RECORD SIGNINGS
Following our first home game of the season last Saturday which saw record signing Matt Mills make his home league debut in a disappointing defeat against Reading. I cast my mind back to Saturday 17th August 1968 when another Leicester record signing also made his home debut---Allan Clarke
Clarke was signed by manager Matt Gillies from Fulham before the start of the 1968/69 season in what was to be not only a transfer record for Leicester, but also a British transfer record that was valued at £150,000 part of the deal took fans favourite Frank Large to Fulham, he was valued at £40,000 in the deal
Just like this season expectations were high, especially with the signing of Clarke and the season started with a 1-1 draw at Queens Park Rangers and Clarke scored on his debut. This was followed by 3-0 defeat at Arsenal and then Clarke’s home debut followed v Ipswich Town
I was sitting in the double decker stand that day and like everyone else in the 26,014 crowd was hoping to see City get their first win that would kick start the season, but alas we lost 3-1 with Ipswich goals coming from Crawford, O’Rourke and Hegan. Leicester replied with a David Nish penalty and the scene was set for what was to be a frustrating season for us foxes
The following home game saw Clarke score a fine hat trick in a convincing 3-0 win against Manchester City but this was followed by two 1-0 defeats against Stoke and Wolves and although we beat Southampton 3-1 in the next home game we went a further five games without a win which also saw us take a 4-0 thrashing at Liverpool
This was to be the pattern for the rest of the season and it became obvious that we were destined to be involved in a relegation battle. On November 29th Matt Gillies resigned as manager and the following day Leicester were hammered 7-1 at Everton. Frank O’Farrel was appointed manager and despite having the honour of leading Leicester out at Wembley in the F.A.Cup Final losing 1-0 to Manchester City, he couldn’t prevent the team from being relegated to the second division
Clarke scored a total of twelve league goals and three league cup goals and he managed just one F.A.Cup goal it being the semi-final winner against West Bromwich Albion. Allan Clarke was transferred to Leeds United for another record fee of £165,000 and he went on to be a part of probably the greatest ever Leeds United team and Leicester had the task of playing second division football
Just a quick mention of another record signing, Adi Akinbiyi who is well remembered at Leicester. His home debut was a 0-0 draw v Aston Villa. He managed to score 11 goals in 58 appearances and we were relegated in his second season with us
Hopefully following a fine 1-0 away win at Coventry on the opening day of the season, the disappointing result against Reading will not see us follow the same fortunes as our previous record signings and we will indeed go on to secure promotion to the premier league –LEICESTER TILL I DIE
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