Why we love Leicester: shared moments are more important than results
As the post-promotion lull descends on the King Power, Jack Holmes reflects on the special moments that Leicester fans experienced at the end of a gruelling campaign.
“After Leeds’ win last night I’ve a horrible feeling we’ll crumble under the pressure tonight”
“I strongly suspect this too…..going to be a long evening I reckon”
“I absolutely cannot bear to listen to Don Goodman tonight, so I’m going to do my best to be there”
“ok mate, hopefully see you later on”
Two hours later…
“Unfortunately it’s a night with Harper (my daughter) screaming and Don Goodman wailing…..feel absolutely sick”
It’s the 23rd April and my 12-week old daughter has had her second wave of jabs. I’m hoping that she’ll be absolutely fine and I’ll be able to get to the Southampton game later on. I’m struggling to work out whether it’s the thought of listening to Don Goodman or the sheer nerves of the game that’s getting to me, but I’m absolute wreck on all fronts.
Turns out she’s not and I let my mate know that there’s no chance I’m going to be able to make it, but there’s one thought that sticks with me: why on earth do I do this to myself? The thought of sitting at home watching on my own listening to Don Goodman is absolutely draining.
There’s an advert that lives rent free in my head, the Fifa one where they ask ‘Why do we love football?’ Great question. For the most part I despise it….the older I get the more I draw away from it, as it seemingly gets worse every year. The only thing I really watch anymore is Leicester and I find the discussion around football pretty tiresome, not least because we spend less time talking about what goes on in the 90 minutes and more time on everything else.
It appears I’m not the only one, and in general the existence of a football fan is a gruelling one, the general feeling post-season seems to be that we’re all exhausted. For the most part everyone is bloody miserable, you only need to spend a few minutes on “X” to realise that no one is actually having fun.
I’ve pondered whether it’s getting worse, and I’ve reasonably concluded on a straw poll of one that it is. The parody advert from Mitchell and Webb entitled ‘watch the football’ demonstrates the relentless of it all now, where you can’t move for a hot take, a ratio or a terrible opinion that hits you in the face (yes, I won’t miss you, ‘The Second Tier’ pod).
VAR, cries of corruption, overpaid players and sportswashing owners all make you feel a little disconnected from the sport, and as has been documented several times on this website it’s not just ‘big’ football that that gets it wrong here. Our very own club has a had a right good go at adding to the general farce the game has become.
This season should have been pure joy, we’ve won 31 games for fucks sake. That’s it, that’s all football is about, they’d have you believe. The winning doesn’t stop on the pitch either, it’s winning in the courts and winning the transfer window, whatever that means.
This is before we even get to the actual game on the pitch by the way and, as Enzo’s PR man told us, it’s football played with ‘the head and not the heart’ now. Effective it may be, but it’s nowhere near as exciting as it once was. That Nick De Marco may have played as pivotal role in our promotion as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall really does make my head spin.
I’m aware this all sounds very angry old man, and it’s how I’ve felt for large parts of the season, but I still care and I can’t shake the feelings I have for this club. The elation post-Southampton and the sheer joy post-Leeds’ demise was personally short-lived and as of that Saturday morning it had transitioned mostly into relief.
It just all felt a bit flat, like we’d merely corrected a huge error from the post season, and at this point I’m still wondering if I’d ever feel the same highs and connections I’ve felt in the past.
Sharing moments of joy
So, to Preston, as near on 6,000 of us descended on Deepdale, and for my favourite moment of supporting Leicester since a night in Randers. A night of sheer joy, and a 3-0 win, but a night that reminded us of all our past and a night where I felt like we had a genuinely united club for the first time in a long time.
The references to our past made it a truly memorable experience. Ticker tape, retro shirts, the Blue Army outside the White Hart, the songs from our past and the celebrations post match. I’m aware of the irony that it’s our club winning something that took me to feel genuinely excited about the season, but the moments from this campaign that will really stick with me are the moments where the players walked down to SK1 to share their success with the fans, and this doesn’t need to just happen when we win.
See, I don’t think it’s just the winning itself that makes these moment feel so joyful, it’s feeling like we’re all part of something bigger. It’s 600 of us descending on Randers and singing about Aarhus, it’s our first away game in League One at Stockport, watching Lloyd Dyer smash one into the road behind the stands, it’s walking around Bruges on a baking hot day to see blue shirts everywhere. Despite what we’re all conditioned to think, it’s not just the winning that makes this game so addictive.
The moment of the season for me was Marc Albrighton walking over to the singing section and sharing a moment with his dad as Union FS shared their display. I was surprised by how emotional I felt during this moment. Football at it’s heart, I believe, is really about being surrounded by people united in the same anguish as me, and the great shame of the last year has been that there’s been many times we’ve been left questioning that whether those at the club or the players really get it. We must continue to make our views known about this direction of the club and I’m heartened by the efforts of the collective fan groups.
There’s been several moments this year when I’ve said I won’t renew and been determined to find a new hobby, but those moments at Deepdale and on the last day are the highs I’ll seek in the future, and it’s bloody good job it’s not just about winning, as we won’t win many next year. The clubs’ social media policy is to be very very noisy when we’ve won a game, only to be absolutely silent post a defeat and this grates on me hugely, as there are plenty of things to celebrate in our great history. I don’t understand this silence, and we weren’t invented in 2013, by the way.
And whilst it’s easy to feel pessimistic about next season as we enter what feels like a genuinely new era for the club, I have of course renewed my season ticket safe in the knowledge that I’ll feel miserable for 99% of the time, but I go to be surrounded by fellow frustrated Foxes in the hope of that 1% where you’re reminded why you love this club.
