They're talking about us

[pork pie fox]

I’ve met Murphy more than once. He has a point. He also “understands” a player’s desire to earn a higher wage.

 

[Brown Nose]

If Leicester City win the title, it can't outstrip their miracle season... it'd be an astonishing achievement but would fall short of their 2015-16 heroics

By MARTIN SAMUEL - SPORT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:36, 12 December 2019 | UPDATED: 09:33, 13 December 2019

Sir Alex Ferguson was never in any doubt about his most important title at Manchester United. The first one.
It always is. Get a team, or a club, over the line and there is a chance they might do it again. They have the experience. They know the course and distance now. They understand the demands, the pressure.

What Pep Guardiola has achieved at Manchester City is magnificent, but the most important title of this modern era was won by Roberto Mancini in 2012. It changed what Manchester City could be and how they were perceived.

Would Guardiola even be there now had City not shown themselves to be a club capable of winning the Premier League? It is unlikely.

So the debate around Brendan Rodgers' Leicester versus the title-winning team under Claudio Ranieri is moot. There is no contest. No matter the points total, no matter how many goals Jamie Vardy scores, no matter the relative cost of assembly.

Even if Leicester win the League this year it will not outstrip what was achieved in the 2015-16 season. How could it when the Leicester now owes itself to the Leicester then? This isn't about statistics. It is about a narrative.

Leicester's performance this season is in large part due to the guidance of Rodgers, but would a coach of his calibre have come to the lower mid-table Premier League club - or worse - which existed before Ranieri's miracle season?

Think of the players Leicester have attracted, think of those who have stayed. All made possible by the title-winning campaign. Keeping Vardy, buying Youri Tielemans, James Maddison or Ayoze Perez - none of it is possible without Leicester becoming a title-winning, Champions League club. The circumstances that season were exceptional, too, because leading a title race and chasing one - particularly as plucky underdogs and some distance behind - involve entirely different levels of pressure.

By now, in 2015-16, Leicester were leading the league. Between winning 3-0 at Newcastle on November 21 and winning 1-0 at Tottenham on January 13, they were either in first place or second. After the 1-1 draw at Aston Villa on January 16 they went top and did not relinquish that position for the remainder of the season.

However, if they surpassed Liverpool it would never beat their stunning 2015-16 title campaign. That does not compare to the psychological challenge of being eight points behind Liverpool, as Leicester are now.

Certainly, once Leicester won 3-1 at Manchester City on February 6, 2016, it became their title to lose. That was the day Ranieri began believing he was managing the champions, and finishing in the top four was no longer considered the height of Leicester's ambition.

'Leicester City, we're coming for you.' Remember that? Leicester lived with the pressure of the chasing pack for the majority of the season. Across 38 games, they were top for 24. It was an entirely different test to now - a handy second, but with few believing they can overtake Liverpool.

Might those circumstances change? Well, let's dream a while. Leicester have kept six clean sheets this season, double that of Liverpool. The teams also meet on December 26 at the King Power Stadium.

Say Leicester win that one. Potentially, it narrows the gap to five points. Is it unthinkable that a team with Leicester's strong defensive record might chip away at Liverpool's lead across other fixtures? No.
It is unthinkable Manchester City make up 14 points because that would require five victories on weekends when Liverpool lose and - even leaving aside the improbability of such a collapse - City do not look to have that consistency this season.

Yet were Liverpool to falter in two or three games, Leicester could close the gap.

Brendan Rodgers is doing a fantastic job as Leicester manager - in his first full season there
Still unlikely, yes, but not impossible. And only then would they be in the position of the 2015-16 team enduring the strain felt by the front-runner, or even by a challenger breathing down the leader's neck in a hard-fought race.

At the moment, Leicester are in a very positive position, enjoying the praise that comes with exceeding expectations, but also the stillness felt in the slipstream of a runaway leader.

Would Rodgers swap places with Jurgen Klopp? Of course he would. But that doesn't mean there are not benefits to tucking in behind, particularly once the business end of the Champions League begins.

Liverpool will be playing twice a week, Leicester with seven days to prepare for most League games and no distractions, just what Ranieri's team had in 2015-16.

So there are similarities, yes. Rodgers, like Ranieri, is doing a fabulous job.

Were Leicester to win the League this season, it would be an astonishing achievement, little short of a miracle.

But not the miracle - because they already performed that, four years ago.

 

[Brown Nose]

As Sky Sports trail Saturday's match as 'City v Leicester' one more time, I seem incapable of reacting in a calm and mature fashion.

