It's tough in the Top Five!!!
Peter Gilbert 1.1.01

Hello and a Happy New Year to you all.

May good things happen to you.

May you enjoy good health and happiness.

May supporting Leicester City Football Club enrich your life even further.

Actually we know what the NewYear is likely to bring us, don't we, in terms of supporting Leicester City.

It's tough being a Leicester fan and that situation is unlikely to alter. We never know what the team is likely to do next, it's always been like that. If we lose it's plastered all over the place, if we win it's either lowly opposition or the other team had an off day.

The world expects Leicester City fans to 'know their place' and that place is not in the 'big boys' playground. When we go to parties during this festive time of the year, we will undoubtedly meet people who have taken it upon themselves to support Manliverarsenal Utd FC, they may live in Basingstoke but that doesn't bother them. They've latched onto this team for the kudos it's likely to bring them. They feel they need show no respect for Leicester whatsoever, just the opposite in fact. But if you do the same to them and tell them 'we'll finish higher in the league than you' or 'coming from Basingstoke what entitles you to support them' or accuse them of possessing 'little or no knowledge of the team'........they cut up rough and get mardy.......they can dish it out but they can't take it.

Then again you might read a newspaper article written by the predictably annoying Alan Hansen as I did the other day and once again you get no respect, allow me to quote ' Everyone accepts there are three tiers in the Premiership. The first consists of the big five; Man Utd, Arsenal,Liverpool,Leeds and Chelsea who have lots of money and have dominated the Champions League qualifying places.'...........this is utter twaddle but we have to take it with a smile on our faces........he goes on to say 'Then there are the second-tier clubs like Villa, Spurs, Newcastle, Sunderland and West Ham who with the addition of two or three top-quality could make the breakthrough to challenge the top five. Then there are the rest who are simply struggling to survive in the top flight.'....This must be us then.........who despite the fact we are sitting in 5th place with a game in hand and our next opponents are bottom of the league......we still fall into the category of.........'Struggling to Survive.'

The fact that we destroyed Leeds, swept past West Ham and humiliated Chelsea presumably counts for nothing. The fact that we've finished in the top ten for the last four years, a feat achieved by only two other clubs also counts for nothing. The fact that we took 4 points off Liverpool last season and knocked Arsenal out of the cup also is ignored. The fact that Villa have never beaten us in the Premiership is presumably not important. I know the point that Hansen is making.......but he is ignoring one vital factor and that is.....'what happens on the pitch.' He is blinded by the size of a stadium and churning out media hype.......and that's how he earns his living.

So when we play Bradford it will be just a contest between two teams strugling to survive. If we beat them it will pass un-noticed, if we lose it will be that 'our bubble has burst.'.......Yes it's tough being a Leicester fan.......and yesterday whilst snowed in and playing on the Play Station it appears that even computers are designed to keep us in our place. When we play teams who are 'struggling to survive' the computer backs off and let's you get on with it, but when you play the likes of Arsenal......suddenly the information processor goes into overdrive and makes life very difficult.

So if there has to a New Year's Resolution for a Leicester Fan I would suggest this one.......'Don't discuss football with anyone, just point out the results.'

And have a tattoo on your heart............Up the City.

Copyright.