DesertFox
Well-Known Member
RIGHT, here I go...... :roll:
I'm getting a bit fed up with the slagging Matt Elliot gets on here from some quarters. I can't understand it. People have very short memories...
Matt Elliot was one of the most important players this club has had in the past ten years, one of the key players in the club's most successful period in its history. He was part of the formidable 'spine' O'Neil assembled, along with Neil Lennon and the much maligned Emile Heskey (more about him later). These three were more important, in my opinion, than Izzett and Savage, who were close behind, along with Walsh (although Elliot was a far superior player), Flowers, Claridge and Cottee. Matt Elliot pretty much singlehandedly won us one of the two 'major' trophies this club has won in its 120 year history!
It seems that a lot of fans resent him for the huge contract P**** T***** gave him. I can understand that to a point, but let's not forget that, at the time, huge contracts were the order of the day. And PT was a twat, of course. Neil Lennon earned a lot more, a lot earlier than Elliot did. I imagine Muzzy was on a pretty good whack too.
Muzzy is treated like a god, and, fair enough, he was a very good player for us. I always liked him - class, although went missing a bit in his last two years. However, if we always expect our players to "do the right thing", then it follows that Muzzy is a traitor (I personally don't think like that at all, for the record). We could have sold him to Villa or Middlesborough for something like 4m quid, but he didn't "do the right thing" and chose not to go - instead he stayed to the end of his contract and walked away for nothing. That's his perogative, and good luck to him. The club had accepted the offers for Izzett, while Elliot, on the other hand, was denied a chance to join O'Neil at Celtic by PT, and the club lost out on that transfer fee.
Why should we expect Matt to take a wage drop, retire, or whatever it is we think he should do, for the good of the club? OK, the club is not rolling in cash right now, but if he did take a wage decrease or retire to save us money, what would the club do? Spend that money on replacing him!!! People say "ah, but if my company was in trouble I'd take a wage drop to help out", but would you take a wage drop or even walk away so your employer could spend that money to get someone younger in to do your job? I don't think so! Turkeys... Xmas... you get my drift...
We expect loyalty and committment from our players - they expect the same loyalty and committment in return. Why shouldn't they? As a team, we have been sadly lacking in passion and commitment for a while, and I don't shed many tears when one of our current crop gets the boot. But Matty was (and still probably is, for all we know) a wholehearted, committed team player - I think we should afford him some respect in return.
Players have to change their allegiances unless they play for the team they supported as boys. Muzzy was a West Ham fan, but has never played for them. If he is "Leicester through and through" as some fans choose to believe, then he has to be considered a fairweather fan, especially by West Ham supporters. I'm not about to change my club, and I doubt any of you are either. But the point is, all players are the same, with the possible exception of people like Steve Bull, Matt Le Tissier, etc, who never moved on from their local clubs (even Le Tissier was from the Channel Islands so doesn't exactly count). It's about time that fans got over this - ex-players say "I always look out for their results" - well, whoopee-do! It's a job and if their job is to play for another team, they should be professoinal and get on with it. Why do some fans get all pissed off about it?
Back to Heskey - despite his lack of goals for a big striker, he was, and still is, a class act and the best front man we have had for many years. At times he was propping up the whole team, from left back. Not many other strikers can do that. And what's more, he's a Leicester lad who, judging by the six figure sum he gave to our cause when we really needed it, he genuinely loves this club like all of us do. What a hero! Everyone stand up and applaud Mr Emile Heskey!
Some people have been thanking Tricky Trev for his 4+ years at the club, and some are even calling him a legend. Ha! Trev couldn't force his way into a poor LCFC team in four whole years. Nice bloke, but a crap footballer and not fit to clean Emile's boots.
I could go on to further examine the hatred towards our most important player of the past three years, Paul Dickov. But I won't [sighs of relief all round] as I've probably said enough now...
Oh, and I fully expect a "terse" response from Webbo, correcting all my facts!
