Chapter One: The Beginning
The fans were against my appointment from day one as I had never managed a club before, but the board still expected a mid table finish. With a measly 100k transfer budget, my target in pre season was to get as many loan signings as possible and also raise some funds.
My first action was to offload Nils-Eric to Leeds for 550k! Paddy Mac soon left to QPR for another 80k. I now had enough funds to make a proper splash in the market, albeit with a considerably weakened defence.
After scouting the Scottish leagues I had two Hibernian defenders in my sights. Unfortunately Celtic beat me to David Murphy's signature so I had to settle with the influential centre back, Rob Jones, for 40k. Although new to the club, I saw him as McCarthy's replacement as club captain.
My team lacked spark and energy and Mike Stowell agreed with me that we needed strengthening in every department. I brought in two young wingers, Paul Evans from Man United and Paul Anderson from Liverpool on loan. I also managed to capture Agbonlahor on loan for a season from Martin O'Neil. He is probably the fastest player in the Championship and I will play him up front even though he has poor finishing stats.
I picked up two old heads next, Mark Crossely as No1 keeper for 14k and Don Hutchinson from the other side of the M69 for 1k.
To compliment the speed of Agbonlahor I searched for a big target man with good heading and strength stats, so he could hold up the ball and feed Agbonlahor with his flick-ons. My scouts recommended Teddy Sherringham, but I felt it would be a waste of money for a old decrepit player who wouldn't even last 90 mins. In the end I went for Marc Nygarrd from QPR, and managed to knock the price down to 190k. This was the majority of my transfer budget but it was vital to my long ball tactic that he signed.
A few days later I brought Ronny Johnsen back from Norway, a move that was criticised in the press because he was 37 years old!!
I was worried I was turning Leicester back into Micky's Old Peoples Home, so Joe Clarke told his scouts to find a promising youngster, and Joe Clarke ended up signing left back Tommy Spurr from Sheff Wed for 140k! He would not join until January though, so I had to settle with Darren Kenton at left back. Chris O'Grady also fecked off to Yeovil on loan.
My first choice XI was:
Crossley
Maybury
Jones
Kisnorbo
Kenton
Anderson
Johnsen
Hume
Evans
Nygarrd
Agbonlahor
I managed to convince Humey to play in the centre, and Johnsen's defensive nature allowed Hume to break forwards whenever possible. Hume also became good backup across the midfield thanks to extensive training in different positions.
I was planning to make Jones captain but decided to give Ronny Johnsen the armband after he convinced me he would be in the starting line up due to pre season.
Pre-Season was over and I started with two very tough games, especially with Nygarrd injured...
Leicester 2-2 Crystal Palace
Even though Anderson was sent off on 33, goals on their debuts from Agbonlahor and Rob Jones saw a promising team performance from city.
WBA 1-1 Leicester
They got the early goal but after Matty Fryatt equalised in the second half we held out for a valuable away point.
Leicester 2-0 Sheff Wed
Jones got another and Nygarrd scored a thumping header after coming off the bench for his debut.
Norwich 0-2 Leicester
They had a man sent off after 6 mins and then we were always in control with Nygarrd and Agbonlahor getting one each. Hume was MOTM in the middle.
Leicester 0-3 Port Vale (League Cup First Round)
I foolishly fielded a weekend team for this game infront of the cameras. It was an embarrassing defeat but their keeper picked up man of the match after a string of fantastic saves.
Leicester 1-2 Southend
A poor home display saw us lose to 10 man Southend thanks to a 90th minute winner.
Stoke 0-0 Leicester
The team's morale was down after two defeats in the row and Mark Crossley won us a point we didn't deserve.