 

[fox58]

English football's moment of the decade: You decide

English football's moment of the decade: Your winner revealed

As we come to the end of the decade, you have voted for your moment of the 2010s in English football and here are the results.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[tedfoxxx]

English football's moment of the decade: You decide

English football's moment of the decade: Your winner revealed

As we come to the end of the decade, you have voted for your moment of the 2010s in English football and here are the results.

www.bbc.co.uk

Ooh I can’t quite make up my mind between England Women coming third at a World Cup or Steven Gerrard falling over....

Aguero scoring a goal against QPR or Liverpool beating a shit Barca side at home will win it.

 

[homer]

The moment of the decade could be Wayne Rooney just scoring a goal FFS or some twat falling over in a match ?

But a striker scoring in eleven games in a row to break the record is not even worth a mention above that complete nonsense, or above England winning some penalty shootout against some third rate team, or above England Women coming third in a competition no one actually gives a shit about, if they were honest ?

Jebus Cripes the footballing World is fecked

 

[tedfoxxx]

The moment of the decade could be Wayne Rooney just scoring a goal FFS or some twat falling over in a match ?

But a striker scoring in eleven games in a row to break the record is not even worth a mention above that complete nonsense, or above England winning some penalty shootout against some third rate team, or above England Women coming third in a competition no one actually gives a shit about, if they were honest ?

Jebus Cripes the footballing World is fecked

Also, ‘moment’. We didn’t win the title in a ****ing moment, like we stole it from someone. What a load of cobblers. ‘Greatest achievement of the decade’ would be more fitting but then they wouldn’t be able to shoehorn bollocks like Rooney scoring one bicycle kick in order to have something that Manure fans could vote for.

Deeney’s goal against us in the Playoffs was a better moment than half of the candidates in their list.

 

[LoopisDeLupis]

If anyone votes for anything other than us winning the title, they don’t like football. Simple as that.

 

[tedfoxxx]

If anyone votes for anything other than us winning the title, they don’t like football. Simple as that.

Or they’re a plastic ‘big club’ fan.

Same thing, come to think of it.

 

[glyn]

English football's moment of the decade: You decide

English football's moment of the decade: Your winner revealed

As we come to the end of the decade, you have voted for your moment of the 2010s in English football and here are the results.

www.bbc.co.uk

there really, really, shouldn’t be any contest.

 

[Brown Nose]

there really, really, shouldn’t be any contest.

I quite agree. And then I watched this . . . . the world is full of feckwits.

 

[Blue Maniac]

I quite agree. And then I watched this . . . . the world is full of feckwits.

I’m not watching a nearly eight minute video, you psychopath.

For me it would have been Aguero, by several thousand miles, but for 2016. The back and forth drama of that day was unquestionably thrilling even for neutrals. However, 2016 pisses on everything that’s ever happened in sport, let alone football. It’s the biggest sporting upset of all time and likely always will be. There can be no serious debate as to whether it’s the moment of the decade.

 

[Miles Away]

****ing idiots.

 

[LoopisDeLupis]

T

I quite agree. And then I watched this . . . . the world is full of feckwits.

I’m not watching a nearly eight minute video, you psychopath.

For me it would have been Aguero, by several thousand miles, but for 2016. The back and forth drama of that day was unquestionably thrilling even for neutrals. However, 2016 pisses on everything that’s ever happened in sport, let alone football. It’s the biggest sporting upset of all time and likely always will be. There can be no serious debate as to whether it’s the moment of the decade.

I’m with BM. Eight minutes of Jermaine Jenas and a few of his randomly picked mates is far too long.
Is the general gist that they make the wrong choices?

 

[Micky]

Not watching. Wankers.

 

[Lako42]

The moment of the next decade will be us winning the treble in 2020

 

[tedfoxxx]

The moment of the next decade will be us winning the treble in 2020

Nah it’ll be Mason Greenwood scoring in a Champions League quarter final or summink.

 

[Skitzo]

I think our season as a whole would have won but it was hard to pick a specific moment, had Wes Morgan's goal at Old Trafford been a winning goal to win the title that would have won it

 

[Graz]

Nah it’ll be Mason Greenwood scoring in a Championship play-off semi-final or summink.

Fixed it for you x

 

[Graz]

I think our season as a whole would have won but it was hard to pick a specific moment, had Wes Morgan's goal at Old Trafford been a winning goal to win the title that would have won it

I agree, I think that's why people might note vote for us - because as a "moment" they've put the crowning/celebration. But is it really a moment? That was an amazing one for us, but for other people it's the title win as a whole.

Outside of us, it's clearly the Aguerroooooooo vs QPR in the dramatic last minute title win for Man City.