I'm getting a bit fed up with the slagging Matt Elliot gets on here from some quarters. I can't understand it. People have very short memories...
Matt Elliot was one of the most important players this club has had in the past ten years, one of the key players in the club's most successful period in its history. He was part of the formidable 'spine' O'Neil assembled, along with Neil Lennon and the much maligned Emile Heskey (more about him later). These three were more important, in my opinion, than Izzett and Savage, who were close behind, along with Walsh (although Elliot was a far superior player), Flowers, Claridge and Cottee. Matt Elliot pretty much singlehandedly won us one of the two 'major' trophies this club has won in its 120 year history!
It seems that a lot of fans resent him for the huge contract P**** T***** gave him. I can understand that to a point, but let's not forget that, at the time, huge contracts were the order of the day. And PT was a twat, of course. Neil Lennon earned a lot more, a lot earlier than Elliot did. I imagine Muzzy was on a pretty good whack too.
Muzzy is treated like a god, and, fair enough, he was a very good player for us. I always liked him - class, although went missing a bit in his last two years. However, if we always expect our players to "do the right thing", then it follows that Muzzy is a traitor (I personally don't think like that at all, for the record). We could have sold him to Villa or Middlesborough for something like 4m quid, but he didn't "do the right thing" and chose not to go - instead he stayed to the end of his contract and walked away for nothing. That's his perogative, and good luck to him. The club had accepted the offers for Izzett, while Elliot, on the other hand, was denied a chance to join O'Neil at Celtic by PT, and the club lost out on that transfer fee.
Why should we expect Matt to take a wage drop, retire, or whatever it is we think he should do, for the good of the club? OK, the club is not rolling in cash right now, but if he did take a wage decrease or retire to save us money, what would the club do? Spend that money on replacing him!!! People say "ah, but if my company was in trouble I'd take a wage drop to help out", but would you take a wage drop or even walk away so your employer could spend that money to get someone younger in to do your job? I don't think so! Turkeys... Xmas... you get my drift...
We expect loyalty and committment from our players - they expect the same loyalty and committment in return. Why shouldn't they? As a team, we have been sadly lacking in passion and commitment for a while, and I don't shed many tears when one of our current crop gets the boot. But Matty was (and still probably is, for all we know) a wholehearted, committed team player - I think we should afford him some respect in return.
Players have to change their allegiances unless they play for the team they supported as boys. Muzzy was a West Ham fan, but has never played for them. If he is "Leicester through and through" as some fans choose to believe, then he has to be considered a fairweather fan, especially by West Ham supporters. I'm not about to change my club, and I doubt any of you are either. But the point is, all players are the same, with the possible exception of people like Steve Bull, Matt Le Tissier, etc, who never moved on from their local clubs (even Le Tissier was from the Channel Islands so doesn't exactly count). It's about time that fans got over this - ex-players say "I always look out for their results" - well, whoopee-do! It's a job and if their job is to play for another team, they should be professoinal and get on with it. Why do some fans get all pissed off about it?
Back to Heskey - despite his lack of goals for a big striker, he was, and still is, a class act and the best front man we have had for many years. At times he was propping up the whole team, from left back. Not many other strikers can do that. And what's more, he's a Leicester lad who, judging by the six figure sum he gave to our cause when we really needed it, he genuinely loves this club like all of us do. What a hero! Everyone stand up and applaud Mr Emile Heskey!
Some people have been thanking Tricky Trev for his 4+ years at the club, and some are even calling him a legend. Ha! Trev couldn't force his way into a poor LCFC team in four whole years. Nice bloke, but a crap footballer and not fit to clean Emile's boots.
I could go on to further examine the hatred towards our most important player of the past three years, Paul Dickov. But I won't [sighs of relief all round] as I've probably said enough now...
Oh, and I fully expect a "terse" response from Webbo, correcting all my facts!
:roll:
