Last season wasn’t the season for Leicester City. THIS one is.

The hardest part after winning a championship is retaining it. I was going to say that the effort to win a title is a tough one, but in the case of Leicester City it wasn’t. They had one of those seasons where everything went just right. They should receive all the plaudits because I doubt if we’ll ever see this sort of thing again. At least any time soon.

The other teams have took notice. Some of them have paid stupid, silly money for a single player just with the aim of doing what Leicester did – and with the fraction of the cost that these other clubs have spent.

Leicester themselves have so far successfully managed to retain most of their squad. As well as defending their title, they’ve got Champions League football coming up. A chance to play and show yourself on the biggest (club football) stage of them all.

Before this next campaign begins I want to commemorate their achievements, both with their recent past and what is ahead. We do this commemoration with music of course and go back to 1974. In this year they had young Peter Shilton between the stick, they had Frank Worthington up front. But more importantly they had Graham Cross in defence.

Graham Cross - Leicester

You don’t know Crossy ? (As I’m sure he was called) He was a club legend. And not just with the football team. Graham Cross was an all rounder and played cricket at the same time.

… (Cross) spent most of his career playing for Leicester City originally as an inside forward, then later as a centre-half and occasionally a right half. At Leicester he holds the record for the most appearances for the club with 599 between 1961 and 1975…

… He also represented Leicestershire as a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler between 1961 and 1977. In 83 first-class matches, he scored 2,079 runs (average 18.39), highest score 78 with eight fifties and 61 catches. He took 92 wickets (average 29.95), best bowling 4/28. In 51 ListA matches, he scored 701 runs (average 20.61), highest score 57* with three fifties and 17 catches. He took 63 wickets (average 20.23), best bowling 4/11.

In fact Leicester City celebrated his presence by recording a single about “The Tank” (his actual nickname)

» Leicester City FC – The Tank

The other track on the single is one of the shortest ever recorded. It comes in at 1 minute and 34 seconds.
You might have heard this one, it is more well known because of the Bend It! CD collection. This was a series of compilation album which gathered together many football songs and has been one of the major sources of material for this website.

John Peel had these CDs too and played the odd track on his programme. He played the other track from the above single in 1989:

» 19th December 1989 – John Peel plays Leicester City FC – This Is The Season

Leicester City FC – This Is The Season For Us

Thank you to Steve W.

Closing out this post with a bit about a local musician Jersey Budd who released a cover version of the Leicester City anthem “When You’re Smiling” a few years back. He recorded it with the 2009/10 season Leicester City squad.   Found this bit of info via Wikipedia:

“In 2010 he released Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling” with Leicester City F.C., in celebration of the club’s success in reaching the Championship Play Offs and he sang the song on the pitch before the first leg against Cardiff City at the Walkers Stadium.

Jersey Budd – When You’re Smiling:

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