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Leicester City

Leicester City
Full name	Leicester City Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Foxes
Founded	1884
Ground	Walkers Stadium, Leicester
Capacity	32,500
Chairman	Jim McCahill
Manager	Rob Kelly
League	The Championship
2005-06	The Championship, 16th
Home colours Away colours

Leicester City Football Club, nicknamed the "Foxes", are an English football team, playing in the Football League Championship. They were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2003/2004 season. They play at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester.

History of Leicester City

Leicester Fosse

The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse because it played on a field by the Fosse Road. Before moving to Filbert Street in 1891, the club played at five different grounds. The club joined the Football Association in 1890. In 1894, it was elected to the Second Division. The first ever league game was a 4-3 defeat at Grimsby, but a week later at Filbert Street the club recorded its first league win against Rotherham. In 1908 the club finished as Second Division runners-up and reached the First Division, but went back down again after just one season.

Leicester City is born

In 1919, due to financial problems, Leicester Fosse ceased to exist and the club became Leicester City Football Club.

City's cup fortunes

City reached the F.A Cup final for the first time in their history in 1949, but lost to Wolves. They reached it again three times over the next 20 years, but lost each time. In 1961 they were on the losing side to double winners Tottenham, and as a result were England's representatives in the 1961-62 European Cup Winners Cup - their first foray into European competition. The 'Foxes' enjoyed some real success in 1964 when they claimed their first major trophy - the League Cup.

Gary Lineker

Leicester City won promotion to the First Division in 1983 - by which time they had established themselves as a yoyo team who regularly bounced between the top two divisions of the Football League - and their striker Gary Lineker was soon hitting the headlines as one of the most exciting strikers in England. He helped Leicester maintain their place in the First Division but was sold to Everton in 1985 and two years later Leicester went down, having failed to find a suitable replacement.

A Close Shave

1990-1991 was probably the worst season in the history of Leicester City football club. Manager David Pleat was sacked with the club near the foot of the old Second Division and Gordon Lee was put in charge of the club until the end of the season. Leicester won their final game of the league season which guided them clear of relegation to the lower tier of the football league for the first time in their history -a humiliation suffered by West Bromwich Albion F.C. instead.

Wembley Hoodoo

Brian Little, who had just taken Darlington F.C. from the Conference to the Third Division with successive promotions, was given the manager's job at Leicester and in his first season as manager they qualified for the promotion playoffs. Leicester beat Cambridge United F.C. 6-1 on aggreggate in the semi finals but lost out on a place in the new Premier League after a 1-0 defeat in the playoff final to Blackburn Rovers F.C. - the only goal of the game was scored by Blackburn's Mike Newell, a former Leicester player. The goal, a penalty, came after a much disputed foul by Steve Walsh on David Speedie. Speedie became the subject of much hatred amongst Leicester City supporters, but, somewhat ironically, signed for the club a year later. The signing prompted one Fanzine, The Fox, to observe "Had you told me that Leicester City would sign Speedie a year later, I would have said, 'Ah, such is the fickle and transient nature of football,' either that or, 'Yeah, bollocks will we!'"

Leicester suffered another playoff final defeat at the end of the 1992-93 Division One campaign. Trailing 3-0 to Swindon during the second half, goals from Julian Joachim, Steve Walsh and Steve Thompson brought them level with their opponents. Then Paul Bodin scored a penalty for Swindon and it was the West Country club who won promotion to the Premiership.

Third Time Lucky

In 1993-1994 it was third time lucky for Leicester as they beat East Midlands rivals Derby County F.C. 2-1 in the final to secure promotion to the Premiership after seven years outside the top division. David Speedie did not play in the final, having been sent off in the semi-final. Brian Little quit as Leicester manager the following November to take charge at Aston Villa F.C., and his successor Mark McGhee was unable to save Leicester from finishing second from bottom in the 1994-95 Premiership campaign with just six wins from 42 league games.

The Martin O'Neill Revolution

Leicester were flying high at the top of Division One when McGhee controversially walked out on the club in December 1995 to take charge at Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. He was replaced by Martin O'Neill, who prior to his brief six-month spell as Norwich City F.C. manager had taken Wycombe from the Conference to Division Two with two successive promotions.

Under O'Neill, Leicester qualified for the 1995-1996 Division One promotion playoffs and beat Crystal Palace F.C. 2-1 with a last gasp Steve Claridge goal which secured an immediate return to the Premiership.

Leicester then established themselves in the Premiership under Martin O'Neill thanks to four successive top ten finishes and two League Cup victories. Then in June 2000 Martin O'Neill was lured to Celtic F.C. and replaced by the former England U-21 coach Peter Taylor.

Peter Taylor: A false dawn

For most of 2000-01, Leicester looked set to qualify for European competition. They had even topped the Premiership for two weeks in October. But then they were knocked out of the FA Cup quarter finals by Division Two Wycombe Wanderers, and then came nine defeats from their final ten Premiership fixtures which saw them slip to 13th in the table. A terrible start to 2001-02 (a five nil defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers) saw Taylor sacked and replaced by David Bassett, who was unable to stop Leicester's season from going from bad to worse. Just before relegation was confirmed, Bassett moved onto the club's board of directors to make way for his assistant Micky Adams, who had quit the manager's job at Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. six months earlier to work under Bassett at Leicester. Leicester's last game of the 2001-02 season was also their last at Filbert Street, and they beat Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2-1 to secure only their fifth Premiership win of a dismal season.

