Fosse Friday 028 - 22 November 2024: The ligaments, the Lioness and one fine mess
This week's update is moving to Curacao
The good
An exciting piece of good news, Leicester City Women have our first Lioness! Ruby Mace has been called up to the senior squad for the first time by Sarina Wiegman ahead of England’s games against Switzerland and the United States at the end of the month. Mace has previously represented England at under-23 level.
This is fantastic recognition for Mace, who has been one of Leicester’s shining lights across two spells with the club, once as a loanee and now as a permanent addition.
Union FS are planning a tifo this weekend, which is always an added bonus to attending the matches. It’ll be a full stand anniversary tifo in the Kop to mark 140 years of the club. If you’re in the Kop, get there early and help display it - we can’t wait.
There’s an official LCFC fanstore now open in the Highcross, adding some much needed Leicester to the city centre (remember when we linked the less official shop near the market that had a Manchester United shirt on sale, yeah…). Open in time for the late night Christmas shopping.
Hamza Choudhury, Patson Daka, Ruby Mace, Courtney Nevin and Filbert were on hand to help open it and meet Foxes fans. Probably hoping nobody asked any controversial questions about the manager, our shirt sponsor, the injuries. Anything really that isn’t ‘please sign my shirt’.
Last week we shared some statistics that belonged firmly in The Bad. So it’s nice to see a more positive one. Abdul Fatawu is second on the leaderboard for ground duels won this season, across all Premier League sides. Not bad given his limited time earlier in the campaign.
However, this is Leicester news so you may want to brace yourself for the other Abdul mention.
The Other 14 also polled fans to see who they were nominating for Player of the Season so far. Ours came up as tied for Mads Hermansen and Facundo Buonanotte, which is about right.
The bad
Is that the sound of the company you sold your soul to partner with going kaput four months later?
That’s right, our old friends BC.Game, those chaps whose logo looks a bit like they ripped off PacMan and who have been adorning the front of our shirts all season, have been declared bankrupt in the court of Curacao.
We’ve dived into this latest embarrassment on the site this week, and we don’t really know what this means for the club yet - in a surprisingly proactive move from the club, Leicester have already put out a ‘Nothing To See Here’ statement.
However, this was an entirely foreseeable turn of events to anyone who has paid any attention to the “crypto industry”, where companies use these sponsorship deals to present an image of respectability to vulnerable users. And their claims to immeasurable riches are often spurious at best.
A lot of our problem with Leicester’s decision-making in recent years is that a lot of it is straight up incompetence. This is from the same school as signing deals with weird betting companies that use paid actors to pose as directors and the shirt price fixing shenanigans.
We aren’t asking for a lot, just a little bit of common sense before we rush headlong into bed with anyone who flutters their eyes at us.
And it’s probably time to get rid of this promoted story on LCFC.com too (in the bottom right of this screenshot).
Life comes at Leicester City supporters fast. Foxes fans went from wanting to let Jordan Ayew take every free kick after he scored a glorious one on international duty for Ghana against Angola, to then royally remembering why we dislike international breaks.
Ghana didn’t qualify for AfCoN, a draw against Angola and a loss to Niger leaving them bottom of Group F. That could be good news, Leicester wouldn’t have to worry about losing both during the competition. Except, then news surfaced of both Ayew and Abdul Fatawu leaving the Ghana camp with injuries.
As soon as the latter posted to social media from his hospital bed that his surgery went well, the writing was on the wall. He is now definitely out for the season.
The news sounds more promising on Ayew, but Steve Cooper has been known to play fast and loose with his injury updates.
This weekend brings a break from Leicester City Women’s attempts to score their third league goal of the season with a trip to Crawley to face Brighton in the League Cup.
Last Sunday saw a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United that sent the Foxes joint bottom of the WSL table. Something has to change soon or it’ll be Championship life again for a Leicester side that had visions of a top-half finish before the campaign began.
See if you can guess which current member of Leicester City’s back four this international media member is describing, after his nation fell to a 1-0 defeat to Israel:
The problem will always have been to make him the boss of the defence while he multiplies the blunders match after match, without departing from a totally misplaced arrogance.
Mon Dieu!
The daft
One day, the wider footballing media will stop slapping Foxes fans down for daring to dream of some basic competence from their football club.
