Who Loves You Baby?

by Peter Gilbert

As the dust settles on another season certain familiar situations begin to occur; firstly the England teams(cricket and football) stutter through their games, Sky TV desperately try to keep their couch potato addicts hooked on their product by showing re-runs and reviews of the season, but most predictably for us Leicester Fans comes the media inspired array of stories about our various personnel who are going to leave us.

The ink was hardly dry on the league tables final positioning before we were treated to : 'O'Neill Set To Join Forest' type stories. These were hotly denied by all and sundry but that didn't seem to matter. Quite why MON would want to join a Rag Tag and Bobtail outfit like that is beyond me and one of the most obscure stories imaginable. Certain Forest Fans are quick to point out to me that 'Trentside' is in fact the spiritual home of O'Neill and Robertson. During the course of the last few seasons I have travelled the length and breadth of the country watching City play and there is not a manager in the country who is more appreciated or more loved by the fans than Martin O'Neill is at Leicester, so if he does leave us for whatever reason he can never complain about the support he has received here although he is still very quick to point out 'The Sheff. Utd game' where he was heavily criticised by certain sections of the crowd, and if he wants to keep dragging that out of the closet then that's up to him of course.Who loves you Martin?

I've just been away on a week's holiday and no sooner do I touch down than I am fed stories that Neil Lennon is leaving us to join Sheff. Weds, well that'd be a step up for him now wouldn't it? And we are to inherit Kevin Pressman as part of the deal. Wow that'll solve our goalkeeper problems. Well Mr. Lennon if you want to go to Hillsborough them you can go too, but don't forget you were nothing when you came to us with a long history of injury, you took your opportunity with both hands and now you're a top midfield player, but Sheff Weds? Do me a favour.But once again their supporters are very keen on the idea, well who wouldn't be? Who loves you Neil?

Now of course Emile Heskey is going to Spurs for £6m but I love O'Neill's comment on that one;'He was worth more than that when he was 12.' Well Emile if you want to join that outfit and live in a trashy part of North London then you can go too but on our terms and for a good price too so that we can buy a replacement who will score us loads of goals, more than you did in fact.Hope you don't get homesick.Who loves you Emile?

All in all I think that us Leicester City fans can be quite proud of the contribution we have made over the last few years. We've dipped our hands into our shallow pockets, we've sung our hearts out, travelled in huge numbers and stood loyally by our team. More than that we in fact 'are' Leicester City. Players, managers and directors all come and go as we have seen and we are the ones left to provide the heart and soul of the place without which it wouldn't exist for all these people to make their tidy sums and clear off courtesy of our support.
Well whoever goes this summer, the let them go, we won't stop them or hold any placards up pleading for them to stay, because if they want to go then so be it. One thing you can be sure of is that if anyone of them wants out, then money will be the motivating force behind their emotions. But we as supporters can all say that we gave our support with generous hearts, we never got on their backs even when some of the players displayed before were clearly not up to the job, we still said 'If he's got a City shirt on he'll get our support.'
But if you want to go - then be gone - we won't be coming with you, and while you were here you had our support - but don't forget 'Who Loves You Baby?'

Football is a fragile business, people come and go and there inevitable are casualties of the volatile relationship they are involved in. We now have a team that is becoming envied in other quarters and carrots will inevitably be dangled. Even Walshie nearly went to Villa last season, to inject some stability into their crumbling defence,thankfully he stayed with us.
We love our team, that is the prevailing mood of a Filbert Street crowd, but we are condemned to stand by and watch as others casually involve themselves in Leicester City Football Club as a means to an end which they could pick up or drop as a flight of fancy as long as the money is good.

Now though players are openly admitting on live Radio Leicester phone ins that they will move on unless the board show more ambition, which means they want a massive pay rise. Or they would like to see international quality players brought so the team can win things which would re-vamp the pay structure and they'd receive a massive pay rise.
One thing is for sure though, LCFC players are probably the worst paid in The Premiership, so you might say who can blame them for wanting to 'move on' for whatever reason?
In reality not many would put our 'Love over Gold.'
Whatever and however it happens, we need to win really significant something next season, time doesn't stand still.