Paulo Sousa is well known to QPR fans after his short spell in charge of us not so long ago. Sousa is of course best known his career as a player but his recent move into management has gone reasonably well. At QPR he made us very hard to beat but lacked the creative spark that could produce goals. His side finished comfortably in mid table and were playing some decent stuff after the signing of Taarabt on loan but he was sacked for speaking out of turn to a supporters about the way the club conducted transfers. Many still feel it was a mistake to get rid of Sousa while others appear happy he has gone. He found himself at Swansea a few weeks later and did a good job in his one season at the club. They played some really good football and were water tight at the back. The problem was again scoring goals and that cost them as a draw on the final day of the season saw them miss out on the playoffs. He has now moved on to Leicester City where he will hope to go one better than he did at Swansea and make the playoffs.
The first season back in the Championship was a very good one for Leicester. Pearson made them a very solid side who were hard to beat and had plenty of goals in them. Matt Fryatt was very impressive for them as was loan signing Waghorn who fired them to the playoffs and an impressive fifth place finish. They lost the first leg of the playoffs 1-0 to Cardiff but in the away leg they were superb winning the match 2-1 and were very unlucky not to score a third during extra time. The match went to penalties and again they
were unlucky to lose out as they missed two of the five penalties
and had to settle for another season in the Championship.
Jack Hobbs Jack Hobbs is a very impressive defender
who is worth keeping an eye on again this season. Hobbs joined Leicester City on another
season-long loan in 2008 and helped them to win the League One title.
He scored his first goal for Leicester in a 4-2 home win over Huddersfield
Town in January 2009. Alongside Leicester's League One title, Hobbs was named in the PFA League One Team of the Year and was voted Leicester City supporters club young player of the season for the 2008-09 season. A day later Leicester signed Hobbs on
a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee from Liverpool. His overall
performance in the 2009-10 season earned him the club's player of
the year and players' player of the year. The 21 year old has been capped by England
at under 19 level but has yet to break into the under 21 side.
It's going to be tough to repeat last
seasons efforts but with a new manager and fresh ideas they are
not a team to be ignored. Sousa has shown he knows how to organise
a team and make them really hard to break down, if he can repeat
his trick of keeping clean sheets he'll again be close to the playoffs.
It's at the other end where he will need to improve but Leicester
have far better forwards than Sousa had at Swansea and QPR. Matt Fryatt is an excellent finisher whilst DJ Campbell has yet to get much of a chance at Leicester but scored the goals which helped Blackpool to promotion last year. If Campbell stays at Leicester and gets games expect them to do very well, a top six finish is well within their reach.
Leicester have had 36 managers, with
Peter Hodge and Dave Bassett taking in two spells (Bassett's second
was as caretaker manager). There have been nine managers in the
eight years since the loss of Martin O'Neill. Ian Holloway became
the first manager to win his first league game in charge with a
2-0 victory over Bristol City, since David Halliday in 1955 but
also became the first manager to see Leicester relegated to the
third flight of English football.
Rangers and Leicester have shared a few players in recent years. Andrew Impey had seven years in West London soaring up and down the right wing with great success in the Premiership. He spent the last few years of his career at Leicester where he impressed on the right wing. Simon Royce had two spells at QPR joining from Leicester. He spent three months on loan in 2002/03 before Chris Day returned from injury. He was signed as QPR's number one in 2005 after another loan spell and he proved to be a very popular keeper before a serious back injury saw his time at QPR come to a premature end. Ian Holloway managed both clubs with different results. Holloway of course won promotion with QPR in 2004 and lead us to a mid table finish the year after but his time at Leicester did not go well as his team were relegated and he was sacked after just five months in charge.
In 2004 Rangers faced a Leicester side
just relegated from the Premiership with the likes of Martin Keown
in the team. Leicester stormed into a two goals first half lead
before striker David Connolly was sent off. That changed the game
and Ian Holloway's men hit back through Lee Cook before Paul Furlong
struck a late equaliser. Furlong then scored a last minute winner
to send the QPR fans wild. The return game was our first ever visit
to the Walkers Stadium and we were very unfortunate to come away
with a 1-0 defeat after dominating the game. We got revenge for that defeat with
our next visit as Marc Nygaard gave Rangers the lead before Elvis
Hammond levelled things in the second half. Paul Furlong grabbed
his first goal of the season to win it for Rangers late on before
being sent off for a brawl with Alan Mayberry. At Loftus Road it was a bad night at
the office for QPR as Rangers boss Ian Holloway was linked with
a move to the Foxes and this proved to be his last home game in
charge. Gareth Ainsworth gave QPR the lead but a dire performance
saw us fall 2-1 behind. Danny Shittu equalised in the last minute
before comedy defending saw us concede a third goal and end Ian
Holloway's five year stay at Loftus Road. In 2006/07 season John Gregory was in
charge as Rangers drew 1-1 at Loftus Road with Martin Rowland's
grabbing the goal for Rangers. The 2007/08 season saw a 1-1 draw at
the Walkers Stadium as Mikele Leigterwood scored a late equaliser
for Rangers. The game at Loftus Road saw Ian Holloway
return as Leicester manager and his side were thrashed with Stewart,
Bolder and Rowland's all scoring in an easy 3-1 win for De Canio's
side. Last season was not so good for Rangers.
After smashing four goals past Reading, Preston and Derby we were
full of confidence ahead of a live tv game on a Friday night in
October. Loftus Road was full and rocking as Adel Taarabt gave us
an early lead but Leicester produced a very good away performance.
Two goals from Matt Fryatt made sure they went home with all three
points. The return game at the Walkers Stadium
was one to forget. Neil Warnocks men were hammered 4-0 with Martyn
Waghorn among the goals for Nigel Pearsons side. Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.
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