Shane has Aged a Bit Since His Last Goal

It came as a major surprise to me when I became famous in
Leicester. Geoff Peters regularly appears on talkSHITE and was sent a blog I
wrote about Claude Puel which was written just before he got sacked by Saints. Part of this was
read out on air apparently and I now appear to have lots of Leicester
supporting followers on Twitter, Hi there. The blog entry in question can be found here.

http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.com/2017/05/claude-puel-should-he-stay-or-should-he.html

Ironically, straight after that bit of fame for myself on talkSHITE, Leicester
beat Manchester City and Chelsea which took the pressure off for a bit but then
they lost to Cardiff at home, beat Everton away and then in a classic Claude
moment, rested seven players including all the best ones and got knocked out of
the FA Cup by League Two Newport County. When you are under pressure as Claude
undoubtedly is and your team is not going to get relegated or qualify for
Europe, why in the name of arse, would you play a weakened side and give anyone
a better chance of beating you? The only chance of a trophy that Leicester had
this season has now gone. It is a lost opportuniteee and a lost possibiliteee.
It still makes me laugh thinking about Leicester tanking us 4-1 last season and
the Leicester fans chanting “are you glad you sacked Puel“ at us. I’ll just
leave that one there. My new friends from Leicester will probably be deserting
me in their droves by the end of this match report

Having been beaten by Newport last week, there is going to be a lot of
hostility towards Claude which will remain under the surface just about, until
something goes wrong so an early goal for us on Saturday should see the fans
turn on the manager and it hopefully affect the Leicester players. The reason
we have to hope for that or something like that is that we are likely to have
Shane Long up front as we have been decimated with injuries and suspensions in
that area. Ings, Obafemi and Gallagher are all injured though the latter is
back in training now. Also, the FA have seen in their wisdom, to ban Charlie
Austin for two matches after his two fingers and fuck off gesture at the
Manchester City fans. Dele Alli got a one-game ban for similar and Troy Deeney
got nothing for flipping at the double bird so it’s definitely a case of double
standards but to be honest, Charlie has been so poor that I can’t really be
bothered to get annoyed about it.

Ralph has been talking to the media again and once more I’m grateful that he
doesn’t speak English well enough to bullshit on any particular issue. I
actually don’t think he would bullshit even if he did have 100% mastery of the
nuances of the English language. Wesley Hoedt is not his type of player and
would be advised to find another club. Not much room for ambiguity in that
sentence. I’m sure that if the interviewer had pushed him further he would’ve
said that Wesley has a piss poor attitude and thinks he’s a lot better than he
is. Ralph also said that Charlie Austin can’t press high so will be limited to
cameo appearances. That one was so obvious that even I thought it but for some
reason, Mark Hughes didn’t.

Definitely out of the exit door are Manolo Gabbiadini and Steve Davis. Over the
past months it has crushed me every time Long and Austin are on the pitch and
Gabbiadini is not. There is a very good player in there but we as a club have
been unable to get much out of him for the last two seasons so it was
inevitable that he was going to go given the need to raise some cash. He’ll be
remembered for the scrappy goal that he got at Swansea which was so important
to keep us up last season but for me, his performance in the League Cup final,
under Claude, at Wembley is my best memory of the past two seasons. When he
scored the second goal to equalise, I allowed myself just for a second to
believe that we were going to come back from 2-0 down and win a Wembley Cup
final against Manchester United. Didn’t happen of course but we will always have
that goal and the feeling afterwards. Claude eventually sold Gabbi down the
river when he decided to make the midfield play on top of the defence at the
tail end of his one season in charge, giving Gabbi no support at all. Gabbi had
no chance at all under Pellegrino and Hughes who didn’t even have a fucking
game plan, let alone be able to say whether it suited him or not. Ralph has at
least been honest and said that Gabbi won’t fit the style he wants the team to
play in. Manolo Gabbiadini has signed for Sampdoria which is a fantastic move
for him and I hope he does really really well and thanks for the memories.

