Today sees us play a Leicester side who we have very little previous history against, United and City having only faced each other ten times over the years, with five of those games apiece coming at Brunton Park and the old Filbert Street. The site of the former Leicester ground now being home to the 'Filbert Village' development, built as accommodation for students for the nearby De Montfort University and University of Leicester. The match this afternoon is certainly one to confuse certain sections of the media too, as in their eyes it is the Foxes up against the Foxes, at least the fox will be a winner for a change whatever happens I suppose. Another much more rarely used nickname for Leicester being the Fosse, Leicester Fosse being the original name of the club before it went financially pop by the end of World War One, the club then reforming as Leicester City in 1919. One reason for the visitors currently being in pole position in League One has been the remarkable goalscoring form of former United-loanee Matty Fryatt. The Nuneaton-born striker having made nine starts, one substitute appearance and scored one goal during a temporary two month spell at Brunton Park from Walsall in the gruesome 2003-04 relegation season. Following his permanent move from Walsall to Leicester in January 2006 Fryatt found goals very hard to come by in the Championship for City, the 22-year old scoring only seven goals in 69 matches in that division. This season Fryatt has really got his shooting boots on though, a total of 22 goals in just 25 games showing off his undoubted quality at this level. The food chain concerns everybody though, and even a club like Leicester, who are a big fish in this division, will no doubt find numerous scouts flocking to the Walkers Stadium at the moment to check out the City striker. The January transfer window less than three weeks away now, although whether some clubs would be put off him by his previous goalscoring record in the Championship only they would know. It certainly promises to be a very interesting transfer window too, not least for the most nouveau riche club in the Premier League, that being Manchester City. At the very top level though they could be the only real big spenders in January as they look to spend their Middle East millions kindly supplied by the, erm, Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment. The signing of Robinho for £32.5 million and a bid of a similar amount for Dimitar Berbatov within the first 24 hours of their ownership right at the end of the August transfer window certainly suggests that these guys mean business. The new Arab owners having according to the media already drawn up a list of star names they wish to recruit, including Kaka, David Villa, Roque Santa Cruz and, bizarrely, Wayne Bridge. Their efforts to gatecrash the top four and the hatstand money that the Champions League has to offer could cause big problems for the club to drop out of the privileged quartet. Arsenal look the most likely to be overtaken at the moment, although it doesn't seem like it will be by Manchester City unless already under-pressure Mark Hughes can find some big improvements in results in the New Year. The "credit crunch" is constantly being talked about at the moment but there aren't many football clubs who have a £260 million loan, that being the astonishing amount of credit needed to complete Arsenal's new 60,000-seat stadium at Ashburton Grove. Gunners chairman Peter Hill-Wood commenting in 2004 : "The gamble we are taking is that Arsène (Wenger) will continue to work the miracles he has been for six or seven years." With seemingly no money to spend on new players due to the repayments on that massive loan, although in the current climate at least the interest on the debt is set at a commercial fixed rate over a 14-year term, it could be interesting times ahead for the North London club. The fact that they are risking big debts on staying in the Champions League spots certainly brings back more recent memories of Leeds United. I'm sure that I'm not the only Carlisle fan either who will find it sticking in their craw a little bit if Leeds go out and spend big in the upcoming transfer window. The Elland Road club having announced a profit of £4.5 million last year, that coming only a few months after they had written off £6.1 million that was owed to the taxman. Money does indeed make the world go round but sadly in football these days it seems to be the be-all and end-all. |