I think there is a distinct difference in age range on this board (no offence intended!) For me, I'm of the younger generation, just about remember the MON days, followed by 10 years of bobbing about in the Championship... Where we are now is a dream come true to me We've never been so high!
& a season in the 1st div don´t forget. Good season that, not that I would like to go through it againg mind. I used to see Tommy Williams working in his garden on a Sunday. He´s a copper now & so it says on Wiki, he was on duty some times at the Walkers. At 57 odd I´m guessing he may still do.
Exactly. Which is why I said patience is the key and Pearson was proven right to persist with him and other players, despite the bafflement of some of the fans. Too much was made of it as I suspect, in balance, the goalkeeper situation didn't cost us a single point. The Tottenham match you mentioned was lost due to some scandalous refereeing and fortuitous Spurs goals.
No, those calling for his head, as I said above, have disappeared (can't remember their usernames - maybe I should start writing them down ). That comment wasn't a pop at you but rather to point out that our owners were patient before and have shown patience again this season. They are not the trigger-happy type (or at least one of them isn't, if the rumours are to be believed). I truly believe if we'd sacked Pearson after or during the "slump" two years ago, or this season, we'd be looking forward to playing MK Dons and Bristol City next season, so kudos to them.
Hands up, I was one of those who would have been quite happy for Pearson to have been shown the door at the turn of the year. As it turns out we survived. Was it all down to Pearson? Would a different manager have ensured safety earlier? We'll never know. It'll all come down to supposition and opinions. There are no facts to back up either argument. I'm one of the older generation supporters on here (first match was home to Everton in about 1960 - the days of Banks, Chalmers et al), so I've seen the same good managers as mentioned by FF and other oldies. And that is what makes it quite difficult to understand the stature that Pearson has assumed for some of the younger contributors. But back to the present and Nigel Pearson. Yes the club has really come on as a whole under his and the owners' stewardship. The structure looks in rude health from top to bottom, with some good up and coming lads in the youth team. And I think he really does seem to have some qualities as a manager that are working at the moment. He has the players wanting to play for him and for each other, and that has been crucial in the fight to stay up. I don't think we survived comfortably. Any slip up in any of the last 9 games and we could have been relegated. There was no room for error and we rode our luck at times and got breaks when some of those around us maybe didn't - the Burnley penalty miss, the lack of scoring ability of the Hull 'strikers'. But we survived and thank goodness for that. He has proven that he is capable in the second and third tiers of the league. Is he Premiership quality? I think at best we can say 'not proven'. I sincerely hope he is a long term success. I would love him to be still here in 5 years time and managing a team that is consistently top half of the table. As for next season, it's good that we are able to attract someone of the quality of Christian Fuchs to join our club, and even better that the scouting team has got him on board so soon. So, if we can secure the signatures of Robert Huth and Cambiasso, things could be looking very bright. But I would describe myself as a typical Leicester supporter who has seen the highs and lows of this club; there are never any guarantees, and it's the position in the league after 38 games with all their ups, downs, surprises and upsets that matters. What I don't want to endure again is another season floundering at the foot of the table, because next time it could all end very differently.
The thing is, it's all well and good saying that Pearson should have gone, but who was there to replace him? Mourinho and Guardiola were busy. Warnock and Hollloway, on the other hand, were ready and available... Sacking a manger, when you have no backup plan is crazy...
Obviously we would never go with the likes of Warnock or Holloway. But apparently Advocaat was available and, I think you'll agree, he has pretty good credentials. At the time many on here were already getting resigned to relegation, so it was just as crazy to gamble with the club's Premier League future by doing nothing and hoping for a miracle (although this did happen for whatever reason!). All we needed was a short term stopgap to buy us time, not necessarily a long term replacement.
On the age ranges on here in my life I have seen us at our highest point under Martin O'Neill, finishing 8th in the Premier League and winning the league cup and at our lowest with Ian Holloway taking us to League 1. I have also seen a lot in between that So having endured the crap that we served up by Craig Levein, Martin Allen, Gary Megson, Ian Holloway, Paulo Sousa and Sven I think the respect for the job that Nigel has done has no relevance to the age of the supporter. I can see what Nigel is trying to achieve and seen what he has achieved so therefore he has my full support and that has never changed
....... but some of us remember us being top of the highest league in England with just a few games to go (under Matt Gillies). We remember the free flowing football of the Bloomfield boys and the grit of Jock Wallace. I agree Proud that there has been some real dross in recent years and NP is definitely the best of the bunch, but to some of us he still has to reach the heights that our outstanding managers of the past achieved. He has time ..................
... if course it has relevance to the age of the supporter! ... Leicester City existed long before Martin O'Neil was appointed!!! .. My old man brought me up reminiscing about 4 post war FA Cup finals as well as the Gilles era and how it was a'Leicester thing' to travel in numbers to an away tie in the Cup ... those glorious / heroic failings in the Cup along with the history Barwell alludes to, hasn't been washed away by Nigel Pearson's impact (to date) ... but it does put it firmly into perspective ... ... something else to put it into perspective is Jamie Vardy's call up for England and how that's been a reflection of the team's performance etc ... and how we are all excited about it ....... under Jimmy Bloomfield we once provided 4 players for the full England side against Scotland at Hampden ... and it wasn't a friendly! .. I will admit to some slight poetic licence cos Peter Shilton had by then transferred to Stoke (but the 4 had played all of the previous season together at Filbo)... Bloomfireld's team were given the title of 'the entertainers' by some elements of the National Press and also as 'the best team never to have won silverware' ... now if Nigel manages similar heights to that over the coming seasons I'm sure that Barwell, me, Jamba, Weller, BucksFox and any other 'old fogies' will become converts to the Church Of The Ostrich ...
Tommy was at my school - couple of years older than me - bit of an idol of mine ... but played his part in what I thought was one of my worst nightmares ... back in 1979 I had a serious knee op (footie related) and was still high on morphine when we played Harlow Town in an FA cup replay ... asked a nurse to get me a paper in the morning so I could see the result (no telly in your room etc in those days) ... had seen the first game on the Saturday before going for the op ... she duly delivered it the next day and I was staring at a headline that said we had lost to a non-legue side 1-0 and Tommy had put the ball in his own net ... I fell back to sleep convinced it was only a bad dream ... unfortunately when I came round again the paper was still there!!!!