You are my Davis, my Steven Davis. You make me happy when skies are grey.

For five years Steve Davis was a magnificent player for the club, keeping the
midfield and by extension the team moving and always putting in consistently
good performances. We always noticed when he wasn’t there, you thought you
wouldn’t miss him but we always did. Was at his best in a midfield three with
Wanyama and Schneiderlin and always put in 7 or 8 out of 10 performances,
chipping in with a few goals as well. The Davis memories that spring to mind
are the goal on his debut away at Manchester City which got somewhat
overshadowed by Sir Rickie’s goal, the goal at Chelsea when he smashed
Graziano’s chest-down in from the edge of the box and the two goals at Spurs in
the last game at White Hart Lane when we beat them for just about the only time
in living memory.

His powers have definitely been on the wane for the last season and a half,
especially struggling against bigger physical players but he still has his
moments. He was incredibly unlikely to break back into the first team with any
regularity and it is the right time for him to be leaving. He is going back to
Rangers, who he joined us from and he will do a great job there and will
probably end up with a Champions medal and be playing in the Champions League
next season. Good luck to the man and he deserves all the success he gets. The
main thing about Stephen Davis which is great is that he stayed with the club
for 6 1/2 years and you just know that at no point, even when surrounded by a
catalogue of shithouses with big egos, he was never ever an issue. A player who
would never put himself ahead of the team. He will be back here as manager one
day.

Back to today and our team virtually picked itself. As
predicted, Shane Long was upfront and the only other question was at left back
where Matt Targett was preferred to Cedric with Yan Valery on the right. In a
move that surprised no one, Claude made 15 changes from the Leicester 11 that
started against Newport.

Away we go and Saints are right in Leicester‘s faces from the first minute.
Chilwell tries to run the ball out of defence and into midfield but that is
where Romeu lives and you should fear to tread. 
Bang!!! he totally bins him and the ball is moved on to Armstrong who
skims one along the ground and just wide. There is another half decent chance
for Armstrong straight afterwards as Leicester are once again guilty of trying
to be too clever and Armstrong, Long and Redmond engineer a break with Redmond
bearing down on the Leicester defence before finding Armstrong who
unfortunately slips as he shoots and hits the side netting.

Yet more overconfident pissing about as Schmeichel tries to drill a goal-kick
to a specific player on the right wing but Targett wins the header and knocks
down to Armstrong who feeds Long. Shane is on the corner of the Leicester
penalty area with his back to goal and going nowhere. I know he is deadly with
a fantastic goalscoring record and all that but the challenge from Mendy which
was to basically jump on his back with his arms flapping about, was amazingly
dumb. There are few complaints about the penalty being awarded and up steps JWP
and smashes a proper penalty past Schmeichel who did well to get a touch. 10
minutes gone and hopefully the early goal which would see the Leicester fans
turned against Mr Personaliteeee in the dugout.

We have clearly got them rattled and nearly score again from a corner as JWP’s
kick is powerfully met by the unmarked Stephens but Schmeichel clawed it away
straight back to JWP on the wing who was somehow offside.

More action down our right as Valery takes on Chilwell and gets past him and
there is a clumsy coming together but Valery makes a huge meal of it and goes
down sparking diving accusations from Maguire and of course Chilwell who does
appear to have completely lost any composure that he might have had.

Since the first whistle, Valery and Chilwell have been at each other and our
young Frenchman with the “I don’t give a fuck who you are“ attitude has clearly
got under the England man’s skin. He then gets further under it by steaming
into a tackle which is not pretty which results in handbags and a yellow card
for both of them. The resulting free-kick nearly brings an equaliser as Morgan
finds himself free, gets the ball past McCarthy but Bednarek has read it
superbly and got back to smash it off the line. He actually smashes it into
Vestergaard and it goes off for a corner and the Leicester players are around
the referee appealing for a penalty despite it a) not hitting his arm and b) there
is no way on this planet that that was deliberate.

