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Leicester City F.C., nicknamed the "Foxes", are an English football team, playing in the Football League Championship. They were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2003/2004 season. They play at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester.
History of Leicester City The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse because it played on a field by the Fosse Road. Before moving to Filbert Street in 1891, the club played at five different grounds. The club joined the Football Association in 1890. In 1894, it was elected to Division Two. The first ever league game was a 4-3 defeat at Grimsby, but a week later at Filbert Street the club recorded its first league win against Rotherham. In 1908 the club finished in second place in Division Two and were promoted to Division One for the first time, but the club was relegated at the end of the season.
In 1919, due to financial problems, Leicester Fosse ceased to exist and the club became Leicester City Football Club.
Throughout the twentieth century and until 1995 the club bounced between the top two divisions, never achieving great success. They reached the FA Cup final on four occasions and the League Cup in 1964
1990-91 was probably the worst season in the history of Leicester City football club. Manager David Pleat was sacked with the club near the foot of the old Second Division and Gordon Lee was put in charge of the club until the end of the season. Leicester won their final game of the league season which guided them clear of relegation to the lower tier of the football league for the first time in their history -a humiliation suffered by West Bromwich Albion instead.
Brian Little, who had just taken Darlington from the Conference to the Third Division with successive promotions, was given the manager's job at Leicester and in his first season as manager they qualified for the promotion playoffs. Leicester beat Cambridge 6-1 on aggreggate in the semi finals but lost out on a place in the new Premier League after a 1-0 defeat in the playoff final to Blackburn - the only goal of the game was scored by Blackburn's Mike Newell, a former Leicester player.
Leicester suffered another playoff final defeat at the end of the 1992-93 Division One campaign. They were 3-0 down to Swindon at half time before a second half revival brought them level with their opponents. Then Paul Bodin scored a penalty for Swindon and it was the west country club which won promotion to the Premiership.
In 1993-94 it was third time lucky for Leicester as they beat East Midlands rivals Derby County 2-1 in the final to secure promotion to the Premiership after seven years outside the top division. Brian Little quit as Leicester manager the following November to take charge at Aston Villa, and his successor Mark McGhee was unable to save Leicester from finishing second from bottom in the 1994-95 Premiership campaign with just six wins from 42 league games.
Leicester were flying high at the top of Division One when McGhee controversially walked out on the club in December 1995 to take charge at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He was replaced by Martin O'Neill, who prior to his brief six-month spell as Norwich manager had taken Wycombe from the Conference to Division Two with two successive promotions.
Under O'Neill, Leicester qualified for the 1995-96 Division One promotion playoffs and beat Crystal Palace 2-1 with a last gasp Steve Claridge goal which secured an immediate return to the Premiership.
Leicester then established themselves in the Premiership under Martin O'Neill thanks to four successive top ten finishes and two League Cup victories. Then in June 2000 Martin O'Neill was lured to Celtic and replaced by the former England U-21 coach Peter Taylor.
For most of 2000-01, Leicester looked set to qualify for European competition. But then they were knocked out of the F.A Cup quarter finals by Division Two Wycombe, and then came nine defeats from their final ten Premiership fixtures which saw them slip to 13th in the table. A terrible start to 2001-02 saw Taylor sacked and replaced by David Bassett, who was unable to stop Leicester's season from going from bad to worse. Just before relegation was confirmed, Bassett moved onto the club's board of directors to make way for his assistant Micky Adams, who had quit the manager's job at Brighton six months earlier to work under Bassett at Leicester. Leicester's last game of the 2001-02 season was also their last at Filbert Street, and they beat Tottenham 2-1 to secure only their fifth Premiership win of a dismal season.
Leicester moved into the new 32,000-seat Walkers Stadium (named after their sponsors the crisp makers) at the start of the 2002-03 season, but due to the loss of Premiership television money and the cost of constructing their new stadium the club went into administration with debts of £30million. Adams was banned from the transfer market for most of the season, until the club was rescued by a takeover. In spite of these difficulties he guided Leicester to runners-up spot in Division One and automatic promotion back to the Premiership with more than 90 points.
Leicester struggled throughout 2003-04 and were relegated from the Premiership, bracketed together with other two relegated teams (Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers) on 33 points.
Adams resigned as manager in October 2004 and David Bassett began a second (temporary) spell as manager assisted by the former F.A technical director Howard Wilkinson. The pair remained in charge at Leicester until Craig Levein was appointed Leicester City boss on Friday October 29 2004. Craig Levein previously managed Cowdenbeath and most recently Heart of Midlothian, both of whom he played for as a defender.
Players of Note Current players: 1 Ian Walker (GK) 2 Peter Canero 3 Danny Tiatto 4 Nikos Dabizas 5 Stephen Hughes 6 Matt Heath 7 Keith Gillespie 8 Lilian Nalis 9 Dion Dublin 10 James Scowcroft 11 Jordan Stewart 12 Chris Makin 15 Scot Gemmill 16 Gareth Williams 17 Richard Stearman 19 David Connolly 21 Jason Wilcox 22 Johannes (Joey) Gudjonsson 23 Tommy Wright 24 Alan Maybury 25 Nathan Blake 26 Mark De Vries 27 Lee Morris 30 Conrad Logan 33 Lars Hirschfeld (GK)
Famous Former Players City have produced a number of internationally famous players, including England goalkeepers Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton, strikers Gary Lineker and Steve Claridge, as well as the current England international Emile Heskey.
See also
External link - Leicester City Official website (http://www.lcfc.com)
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