Sven Goran Eriksson

Sven Goran Eriksson

So once again the revolving door is back in use at The King Power Stadium and the latest casualty Sven Goran Eriksson departs

It would be easy to get carried away and look for excuses as to why Sven should have been sacked, or not, as the case may be, but that debate is no more as Sven, rightly or wrongly is given his marching orders.

When Sven arrived at Leicester I was unsure whether he was the right choice to  get us out of a precarious situation lying at the wrong end of the championship, but Sven went about his business and not only lifted us up the table but placed us on the verge of the promotion fringes, only to fall away again. But Sven had us playing attractive football and the signs for a promotion push this season looked promising, especially with the amount of money he had at his disposal.

Unfortunately spending loads of cash doesn’t always guarantee results and despite being only two points off the play off positions performances have been disappointing with only the occasional glimpse of the football we know we are capable of playing, being put on show.  

So the axe falls, perhaps Sven’s tinkering with the squad and/or, the system were to blame for our misfortunes or perhaps our squad were just not playing to their capabilities. Whatever, it is too late to look for reasons and we now have to look forward.

Sven is a gentleman and he remains dignified in his departure. I for one wish him well

I am not going to try and speculate who will be the next man to try and get us to the promised land of the premier league; I just hope that our owners make the right call! - And get it right. Because the one thing we don’t want to see back in regular action at The King Power Stadium; is the revolving door.

DEREK DOUGAN

DEREK DOUGAN

This week I am reminiscing about one of the greatest showmen the game has ever seen and we were lucky enough to have him at Leicester City, be it only for a short while.

Take a bow ALEXANDER DEREK DOUGAN

The ‘Doog’ was a flamboyant character who was not only a great footballer but also he was a lover of rock music and loved watching Leicester’s own favourite band The Roaring Sixties who were later to become Family and he was a massive Jimi Hendrix fan. The ‘Doog’ also made a record and dabbled at being a DJ. He also wrote several books, became a politician a TV pundit and even managed to become chairman of the PFA and later was to become chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers. So as you can see there is enough material there to write many articles about the ‘Doog’

Derek Dougan was born in Belfast on 20 January 1938 and played for numerous clubs starting with Distillery in Ireland and then going on to play for  Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Peterborough United, Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and  Kettering Town who he also managed. Dougan also played in the states making some guest appearances. He also represented Northern Ireland at schoolboy, under 19, amateur and B level and he won 43 senior caps scoring 8 goals.

Derek Dougan signed for Leicester City in the summer of 1965 for a fee of £21,000 pounds from third division Peterborough United, it is reported that the ’Doog’ even took a pay cut to join City to resurrect his career in the top flight of English football  and alongside another newcomer Jackie Sinclair the ‘Doog’ soon became a fans favourite.

Leicester had a star studded team in this era and we managed to have international representatives for all four home countries with Dougan (Northern Ireland) Gibson (Scotland) Rodrigues (Wales) and Banks (England)

In Dougan’s first season he had to take a back seat in the scoring charts to fellow newcomer Sinclair who scored two in the opening three games and Dougan found the net in his fifth start in a 4-1 win at home against Sunderland, now he had found the net Dougan became a prolific scorer  as was Sinclair. It was Jackie Sinclair who finished as top scorer in the league with a total of 22 goals and Dougan managed 19 another legend Mike Stringfellow chipped in with 12.

Leicester finished in a creditable 7^th place in division 1 and reached the fifth round of The FA Cup and the second round of The League Cup losing to Manchester City in both competitions

Dougan also managed one FA Cup goal to Sinclair’s two (perhaps I should have written about Jackie Sinclair)

In the following season 1966-67 little did we know that this was to be the ‘Doog’s’ final season with us and he made a total of 31 appearances and scored 16 league goals and 5 League Cup goals that season( for the record Jackie Sinclair scored 21 league goals and 1 League Cup goal)   

Dougan’s final game for Leicester was on March 4 1967 in a 2-2 home draw against Everton and then out of the blue (literally) Dougan was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a fee of £50,000 and the sale incurred the wrath of Leicester supporters   who had taken Dougan to their hearts, and some fans even boycotted Leicester’s games to watch the ‘Doog’ play for Wolverhampton as he scored a hat trick on his debut at home v Hull City and helped Wolves gain promotion to the first division in that season.

The Leicester supporters loved the ‘Doog’ so much that they sang a song about him; to the tune of ‘I see the moon’ the lyrics went something like this

 I see the Doog the Doog sees me, We bought him out of division three, He scored the goals we made him our king, But now Doog has gone away, Over  the  midlands to Molineux, With Wolverhampton he started a new , He still scores the goals that made him our king, Dougan for ever more-Dougan-Dougan 

The ‘Doog went on to become a legend at Wolves and played for them for over eight seasons making 323 appearances and scoring 123 goals.

Sadly on 24 June 2007 Alexander Derek Dougan died of a heart attack in Wolverhampton aged 69

I was fortunate to meet the ‘Doog’ some years after he had retired. I was at Atherstone Council waiting for a job interview when a friend of mine who also turned up for an interview for the same job (it was on the bins) said to me that my idol was in the pub over the road, I was torn whether to stay for the interview or go over to the ‘clock’ as it was known to see Doog. Dougan was there to open a betting shop in Atherstone, I went to the ‘clock’

I was cheeky and introduced myself and I was fortunate that I not only had a chat with Derek but I also had a drink with him and we talked about football. I asked him why he left Leicester so soon and he hinted that he clashed with the manager Matt Gillies over tactics.

How many footballers today would buy you a drink and chat with you in a pub!

 Derek signed a beer mat for me as well. In case you are interested I never got the job on the bins, my mate Billy Cooper did but I didn’t care. I had a lifetime memory of meeting my idol the ‘DOOG’

R.I.P. Derek Dougan a true legend---Leicester Till I Die