I’m beginning to think that the next thing I’m going to describe didn’t
actually happened as it appears to have been airbrushed from every highlights
package and write-up I’ve seen of the game and no one has mentioned it in the
media so I am beginning to question my sanity but I am pretty sure that I saw
Valery burst past Chilwell again and the Leicester player drag him back with what
in rugby would be called a high tackle around his head. Saints were given a
free kick but the second yellow card that surely should’ve come out at that
point, didn’t happen. Like I said, I’m beginning to doubt that this ever took
place.

The next bit definitely took place as Choudhury and his wig had an effort
deflected wide. Vestergaard headed the corner out to our right and the ball pings
around a bit and then Valery clearly pulls Albrighton back. With no second
yellow being shown to Chilwell in the incident that I must’ve made up, I am
expecting a final warning for Valerie but oh no, of course fucking not, second
yellow and off you go.

With a minute to go to half-time it’s surely just a case of getting to half-time
1-0 up and then regrouping in the second half but then, something miraculous.
McCarthy punts the ball forward and Ricardo, the Leicester right back, under
pressure from Long, heads it like an 8 year old straight up in the air. Down it
comes and Mendy, he who gave a penalty away, has the responsibility to clear it
up but instead of that he kind of pathetically falls on his arse and Shane is
in. Usually, this is of course nothing to get excited about but from a tight
angle on the left he hit it, Schmeichel got a piece of it again but like the
penalty, it ended up on the net and fuck me, we were 2-0 up and Shane has
scored and this is not a drill.

Claude is obviously got more proactive since he was our manager as at half time
he has decided that he doesn’t need three defensive midfielders and so the
disastrous Mendy is off to be replaced by Demerai Gray and Albrighton is off to
be replaced by Harvey Barnes. Ralph has moved JWP into Valery‘s position and
Armstrong is playing deeper, next to Romeu. Predictably, it’s all Leicester but
everything is in front of us and any ball into the box is not particularly
scientific and Vestergaard and Bednarek are heading everything away with ease.
Maguire has a go from long range which is deflected but McCarthy saves well and
then Maddison tries to be a hero from 30 yards and it’s straight down the
goalkeepers throat.

The first 15 minutes were negotiated comfortably but then it’s time for a
change with Cedric coming on for Armstrong. Now, it wasn’t Cedric’s fault but
immediately, Leicester get down our right with Ricardo bursting past Romeu,
getting to the line and pulling it back to the onrushing Ndidi and it bobbles
off both of his knees and ends up on the net. Bollocks. Half an hour to go.

The next 15 past in relative comfort with the occasional dangerous cross coming
into the box but nothing particularly imaginative apart from Vardy of course.  He has the imagination to try the big
dragging-foot-initiating-contact dive. Trouble is that it is such a fucking
horrendous dive that even Ratboy himself can’t bring himself to appeal for a
penalty.  No yellow card again.

Maddison Is still trying to be hero from the edge of the box and finding the
crowd and with 15 minutes to go it’s time for Ralph to show how much he trusts
the young players again with Callum Slattery coming on for a Premier League debut
in place of Long.

For the next 15, we are trying to get out of the defence but not getting
anywhere. Even if Redmond upfront gets hold of the ball there is not anyone
with him because the midfielders have clearly been told not to go over the
halfway line. Slattery kind of gets as far forward as he is allowed to but once
the ball is in the Leicester half then he drops back in. On 90 there is a
welcome return for Sam Gallagher, replacing Redmond in the thankless running
around chasing the ball role, up front And we get to the end when Leicester win
one final corner and with Schmeichel up in the box, Ndidi heads it wide.

Get in there. What a fucking win that is. An absolutely deserved win in the
face of adversity. I’d like to start off by giving Charlie Austin style salute
to Ben Chilwell and Jamie Vardy with an honorary one fingered version to James
Maddison.

