Leicester City – Alternative History and Club Information

The club took on the nickname of “The Foxes”, because the glove puppet Basil Brush was operated by a man who was a big Leicester City fan.  He tried to take over at Filbert Street once, but they didn’t want him pulling the strings at the club.  The nickname also links to the proliferation of hound and hare activity in the area.  They plumped for the nickname above rather than be named after a bunch of hunts.

Harry Webb was the club’s first professional, who signed for 2 shillings and 6d (13p), much the same as they had to shell out for Stan Collymore.  There were early investigations during their existence when they lost 0-12 to Nottingham Forest in 1909.  The poor performance was not anything to do with the quality of their play, but they had been out celebrating a former colleague – “Legless” Turner’s wedding the night before and all were stoned drunk (allegedly).  The same happened a week later, when they were out celebrating the fact that there was a “y” in the day.  Stan Collymore realised that this was the club for him !!  Ten years later they changed their name to Leicester City to escape the shame of the drunken slur.  Funnily enough, no questions were asked when they beat Portsmouth 10-0 in 1928 !!  That was a bit rum, I must say.  It was that season that a ground capacity record of 47,298 was set in a match against Tottenham Hotspur.

The club entered the league in 1894 and have never been out of the top two divisions.  However, they have also failed to win the top title, despite racking up six Second Division championships.  The closest they came to the top prize was in 1928-29, when they finished second.  They also had the unenviable record of failing to gain promotion through four successive play-off finals from 1987, adding to the theory that Wembley is their unlucky ground, where they had also lost four FA Cup finals (one to Spurs in 1961).  This can be confirmed by their success in the League Cup competition, where they won the first two away from Wembley (once when the final was a two-legged affair) and then in a replay in 1997.  It was only in 2000, after losing at Wembley again in 1999 to Tottenham Hotspur, that they beat their hoodoo.  The final being played in Cardiff in 2001 should have been good news for the Foxes, but they got knocked out at home to Crystal Palace.

After the war, they enjoyed some small success under the guiding hand of Adam Black, who of course was the captain.

The club’s first experience in Europe came when Spurs won the Double and took part in the European Cup, leaving Leicester to take part in the secondary competition of the European Cup Winners Cup, but this only lasted two rounds.  Much the same has happened on the other occasions that club has qualified to go abroad to play.

The Seventies were a time for Leicester to become the footballing capital of the world.  Keith Weller sported white tights and gloves, while Peter Shilton took over from the legendary Gordon Banks in goal at Leicester and introduced the white goalkeeper’s shirt.  This was highly unpopular for two reasons; firstly, it allowed forwards to see exactly where the goalkeeper was, thus making it easier to put the ball wide of him and secondly, because the laundry women at the club found it almost impossible to rid it of those difficult stains !! Keeper Mark Wallington played every game during his two spells for the club between 1975-1981 and 1982-1983.  Nobody had told him he could miss a game if he was injured.  Indeed, so keen was he to preserve his record that during one FA Cup game against Shrewsbury Town, he started in goal, was replaced by Alan Young, who in turn was covered by Steve Lynex.  His durability meant he was back before the next game to maintain his proud run of starts for the club.  It was during this time that Leicester introduced a strange inflatable bubble that kept people off the pitch, in scenes reminiscent of the cult 1960’s TV programme “The Prisoner”.

Scoring has been a notable feature of the side over the years.  Arthur Chandler scored in 16 consecutive games, while Arthur Rowley scored 44 goals in one season !!  Arthur Sixpence once turned very sharply to score a goal and coined the phrase “To turn on a sixpence”.

Nowadays, Leicester are up there with the big boys in the Premier League.  Transfers of £100,000 are commonplace as they cement their place among the elite.  The new stand fits in superbly with the low rise, shanty style hotch-potch of the older stands and many a grateful young Leicester urchin can run happily home with a new football after another clearance goes over the old stand.

Just when it all was falling into place, with the new Walkers Crisp stadium giving a new flavour to the football experience, the team were relegated to the Championship and then, under the new chairmanship of Milan Mandaric, he has lead them out of that league … straight into League One !!  Third tier football for the first time in the club’s history came after appointing six new managers in the space of just over a year, leaving the players unsure of who is giving them instructions.

More changes of manager and management of the club led to new energy being pumped into the Foxes by King Power the new owners, whose hope that returning boss Nigel Pearson might be able to get them back up to the top flight came true in 2014.  That hope came true, but the reality of pitching up in the Premier League with a mainly Championship squad was a little too much, with Leicester sat near the bottom of the table for a large portion of the campaign.

After another change of manager, the fairytale came true under their Godfather – Raineri – who took them to the title against all odds.  It was an astonishing achievement and one that showed it was a one off when they struggled to avoid the drop the following season, leading to Ranieri’s axing in public to be replaced, dramatically, but his number 2 Craig Shakespeare.

He didn’t last as long as one of his namesake’s plays and Brendan Rodgers came in with money to back him after the tragic death of club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash after taking off from the club’s pitch soon after a match.  

When attending games, be careful where you park in the local car parks, as they may be pot-holed with people looking for 15th century monarchs buried underneath them.

FAMOUS PLAYERS : – Mark Wallington, Frank Worthington, Berty Belvoir, Denis Rofe, Don Revie, Cliff Richard, Mike Strongfellow, John Sjoberg, Gordon Banks, Peter Whaddon, Steve “Unlucky” Chalmers, Arthur Rowley.

FAMOUS FANS : – Julian Barnes (Novelist), Gary Lineker (Former footballer now TV sports presenter – Match of the Day), Bill Maynard (Actor – “The Gaffer”, “Oh, No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt” and Greengrass in “Emmerdale”), Mark Morrison (Singer), Willie Thorne (Snooker player), Gary Newbon (Radio [Talksport] and TV [Sky Sports] sports presenter).

THIRD : Shirts – White with 3 Royal Blue adidas stripes on shoulder and cuffs
Shorts – White with 3 Royal Blue adidas side stripes
Socks – White with 3 Royal Blue adidas hoops on turnover