What's Maccarone doing these days?
What's Maccarone doing these days?
I would absolutely love to say yes. But 5 Pts is fuck all at the top and I suspect they will lose there mojo. Top 4 is very realistic though.
Trips to OT and The Bridge in there last three games. Won't happen.
I don't think they will. i just fancy Arsenal(fucking hell) to have a bit too much for them. If they come away with a win next week though then I think it's theirs.
I think the likes of Liverpool, Everton and United should be asking big questions of themselves though. Because it shows what a bit of desire and hard work can do for you with a sprinkling of talent.
I saw him the other week in some nondescript Italian game. Maybe he's back at Empoli?Originally Posted by Shindig
City have some difficult games coming up. It only swings back away from Leicester, fixtures-wise, in the last 5 or so games.
Indeed.
If it happens it'll be the most remarkable thing I've ever seen in football.
Agreed.
Greece was more 'You wot?'
As you'd expect there's a lot of chat about where this might stand historically on Leicester forums. A lot of Leicester fans reckon it would be the biggest ever achievement in English football but I don't share that view. Forest winning promotion in '77, the title in '78 and two European Cups in the seasons after that will remain the benchmark. I think it would also fall short of Ipswich winning the title the season after promotion in '62 and is more comparable to Leeds winning the league in '92 just two seasons after promotion, although may better that achievement on the basis that at least Leeds had some historical pedigree at that level. Blackburn winning in '95 was fantastic but they were the Man City of their time, really. Forest also spent loads when enjoying their success but they won so much from such a low nase that I find it difficult to look past them.
Apparently the last two sides to win their first ever titles were Forest and Derby so there would be something neat about completing the set for the East Midlands. There is also some discussion about who the 'biggest' club never to win the league is. West Ham seems to be the reasonable consensus before you come to a clutch of clubs including the likes of Southampton, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Stoke, Norwich and ourselves. That seems about right to me. There's a good argument for us being the biggest bridesmaids if we make a cock up of it from here. Runners up in 1929, in a good position now, four times losing FA Cup finalists.
I still can't bring myself to believe we'll do it although I do now think we are in with a shout. Whatever happens from here there's an extremely good chance that this will go down as the best City side I'll live to see, which is a bloody good feeling in itself. The whole situation is just remarkable and feels fantastic. We can't lose. Yeah, if we really slide and miss out on the top four (I don't think we will now) I'll be gutted in the immediate aftermatch but it is almost guaranteed now that I'll never be able to look back of this season and think anything of it other than it being brilliant.
Can't agree.
It was the Euros and they were, what, 150/1 going in? Leicester's odds must have been longer than that.
Greece were shorter than 150/1 I'm sure. Leicester were 5000/1 pre season.
I read that Greece were 80/1. We were 5000/1. Greece was pretty mega to be fair. The thing which counts against them is how few games they had to negotiate. A league title is just better.
Did anyone back Leicester at those odds?
I wonder what the price on a top 4 finish pre season was?
Anyway enough of this. Focus on the next game. One game at a time cliche cliche cliche
I backed them at the same odds in 14/15. Thought we were due an underdog story and they had just donned the Championship under Pearson so thought they'd take that momentum in. True story.Did anyone back Leicester at those odds?
A handful of £5, £10 bets apparently. A few more later on in the season at slightly shorter but still very long odds. Bookies will take a massive hit if we do pull it off by all accounts.Did anyone back Leicester at those odds?
I've just checked the latest odds on Ladbrokes and Leicester are now 2/1 second favourites, which given Arsenal are favourites (where's my roflcopter?) isn't a bad price.
Someone backed us to be top at Christmas which I think was 1500/1. Dunno about going all the way. Just about all the pundits had us going down on the basis that Ranieri was shit. Which is daft when you look at his record. Okay, he isn't a title winner (yet) but I think you could only point to Greece as an objectively bad job. He played a big part in Atletico's relegation season but they were right in the shit financially at the time. He has always been good.
Arsenal are favourites? Are they off their face?
