This is now the sixth season since Leicester City have graced the top flight of English football, however already this season they look closer than ever to getting back up there.
Since being relegated from the Premiership in the 2003/04 season, the closest City have come to getting back up is finishing 15th in the Championship. They have since won a league and gained promotion, but unfortunately that was winning League One in order to get back to the Championship.
One of the problems Leicester have faced since the demise of the Club is finding a striker who will score a significant amount of goals every season. Since their relegation to second tier football they have had good ambassadors to the club such as David Connolly and Iain Hume, who did a job up-front. Yet they did not really do enough of a job, as they would only find back of the net a maximum of 14 times in a season. When you compare that to Reading’s promotion campaign in 2005/06, when they’re two strikers scored 41 league goals between them, it does not make good reading.
Since the 2005/06 season Leicester have had a young striker named Matty Fryatt, now I would imagine you have already heard of him. If you have not though this is a little bit about him; he is an English born striker who stands at 5’ 10” and was born in 1986. In his first season at Leicester he scored a disappointing six goals, in his second season he scored a very disappointing four goals and in his third season he scored a more than embarrassing three goals.
Now you may think I have got the wrong Fryatt, but I have not, yet as you will of course remember in the 2008/09 season (all be it in a lower league) he scored an emphatic 32 goals. That was all well and good; however it raised the argument that perhaps he is a League One striker. So this season on his return to the Championship he had a lot to prove, and just 20 matches in to the season he has already silenced his critics. Having already bagged 11 goals and one assist, there is no doubt that Fryatt is a man of many talents and not just in the lower leagues.
I now point you in the direction of Leicester’s all time leading scorers and the players that have rightfully stamped their mark in the 125 year history of the club. The fourth all time highest scorer for the club is a chap you may have heard of called Gary Lineker. He managed to score 103 goals for the team that he grew up supporting during his time there. City’s third top scorer of all time and delving right back in to the history books is Ernie Hine, who made his debut in 1926. He scored 156 goals for the club during a six year period. The player who has scored the second most goals for The Foxes but has the title for the most goals in football league history, is the great Arthur Rowley. Rowley scored a staggering 265 goals in just 321 appearances, in an unforgettable eight year rein at the club. The honour though of Leicester’s all time top goal scorer goes to Arthur Chandler, beating Rowley to the awards by just eight goals with him finding the back of the net 273 times.
Why do I mention these four great men? Well the reason is simple, and that is because a player in the current Leicester City squad has a chance to have his name mentioned in the same sentence as these legends. The player I am referring to is Matty Fryatt, and if he keeps up is outstanding goals to games ratio from the last two seasons he could potentially be one of the Leicester all-time greats. Also since City departed from the Premiership, with the form Fryatt is in, he also appears to be their best chance of getting back up to where many believe they belong.
Since being relegated from the Premiership in the 2003/04 season, the closest City have come to getting back up is finishing 15th in the Championship. They have since won a league and gained promotion, but unfortunately that was winning League One in order to get back to the Championship.
One of the problems Leicester have faced since the demise of the Club is finding a striker who will score a significant amount of goals every season. Since their relegation to second tier football they have had good ambassadors to the club such as David Connolly and Iain Hume, who did a job up-front. Yet they did not really do enough of a job, as they would only find back of the net a maximum of 14 times in a season. When you compare that to Reading’s promotion campaign in 2005/06, when they’re two strikers scored 41 league goals between them, it does not make good reading.
Since the 2005/06 season Leicester have had a young striker named Matty Fryatt, now I would imagine you have already heard of him. If you have not though this is a little bit about him; he is an English born striker who stands at 5’ 10” and was born in 1986. In his first season at Leicester he scored a disappointing six goals, in his second season he scored a very disappointing four goals and in his third season he scored a more than embarrassing three goals.
Now you may think I have got the wrong Fryatt, but I have not, yet as you will of course remember in the 2008/09 season (all be it in a lower league) he scored an emphatic 32 goals. That was all well and good; however it raised the argument that perhaps he is a League One striker. So this season on his return to the Championship he had a lot to prove, and just 20 matches in to the season he has already silenced his critics. Having already bagged 11 goals and one assist, there is no doubt that Fryatt is a man of many talents and not just in the lower leagues.
I now point you in the direction of Leicester’s all time leading scorers and the players that have rightfully stamped their mark in the 125 year history of the club. The fourth all time highest scorer for the club is a chap you may have heard of called Gary Lineker. He managed to score 103 goals for the team that he grew up supporting during his time there. City’s third top scorer of all time and delving right back in to the history books is Ernie Hine, who made his debut in 1926. He scored 156 goals for the club during a six year period. The player who has scored the second most goals for The Foxes but has the title for the most goals in football league history, is the great Arthur Rowley. Rowley scored a staggering 265 goals in just 321 appearances, in an unforgettable eight year rein at the club. The honour though of Leicester’s all time top goal scorer goes to Arthur Chandler, beating Rowley to the awards by just eight goals with him finding the back of the net 273 times.
Why do I mention these four great men? Well the reason is simple, and that is because a player in the current Leicester City squad has a chance to have his name mentioned in the same sentence as these legends. The player I am referring to is Matty Fryatt, and if he keeps up is outstanding goals to games ratio from the last two seasons he could potentially be one of the Leicester all-time greats. Also since City departed from the Premiership, with the form Fryatt is in, he also appears to be their best chance of getting back up to where many believe they belong.
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