Getting right is not always easy
Mandaric and Pearson on the right track towards long term success

THE CUNNING FOX, 04.02.2010

TCF has followed Leicester City since the early 70's and the club has over the years lived a life in the hands of their managers and not been able to build on a long term plan. Please don't forget how difficult it can be to run a fooball club and we all be happy to see our team doing so well at the moment

My first experience with Leicester was the team managed by Jimmy Bloomfield. A struggling club in the relegation zone. It was the 30th of December 1972 and City played West Ham.

City defeated West Ham with 2-1 and it was a turning point for a struggling team. Leicester fought their way out of the relegation battle and ended in 16th place that season.

Bloomfield build stone by stone and finally managed to establish City as  a mid table team season by season, until he resigned after the 76-77 season.

Leicester City decided to appoint their former star player Frank McLintock as their manager and in just a few months he had done all the mistakes, you would think, such a great player never would do.

City was relegated after the 77-78 season after using more than 30 players in their first team and the expirement with an unproven manager had come to an end. City sacked McLintock and appointed the experienced Jock Wallace.

Wallace was a good choice and so was his successor Gordon Milne. City managed to establish themselves in the top flight with a young and interesting team and some fantastic individuals. A new experiment with a young and unproven manager in Bryan Hamilton ended in relegation and new problems.

City went for experience again and appointed David Pleat. Pleat was never managed to get City back into the top flight, and experience was again replaced with a young and exciting man. Brian Little came in and used a number of seasons to get City promoted.

Mark McGhee and Martin O'Neill came in after Little and we all know how well MON managed the club, but the appointment of Peter Taylor was probably the worst mistake ever done by the club.

Taylor had a great start to his life as City manager, also getting a chance to work with England. He took City to the top of the Premier League in October 2000, something Martin O'Neill never experienced.

But we all know in the past that he changed to much to fast and that his results came because of the players he had when he arrived and not by the signings he did. All the players signed by Peter Taylor never managed to get above the level they experienced with City.

A manager has to do well in the transfer market and the players they bring in must be able to compete for places in the team and take the level they are introduced to and contribute to good results.

McLintock, Taylor and Adams went berserk in the transfer market and failed in their hunt for players, so did Craig Levein, who missed totally on the level of SPL compared with the Championship.

Levein did a number of good sigings in Kisnorbo, Hume, Fryatt and McCarthy, but the rest was more or less failures. Pearson has so far done a number of good signings, but some of his dealings must be questioned.

Milan Mandaric supported Pearson with money in the summer. The signings of Wellens and Gallagher cost City in the region of £ 2 million. All Leicester fans would have hoped for more money in the transfer window, but to run a football team is also about how you balance your squad.

Pearson is judged by the job he did in the summer, and the number of players he has in his squad. City's squad is at the moment filled with players that cannot just be left out of training and told to leave if they have a contract.

City doesn't have the power needed to be a straight promotion pusher and to be in the play-off zone is more than we could hope for. We just have to hope that Pearson will be able to balance his squad better during the summer and not change too much of what has been working so well this season.

There is not always easy to get it right and to throw managers, players and coaching staff in and out will long term only lead to one thing, decline.

As Leicester City fans, we need to be focused and not to critical, and hope that we long term can establish ourselves in the top flight and not be a team stucked in the division elevator.