Make no mistake, we won this game relatively comfortably and it would’ve been a
whole lot more comfortable if Michael Oliver had done his job and refereed with
any consistency. With Chilwell and Valery both having been booked, he then
allowed Chilwell to pull back Valery with no second yellow card being produced.
Two minutes later, Valery pulls back Albrighton and of you go, quite rightly I
might add. If Oliver had produced the second yellow for Chilwell when he
should’ve done then we are playing the second half, 11 against 10 instead of
them. Despite the second-half being like a training game of attack versus
defence, Saints held firm with McCarthy only having a couple of anxious
moments, mainly because the Leicester Claude-ball attacking was somewhat
one-dimensional and the back three, especially Bednarek and Vestergaard were
excellent. Targett surprised me by being really defensively solid at left back
and that is the sort of performance that he needs to be putting in on a regular
basis instead of the really flaky stuff he tends to produce.

Yan Valery had what you would call an interesting match. I love the fact that
he has no respect for opponents and refuses to be intimidated. Today he was up
against the current England left back (unbelievably) and he very clearly
rattled him to the point where Chilwell should’ve been sent off as previously
discussed. Yan’s second booking was of course completely stupid and he of
course made a big meal of the fall when looking for a penalty in the first
half, after skinning Chilwell incidentally. He did go down a bit theatrically
but at least there was some contact. Jamie Vardy on the other hand is a fucking
100% cheat. A dreadful attempt to initiate contact with a defender and he even
missed that with no Saints player even brushing against him. I know the rules
say that he cannot be banned because he didn’t succeed in conning the referee
but why should he escape a ban just because his dive was so shit that he didn’t
even manage any contact with the defender? He clearly tried to dive, clearly
tried to cheat though I expect honest Jamie would’ve told the referee that he
was wrong had he given it – extreme sarcasm alert.  Still, I’d rather it was this way than he
wins the penalty, scores and then gets a ban which benefits someone else.

Back to Valery and his red card – I think we are going to
except that we are going to pick up a few more cards and suspensions with Ralph
in charge. When Hughes first arrived we seem to develop a harder age before
resorting back to being this bloody awful passive team that doesn’t go near the
opposition. This bloody awful passive style of play was of course started by
Claude Puel.

In the centre of midfield, Romeu and JWP battled for the full 95 with JWP again
proving that he does belong at this level and it will be very hard to leave him
out of the team when Hojbjerg and Lemina come back.  It wasn’t really a day for the forwards with
the second-half being played exclusively in our penalty area but we have to
mention Shane Long of course. If ever a game illustrated that old adage of
“football is a funny old game”, then the Shane show today is it.. He wins a
penalty for an absolutely brainless challenge by Mendy. Then he scores a goal
where the same Leicester defender presents him with the ball and his shot might
even have been going wide before it hits the keepers glove and goes into the
net. He earned his luck for both of those incidents with his hard work and
hassling of the defenders. It won’t always work and in between times he was
back to the normal Shane of the ball bouncing off him and in general not being
great but today was his day and it worked for him and fair play. Hopefully this
will give him a bit of confidence as we are going to need him.

Ralph is a fucking legend isn’t he? Already. The best thing about Ralph is his
bravery. What other manager with 15 minutes to go, when you’ve got 10 men and
you are 2-1 up away from home, would bring on a 19-year-old for his debut in
the Premier League. Now I know that basically all Callum Slattery did was run
around and tried to press the ball when we didn’t have it but the fact that
Ralph trusted him for those 15 minutes will be a huge thing for the player. We
won with 10 men and Shane Long scored a goal. Ralph will be sorting out Brexit
next.

Claude got hung out to dry in his interviews when he was asked about being
booed off the pitch at the end. He clearly didn’t understand the question
because he said it is “not my concern” which I’m sure is not what he meant. He
probably meant he was not concerned about losing his job. It won’t be spun that
way however. Oddly, it was still incredibly fucking painful to listen to one of
his interviews and I’m just pleased he not our concern and not talking about our players anymore.
Leicester have some good players and will finish 10th or higher regardless of
whether Claude stays or goes but leave it until the summer and the damage will go on into next season whether
he stays or whether there is a new manager charged with picking up the pieces
of the deflated squad he leaves behind.