental health unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

As we host Manchester United on Sunday the fear is no longer, replaced by a mixture of excitement and optimism. It's good to be back.



You can now follow my journey over at: www.artisantraveller.com

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