Micky Adams: Back up... and back down again

Leicester moved into the new 32,000-seat Walkers Stadium (named after their sponsors the crisp makers) at the start of the 2002-03 season, but due to the loss of Premiership television money, the cost of constructing their new stadium and Dennis Wise's suing of the club after his sacking over an incident that left Callum Davidson with a fractured cheekbone, the club went into administration with debts of £30million. Adams was banned from the transfer market for most of the season, until the club was rescued by a takeover. However he guided Leicester to runners-up spot in Division One and automatic promotion back to the Premiership with more than 90 points.

It was because of Leicester restructuring their debts that the Football League changed their rules and now penalise teams going into administration with a ten point penalty.

Leicester struggled throughout 2003-2004 and were relegated from the Premiership, bracketed together with other two relegated teams (Leeds United F.C. and Wolverhampton Wanderers) on 33 points.

Adams resigned as manager in October 2004 and David Bassett began a second (temporary) spell as manager assisted by the former FA technical director Howard Wilkinson. The pair remained in charge at Leicester until Craig Levein was appointed Leicester City boss on Friday October 29, 2004. Levein had previously managed Cowdenbeath F.C. and most recently Heart of Midlothian F.C., both of whom he played for as a defender.

More disappointment

Leicester's poor start to the 2005-06 season saw some fans call for Levein's resignation as the team were near the bottom of the table after ten matches, and fell into the relegation zone in January. He was sacked as manager on 25 January 2006, despite a famous 3-2 FA Cup win over Premiership club Tottenham just 17 days earlier. Many fans agreed that even though Craig Levein didn't get the results on the pitch, his signings and other work off the pitch had left the club in a great position for the future. After winning three out of four games as caretaker manager and moving the club 5 places up the league, Rob Kelly was appointed to see out the rest of the season. His record since becoming manager, as of 23.3.06, was seven wins three draws and two defeats, leading to him being made the full manager with a rolling one-year contract in April 2006.

Jim McCahill will shortly retire as Chairman, to be replaced by Andrew Taylor on 1 June, 2006.

Current First Team squad

Leicester City squad as of 31 January, 2006: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SCO Robert Douglas 2 DF  EIR Alan Maybury 3 DF  AUS Patrick Kisnorbo 4 MF  SCO Stephen Hughes 5 DF  EIR Partick McCarthy 6 MF  SCO Gareth Williams 7 MF  GUI Momo Sylla 8 FW  CAN Iain Hume 11 MF  AUS Danny Tiatto 12 FW  ENG Matty Fryatt 13 GK  AUS Paul Henderson 15 DF  SWE Nils-Eric Johansson 16 MF  ISL Joey Gudjonsson

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 DF  ENG Richard Stearman 18 FW  ENG Elvis Hammond 22 DF  EIR Alan Sheehan 23 MF  SCO Joe Hammill 24 DF  SWE Patrik Gerrbrand 26 FW  ENG Chris O'Grady 28 FW  ENG Louis Dodds 29 MF  ENG Levi Porter 30 MF  AUS James Wesolowski 31 FW  SCO James Graham 32 DF  ENG Jay Smedley 34 FW  ENG Ashley Chambers

Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 9 FW  SUR Mark de Vries (on loan to Heerenveen)

Managers

Club Honours

• 2000 League Cup Winners
• 1997 League Cup Winners
• 1971 Charity Shield Winners
• 1964 League Cup Winners
• 1929 Division One Runners-Up
• 1925 Division Two Champions
• 1937 Division Two Champions
• 1954 Division Two Champions
• 1957 Division Two Champions
• 1971 Division Two Champions
• 1980 Division Two Champions

Records & Statistics

All Time Records

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

Current Records

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

Current Season (2005-06)

Miscellaneous Facts

• Leicester City hold the unwanted record of the most FA Cup final appearances without winning the competition, having lost four times; 1949 Wolverhampton Wanderers, 1961 Tottenham Hotspur, 1963 Manchester United, 1969 Manchester City

• Many supporters refer to the Walkers Stadium as 'Filbert Way', after the road on which it stands. This is due partly to the perception that Walkers Crisps paid a pittance for the stadium naming rights and partly out of affection for the clubs old ground at Filbert Street.

• The club mascot is "Filbert Fox", "Vickie Vixen" and "Cousin Dennis" were added for a while though only Filbert is currently seen at games

• The Post Horn Gallop is famously played over the PA system as the team comes out at all home games. Although recently a new jazzed up version has been played.

• Leicester are 1 of just 10 clubs to have never played outside the top 2 tiers of English football

Notable players

See also Category:Leicester_City_F.C._players

Notable players who have spent time at Leicester City.

• Gordon Banks
• Arthur Chandler
• Emile Heskey
• Muzzy Izzet
• Neil Lennon
• Gary Lineker
• Roberto Mancini
• Arthur Rowley
• Robbie Savage
• Peter Shilton
• Theo Zagorakis

External links

• Leicester City Official website
• Foxestalk - Leicester City discussion forum
• Talking Balls - Leicester City discussion forum
• Leicester City MAD Fansite
• Leicester City Fan Site

Template:English Division One

• English football clubs
• Leicester
• Sport in Leicestershire