Bring on the Arsenal

Peter Gilbert 16.1.01

It's a fragile thing, football, and the margin between victory and defeat can be as slender as a wine glass. A few weeks ago before 'Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall', we were 2-1 down to Arsenal with 20 minutes left to play and had we scored to level the situation Arsenal could well have crumbled and we could have gone on to conquer new peaks. Ah well - were if's and but's currants and plums we'd be living on Christmas Pudding all our lives.

As it is we're in dire straits or queer street......or is that not 'pc' these days. Whichever way you dress it up we have something of a dilemma.

When we lost Neil Lennon to Celtic, his new manager knew he was buying the heart of a lion, the stubbornness of a mule and the appetite of a basking shark. Martin O'Neill wanted an organiser, a fighter, a teeth gritter, a tackler, an interceptor a jewel, a priceless commodity and he got him for the price of a few grains of sand relatively speaking.

Now we are forsook and so forlorn we have lost that battling Belfast boy and he's become a 'bouy' which was what he always wanted to be he now says.

Our midfield, our engine room is now misfiring so badly that the propellor won't go round and the steering is all to pot. The Captain on the bridge gazes at the horizon with his binoculars and hopes to find dry land and salvation in the shape of someone who can pop the ball into the back of the net. Someone to aim for, an outlet, someone who spells hope, someone who doesn't smell of fear.

We have 35 points, we're in 6th place, we're told we must be grateful for that small mercy...we musn't complain.

But we do complain, we ache and groan from the depths of our souls for we have seen how good it can be and when it's taken away from us it hurts like hell.

But Leicester City are a strange phenomenom, wait - we've been here before. We've been down, we've been half strangled but we've bounced back in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Have faith I say, someone will emerge from the ashes and a spark will fly into the air starting a new flame.

Stand in the breeze, brace yourself. Stand firm. Stand defiant. Sniff the air. Can you not smell the approaching Springtime ? Sniff again, breathe deeper. Savour the air, it is there. It will come back. Lennon and O'Neill have gone, Heskey has gone and Cottee and even Walshy. True; Peter Taylor was perhaps a little too quick to replace them and wipe away their impression. He was perhaps unwise to do that but he has shown us that he has a mark of his own to make and who knows that may be a deeper mark and a higher prize may be ours if we stick by him.

We now need to pull new arrows from our quivers, put them in our bow, draw back the string, take aim and fire. The force will return we will hit the target and it would be typical just typical of Leicester City Football Club for that good thing we seek to return this very weekend against the strongest of opponents.

Yes it would be typical for us to beat them out of sight....it's a fragile thing this game we play, this football we kick, this prize we cherish.

Let it be soon, but if it isn't let's not turn in on ourselves and burn our own house down...................whatever.....Bring on the Arsenal !!

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