City could easily win the last ten or something if they decide they can be arsed.
Surely that hit is more than mitigated by all the accumulators that Leicester will break and the legions of people who will have put money on clubs with a realistic chance of winning it?
https://twitter.com/WillHillBet/stat...02314176536577
They offered him £3,200 before the win over Man City.
Yeah, 15/8. Seemingly Wenger's pre 2005 reputation/work still counts for a lot.
I do like the idea, now that we're beating the bigger sides, that we're probably going to struggle against smaller sides who won't give us space in behind. Yet before Christmas people were saying we were top because we'd only played (and beaten) the shit but wouldn't pull it off against the bigger sides.
We were favourites with all the bookies yesterday which goes to show what a win at Bournemouth can do for you.
He is basically a knock off Ancelotti in that whatever he's given, he just pulls it together and makes it work over the course of a full season. This one has been fairly spectacular, but it's the same idea. He then gets sacked every time because owners (occasionally rightly) get greedy and want to know why they aren't winning everything. He's not a top tactician but he is a very, very good 'manager'.
Watch the Thai mugs sack him when you're 8th or something next year.
While it is funny people constantly finding new ways to predict our demise, I do think there is something in it. Having to break down a massed defence isn't something we've really had to do so far, not that I wouldn't back us to find a way.
Do any of the smaller sides even have massed/good defences though?
They kept Pearson when 90% on the fanbase would bin him after we bottled it in 12/13. And (sort of) kept him when we were rooted to the bottom all season. They're not trigger happy and now that we are way ahead of schedule. Claudio will see out his three year deal and then replace Alan Birchenall as Club Ambassador/Half time entertainer/Stadium tour guide.
I've earmarked West Brom (h) and Sunderland (a) as heartbreaking 1-0 defeats.
Good point well made.
That'd be a fucking horrible way to see it all unfold.
I was looking at Ranieri's wiki yesterday. Leicester is his sixteenth team if you count Valencia twice (two different spells).
Anyway I think Leicester winning the title could be the biggest shock in football history. It's a different age. Before this season, for many years, you could pretty much say for certain who would finish top four. It wasn't like that in the sixties and whenever.
Sunderland and West Brom probably indulge in bus parking, most of the rest are wide open. Norwich you basically start the game with a 3-0 lead.
Norwich are so bad, so so bad.
I can't even think of anything in another sport (that I'd know anything about) that would match Leicester winning this.
Cheese.
I genuinely don't know any others either.
I mean, how often do any 5000/1 bets come off?
About the odds, I think there was one place that had them at 5000/1. Most places had them between 500-1000/1.
I still don't think much can top Greece in 2004. The manner of their victories, as well. Take a corner, score from it and then organise. For six straight matches. At the highest level. You will never see that again.
They come off all the time (four figure odds golfers win several times a year I would guess) but not with something that happens over a 9 month period.
This would eclipse Greece in 2004, I think.
What was Blackburn's title win like at the time? Was that not massively unexpected?
No they were loaded. They won promotion in '92 (beating us in the play off final, cunts), 4th in 92/3, 2nd in 93/94 before winning the following year. I said it earlier - they were the Man City of that era.
Wasn't unexpected at all.
They'd spent all round them to win it.
I didn't really know that. Why did the capitulate so much after their title win then?
Blackburn's win was like Chelsea's first or City's. Nevertheless, they would have been 15-20 points short but for Shearer and as soon as he left that was it.
I voted no because I'll either be right or happy to be wrong.
It's the opposite with me. Logically I don't see it happening, but then I can't take one look at Shinji Okazaki's smiling mug without feeling somehow certain that it will.
There's just something too perfect about it. They're winning off the back of a posh Algerian and an orphan from Fleetwood (more or less), it's the sort of thing that might happen in those Goal movies but never in real life.
People baulking at our position as favourites would do well to remember that Danny Welbeck's return is imminent.
Blackburn came second the season before, too. While United were the favourites, Blackburn winning wasn't a huge shock at all.
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