He Is Our Sunshine

Oh my!

What a day.

My emotions are in shreds.

Work did not present anything out of the ordinary.

My lover and I continue to live together in hippy paradise.

So why the trauma?

Well it started at about 7.50am when I heard on the radio that Gareth Southgate had been sacked last night.

I text my lover to tell him.

Just a bit of football gossip at that stage.

But then it all went horribly wrong when the reply text from my lover indicated that NIGEL PEARSON was rumoured to be a strong contender to replace Southgate.

That would be our NIGEL PEARSON.

The man who has lifted our drooping Fox tails and turned them into proud bushes.

The man who has the capacity to take us into the Premiership, if not this year then next.

I had this sort of sick feeling in my stomach as I read it.

"Noooooooooooooo!", I wanted to scream out loud.

I've been trying to keep an eye on the news all day to see if there was any relief or reassurance.

None came directly, although it has to be said that the news that we are trying to sign Edgar Davids is exciting and a sign that the club is building in confidence and self belief.

So Middlesborough - if you have any heart, listen to this girl's plea.

Please don't take our sunshine away.

Painting The Town Red? Or Blue?

We don't need no Premiership.

We don't need no Champion's League.

We've got - the Johnstone Paint Trophy competition!

This will be the first time we have ever had the opportunity to compete as it is only open to Leagues One and Two.

And of course, as we know, this is the first time EVER we have been outside the top two tiers.

So I'm looking forward to our first match against Hartlepool tomorrow night.

Let's hope we can play some "Dulux" football and move a step closer to claiming the "Crown".

Yes alright I know that was lame. But in truth it is hard to get excited about anything called a paint trophy isn't it?

Far more exciting is the drama emerging around Mr Berbatov. Following Man City's late bid today I wonder what he will decide.

Imagine Fergie's face if Sparky wins the day.

Ouch!

One Jump Ahead

You know how I sometimes say "You heard it here first"?

I just want you to know its the truth.

For example I was talking about this issue back in August last year.

And do you remember the time I predicted Gary Megson would become the Foxes' manager? And I was right of course (although to be fair, with the advantage of hindsight I wish I hadn't been)

Now it seems some people are recognising that the idea of team GB is politically driven. Like I said earlier this week.

I told you so is not a very nice expression.

But you did hear it here first - didn't you?

Lost In The Wilderness

I'd like to avoid talking about you-know-what but you can't really can you?

What a shambles.

I don't agree with people that it is a lack of passion on the part of the England players. I do think they lack confidence and belief as a team though. Partly because of how badly things have gone in recent times and partly because they know as well as we do that the formula simply isn't right.

This is about strategy and tactics. There was no evidence that the players were not following Capello's instructions. There was just no evidence that they all had a shared understanding of what they were supposed to be doing in any given situation.

They just seemed lost.

I feel ill just thinking about it so lets move on to nicer things.

Like our upcoming match against Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

A team with a proud history it would seem, having boasted such renowned players as Dixie, Bunny, Pongo and Nibbler.

In addition to the Dixie, Bunny, Pongo and Nibbler era, which would seem to have been something of a heyday, they have also had what Wikipedia describes as a "wilderness period" - which lasted forty seven years!

I wonder if this season will be described in the future as a 'wilderness period' for the Foxes.

If so - let's hope it doesn't last that long.

I'm In Heaven

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It's not always true.

For example, because I am not seeing much of this man these days, this man is rapidly replacing him as my trigger for a slightly increased heart rate and general object of my affection.

And his team played great football against Liverpool this afternoon. Although that goal from Torres was class I have to admit.

But as a general rule, I do think absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Why else would my lover and I be celebrating the return of the Premiership season with a football fest?

The morning spent gardening, listening to the buildup on the radio. The early afternoon spent listening to the Arse just about manage to beat WBA, then the Foxes only manage an unlucky draw. And late afternoon at the pub with half a Fosters and a bag of Mini Cheddars watching the Sunderland/Liverpool battle.

And there is still MOTD to come.

What a great day.

Happy Drugs

I'm very proud to announce that we are a team that can now string together 2 wins in a row! The first time for 16 months!

We beat Stockport 1 - 0 Tuesday night in the League Cup. On Saturday we play ... er ... Stockport again in the League. At their gaff this time.

And good old Luton beat Plymouth 2 - 0 in the same competition. Fair play to them I say. They deserve some good fortune.

One person who isn't celebrating today however is Adrian Mutu, who has been ordered to pay Chel$ea £13.68m for breach of contract after he was sacked for testing positive for cocaine.

Which just goes to show that happy drugs are not where it is at. There is no greater high than simply winning.

In The Mix

I know this is a football blog but did you watch the tennis final yesterday?

What a fantastic display of skill, strength, athleticism and character by both the Spaniard and the Swiss.

And what a summer it has been for Spain. First European football champions and now Nadal winning at Wimbledon.

I'm more interested today in news from another European county, however. For it would seem the latest addition to our skulk of Foxes is one Aleksander Tunchev from Bulgaria.

(In case you are wondering, a skulk is the collective term for a group of Foxes. Don't ever say this blog is not an education in its own right!)

Meanwhile in other news, Chel$ea are set to have a little taste of Italy today and Real Madrid are still stalking the Portuguese wonderboy. Newcastle on the other hand are trying to fight off claims that international interest in them comes from a somewhat less appealing source elsewhere in the world.

Still a bit of controversy might shake things up.

Most things are better shaken than stirred I find

The Rats Leave The Sinking Ship

I guess you can't blame them, but various LCFC players are abandoning ship. Stearman is off, as is Hume.

Don't lose heart though you Foxes. Pearson has been auditioning this week to find new talent. He has scoured the world to find emerging stars, seasoned warriors and those with an animal instinct to succeed.

