Leicester City in Dreamland

Article by e-Leicester City Correspondent Jonathan Smith

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Sunday the 4th of May 2008 is a day that will always be remembered by City supporters. Leicester exited the second tier of English football, via the relegation trapdoor, for the first time in the club’s history. With less than a month to go before the sixth anniversary of that fateful afternoon, promotion to the Premier League has been confirmed, without City even kicking a ball. In just over a month, it will be ten years since Leicester’s last Premiership fixture; a 2-1 defeat against Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’. The 2014/15 fixtures will be released on the 18th of June and Foxes fans all over the world will be eager to see Leicester City’s name amongst the big boys once again. In the ten years since City last played in the Premiership, they have played 18 cup matches against Premiership opposition. These included victories against Charlton, Tottenham and Norwich in the FA Cup. Aston Villa and Fulham have been knocked out of the League Cup by Leicester in the last decade too. Trips to Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium for cup matches have reminded supporters of what they’ve been missing whilst their club has found itself outside the top flight.

The journey back to the top flight hasn’t been an easy one. Many tipped Leicester to return instantly back in the 2004/05 season. An experienced squad was assembled by Micky Adams but an indifferent start to the season saw Adams resign and Craig Levein replace him in the managerial hotseat. Levein attempted to bring down the average age of a squad that was full of players the wrong side of 30. Despite his efforts, City finished a disappointing 15th and supporters hoped that things could only get better for the following season. Things didn’t improve though. Levein struggled to find a winning formula and was replaced by one of his assistants at the time, Rob Kelly. An upturn in form steered City away from relegation and a final finish of 16th was seen as pretty good considering the situation the Foxes had found themselves in. Rob Kelly continued as manager for the 2006/07 season but with little to spend to bolster an average group of players, Kelly found the going tough. The news that former Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric was taking over the club brought optimism as City faced another fight to stay in the Championship. With five games remaining and relegation a real possibility, Mandaric did what he has always done best and replaced Kelly with Nigel Worthington. A crucial last minute winner away at Preston North End saved City’s bacon and they followed it up with a 1-0 win at Barnsley. Those two victories helped Leicester to a seemingly comfortable 19th place but, in truth, they’d been lucky to escape the drop.

Many Supporters had been impressed with the way Worthington had dealt with the pressure of keeping City up but the Northern Irishman wasn’t in charge for the 2007/08 season. Mandaric went for Martin Allen as his first permanent manager of the club. Allen made sweeping changes, both on and off the field but things didn’t get off to the best of starts with a 1-0 defeat at home against newly promoted Blackpool. City’s second game of the season was a League Cup fixture against League Two side Accrington Stanley. A 1-0 win for the Foxes was not the scoreline many had been expecting but it was still early days for Allen. For reasons that are still not entirely clear, Allen was sacked after just four matches and replaced by Gary Megson. The former West Brom manager opted for a defensive approach during his time as boss but again, it wasn’t long before Leicester were looking elsewhere as Bolton lured Megson away after just nine games. Supporters weren’t too sad to see the back of him but it did feel like the season was turning into a bit of a joke. Mandaric eventually turned to Ian Holloway, who had worked wonders at Plymouth Argyle. It was still only November so it was felt that there was plenty of time to improve the team before the end of the season. Holloway made plenty of signings including Matt Oakley and Steve Howard, who had been promoted to the Premier League with Derby County the previous summer. It all came down to the last game of the season. With the way results went, if Leicester had beaten Stoke then they would have stayed up by a point but like much of the season, City only managed a draw and found themselves relegated to League One. Looking back, it was a blessing in disguise that City didn’t manage to cling on to their Championship status that day as what followed saw the club rebuild itself.

Some felt Holloway should be given an opportunity to bring Leicester straight back up but Mandaric felt a change was needed. He brought in the man who had saved Southampton from relegation to League One but was allowed to leave at the end of the season. That man was Nigel Pearson. With limited managerial experience, it was a slightly risky choice, but Pearson built a squad full of young, promising players and added a bit of experience which was enough to see Leicester bounce back at the first time of asking. He added to his squad and saw his side finish in the top six at the end of the first season back in the Championship. The momentum from the previous season seemed to push the Foxes forward and they were unlucky to lose to Cardiff in the Play-Off Semi Final on penalties. That summer saw Pearson leave the club for Hull City who had just been relegated from the Premier League. It was sad to see him leave as many felt he would’ve built on his two successful seasons and finished the job off during the 2010/11 season. Whenever Pearson was interviewed about his reasons for leaving Leicester, you could tell that he had felt a bit forced and would’ve happily stayed if he had felt wanted by the club’s hierarchy.

Paulo Sousa replaced Pearson but his radical change of playing style didn’t suit our squad of players at all. With new Thai owners on board, money was even less of an issue than it had been under Mandaric and they replaced Sousa with former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. In terms of publicity and attracting high profile players, Eriksson was a great appointment but he was unable to build a team fit for promotion. City missed out on the Play-Offs that season and it wasn’t long before Eriksson was shown the door too. He hadn’t made that bad a start to the 2011/12 season but he had spent a lot of money and expectations were high.

The Thai owners turned to Nigel Pearson to try and sort the team out. It’s never been fully explained as to what made them choose Pearson as the man for the job but he has gone on to achieve what they wanted him to achieve. They stood by him after last season’s fall from top spot to Play-Off Semi Final heartbreak and their loyalty has been rewarded. Hopefully they will stand by him if things don’t go as planned in the Premier League next season too.

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