Until Leicester’s main shirt sponsor was declared bankrupt in the court of Curacao and our most exciting player tore his ACL on international duty, we were going to dedicate this email to LCFC’s new “Northern Wild, Northern Life souvenir collection”.
Sometimes, you just need to let the words speak for themselves.
Inspired by the rich cultural heritage of Nan Province in northern Thailand, King Power’s latest CSR project combines the intricate artistry of traditional hand-woven fabrics with modern sportswear design.
You seem to have just stuck bits of a rug onto a Sports Direct jacket? Oh, there’s more!
The range draws inspiration from the northern Thai landscape and Leicester City’s enduring spirit
No, please continue!
The collection blends the resilience of LCFC with the timeless beauty of Nan’s hand-woven textiles.
To be fair, this does look like something I’d expect my Nan to have.
Loan watch
English Championship
Tom Cannon (Stoke City)
Last game: Saturday 9 November v Millwall (H), played all game, drew 1-1Next game: Saturday 23 November v QPR (A)
Ben Nelson (Oxford United) - Out injured
Harry Souttar (Sheffield United)
Last game: Sunday 10 November v Sheffield Wednesday (H), played all game, won 1-0Next game: Saturday 23 November v Coventry (A)
English League One
Amani Richards (Exeter City)
Last game: Saturday 16 November v Lincoln (H), unused substitute, drew 0-0Next game: Saturday 23 November v Wrexham (A)
Silko Thomas (Wigan Athletic)
Last game: Saturday 9 November v Wycombe Wanderers (H), played 83 minutes , lost 1-0 and Tuesday 12 November v Nottingham Forest U21 (H in EFL Trophy) played all game, Wigan won 3-0 on penalties and Silko scored hisNext game: Saturday 23 November v Barnsley (A)
English League Two
Brandon Cover (Port Vale)
Last game: Saturday 16 November v Morecombe (A), substituted on in the 87th minute, won 1-0
Next game: Saturday 23 November v Crewe (H)Chris Popov (Barrow)
Last game: Saturday 16 November v AFC Wimbledon (H), unused substitute, lost 3-1
Next game: Saturday 23 November v Chesterfield (A)
English National League
Brad Young (Hartlepool)
Last game: Saturday 16 November v Eastleigh (H), played all game, drew 0-0
Next game: Saturday 23 November v Solihull Moors (A)
Scottish Premiership
Sammy Braybrooke (Dundee)
Last game: Saturday 9 November v Aberdeen (A), unused substitute, lost 4-1Next game: Sunday 23 November v Hibernian (H)
Dutch Eerste Divisie (second tier)
Wanya Marcal (De Graafschap) - Still injured
Steals of the week
It’s almost December so we’re not feeling quite as guilty for bringing Christmas into the occasion. Hand made Leicester-centric gifts are always a bonus and this wooden fox could serve as a decoration, a tag on a present or just a cute keepsake.
There’s not many left and it’s from a local maker, plus you can have it personalised if you’ve got somebody or something in mind.
For those of you with deeper pockets looking for something even more unique and one of a kind, can we interest you in a £475 9ct gold fox pendant with sapphire eyes?
If you like to collect alcohol-related Leicester City products, you’ve got a Captain Morgan special bottle, the Union FS beer and maybe the red wine the club did, but did you get your hands on a 1983 City Ale?
A limited run of 2000, these were made by Ind Coope Ltd to celebrate the promotion of the Foxes to the First Division. This particular bottle claims to still contain the original ale and is signed by then Chairman, Terry Shipman.
Thing we learned
Hudlstatsbomb have put up an intriguing graphic showing what areas of the pitch Premier League teams have allowed their opponents space in and generally how much space.
Timely that Chelsea sit directly above us and well, don’t appear to allow much space at all. The measure is when a player receives the ball, how close is the nearest defender.
As for our right side…
One last thing…
The Fosse Way is now on Bluesky! We’ve pulled the plug on our Twitter/X account after growing collectively sick of the direction it was taking. Follow along for articles, comment and the occasional photo from the archives.
Post Horn
We always want to hear what you think - drop us an email with things you’d like to ask, discuss or see at posthorn@thefosseway.net.
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