And all this despite efforts to distract and disrupt by rival teams.

I'm sure it will all be OK though.

Won't it?

Gregory's Girl?

I couldn't help but feel sorry for France last night. A very suspect penalty, coupled with a harsh sending off in my opinion (and remember girls, when you are a football fan you must always have an opinion). And an embarrassing deflection off Henry for their second goal was simply the icing on the cake for the Italians.

To be fair of course the Italians do have a certain expertise.

And I'm not sure Monsieur Domenech's response immediately after the game was the most sensitive at a time when the French nation was in mourning as it's team crashed out of Euro 2008.

Meanwhile, in other news, the latest name to be linked to the Foxes is one John Gregory. Who by my reading doesn't have the most awe-inspiring records in management.

I'm always one to give people a chance before I judge of course. But given the difficulty we seem to be having recruiting I can't help worrying that we are probably having to take whatever we can get.

So if we do get JG, I think I'll reserve my unconditional endorsement for a while.

A few good victories could win me over though.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

I feel as if I have been in freefall a bit over the last few days.

The shock of our relegation. The wondering what will happen short term and long term. The lack of any sense of where my team fits in the universe (apart from the obvious of course).

Today we had our first bit of news which will start to build a new pathway to the future. Milan Mandaric has pledged to stay with us.

Although I hope he doesn't mean anything too literal when he says;

"We have see what was done right and wrong, correct it quickly and immediately and go forward to win games and show Leicester City in a new colour."

Blue works well for us Mandy. We'd just like to win please.

I would also like to thank all of you who support other teams who have left kind comments on this blog. My lover says only football supporters can understand what a time such as this feels like and he is right.

Of course Leicester's problems are all very public at the moment (particularly so at a staff meeting at work today when under 'Any Other Business' the HR Officer offered her condolences for the plight of Leicester!). And it is easy to look at other apparently almost unassailable teams who seem to have it all and think we are the only ones with troubles.

As with most things in life, however, things are rarely what they seem. Look at Liverpool for example. Plus this fellow blogger has good evidence that The ManUre are in financial trouble. And it's hard to imagine there won't be tears at Manchester City before too long.

So maybe those people who have said encouraging things over the last few days are right. Things aren't as bad as they seem.

Onwards and upwards then.

Leicester 'til I die!

Gadzukes!

Zikes! Holy handballers Batman!

Those daring crusaders fought off the world last night. The Mancunian Devils nibbled french fancies until they were just crumbs. And The Gunners blew those spaghetti-eating soccer boys out of the water.

But hang on. Counfounding Foxes and Oily Ollyisms! We took our eye of the batball for too long. While we were watching those Europeans take a pounding, our arch enemy, The Joker, was making mischief at The Walkers. 1 -0 to Preston.

This is going to take more than a swift getataway in the batmobile.

And as if there isn't enough dastardly duplicity, I have discovered where one of our other enemies is storing his boots.

In the dingy depths of Fulham something smells fishy. The Penguin is back.

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat

Suddenly everyone wants to be a dad!

There is Capello who believes the problems of the England football team are psychological not technical or physical.

Dads have a special place in football of course. A love of the beautiful game often comes from this source.

Craig Gordon says it was his dad who inspired him to play football. And this man is the son of the inventor of Subuteo. And of course Darren Ferguson owes so much to his famous father.

Parenthood is such a gift. There is nothing in the world like the closeness of of a parent with their child. And I speak as a mother who has just spent a wonderful 24 hours with her beautiful daughter.

My lover has inspired his children too. His daughter is an artist and lives life in her own unique way because of his encouragement to always believe in herself. And his right handed son is a left handed guitarist in a talented band currently touring America. This is their latest release. It was his left-handed dad who taught him to play and love the guitar.

Lucky for those Foxes then that Uncle Ian has arrived. He said yesterday:

"They just need some stability - they need a new dad who is going to calm them down and set some rules out"

Its official then. Dads are cool cats.

Ginger Mourinho

The Blue Army is gearing up.

On 31st October we play Chelsea in the Football League Cup. 6,500 tickets have been sold to LCFC fans, with over 2000 going on the 39 official coaches.

And in an amazing coincidence, Gary Megson has recently been dubbed Ginger Mourinho by Foxes fans. Not that I am convinced the Chelsea fans will be fooled of course. I mean our fox-coloured version could not in all honesty be mistaken for a twin, tragically separated at birth from The Special One.

I do hope, though, that Megson has built a better relationship with Milan than poor Jose and Abramovich.

Left Is Best

I'm left handed. And proud of it.

Unfortunately, being left handed has not always been regarded as a good thing. Indeed, right handers have a history of persecuting us poor lefties.

There have been many famous left handed people through the ages. Leonardo Da Vinci, Ghandi, Aristotle, Beethoven and even, according to this article, Jesus Christ.

We Lefties (who are controlled by the right hemisphere of our brains) are reputedly good at music, art, creativity, perception, spatial awareness and, (not surprisingly if you have met me), genius. We are also supposed to be able to think more quickly, and this is deemed to be particularly valuable in sport, including football.

Predictably, then, there have been a number of famous football players who favour their left side. Diego Maradonna is deemed by some to be the best left sided footballer ever.

This commentator thinks the best footballers are those who can play with both feet and that not enough attention is paid to practising with the weaker limb.

Not sure of the 'handedness' of any of The Foxes players but I would settle for one effective foot on each if it meant they beat Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow. Given their disappointing 0 - 0 draw against Wolves earlier in the week, though, I am not holding my breath. If I did I would probably risk asphyxiation.

PS: I have solved my internet problem. Turned out to be interference from my lover's car alarm! So I've made him park down the road - and told him I will tolerate no more interference.