Leicester lions 2023 (PREMIERSHIP)

[GeneralMelchett]

1 hour ago, DiveBomb said:

What a shame to end the season this way. Everything seemed to start well for us. A few wake up calls at the start but we found our stride and looked formidable. Beating teams home and away looking like we could actually finish top. Surprisingly for lions fan considering our history in the top flight. I was always against the move up but thought I should embrace it before making a strong opinion. You'll find out what I now think down below. 

Then the first major disappointment.  Nick Morris. There's only one person to blame and that's naughty Nick himself. Can't blame the club or management for that though.

 

Second one has to be replacing Morris with batch. Stewart said himself it was a knee jerk reaction. A certain member of leicester speedway and regular poster seems to still be standing by the move stating there was no one else out there. Well there was and it was another clanger in Craig Cook. Better than batch il give em that but surely the club knew he his head was in the wrong place.

Then there's Richie Worrall replacing bomber. Bomber wasn't doing a lot wrong in at the time. Remember this was a winning team. I wasn't against this move at first but we soon realised the team balance was completely shafted along with any sort of team bonding. Worrall is great at leicester but bomber was doing enough to justify staying. 

I forgot to mention dropping Dan Thompson for Kemp. That didn't help matters either looking back. 

So looking at this season what I can say is I feel let down. I've stated this many times before. You don't fix what ain't broken! Saturday nights, winning, good crowds along with a chance at silverware was a recipe for success. I generally don't see the pull of the prem. Seriously the riders are all the same but in different kevlars. It's just a different league with only a handful of top riders. The only riders I've gone wow at this year are fricke and Emil. So someone please tell me......why did we move up? Honestly I can't think of anything that justified the move. 

I'm not obsessed with top riders at the club. I just want a team that's stable and gives it there all. You can see why Wolves are so loyal to there riders. They are unbeaten at Monmore and you can get a connection to certain riders .

OK should probably end this rant. Plus things could be worse. I'm hopeful leicester will be OK next year. I real feel for wolves fans along with the panthers.  So I will probably head to bed now thinking of what could have been rather than where did it all go wrong? 

 

 

 

From the outside it seems weird that a team that went and won (comfortably) in June at Owlerton didn't make it into the playoffs, comiserations lets hope there is a next year so that we can all say - well there is always next year!

[40-38]

2 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

From the outside it seems weird that a team that went and won (comfortably) in June at Owlerton didn't make it into the playoffs, comiserations lets hope there is a next year so that we can all say - well there is always next year!

The wheels came off the wagon; Morris, some iffy signings, club for sale, loss of form and Worrall and we got to a Panthers side on the up. It only worked when everybody chipped in. That stopped a while back and the cracks got wider. 

[IainB]

12 hours ago, DiveBomb said:

What a shame to end the season this way. Everything seemed to start well for us. A few wake up calls at the start but we found our stride and looked formidable. Beating teams home and away looking like we could actually finish top. Surprisingly for lions fan considering our history in the top flight. I was always against the move up but thought I should embrace it before making a strong opinion. You'll find out what I now think down below. 

Then the first major disappointment.  Nick Morris. There's only one person to blame and that's naughty Nick himself. Can't blame the club or management for that though.

 

Second one has to be replacing Morris with batch. Stewart said himself it was a knee jerk reaction. A certain member of leicester speedway and regular poster seems to still be standing by the move stating there was no one else out there. Well there was and it was another clanger in Craig Cook. Better than batch il give em that but surely the club knew he his head was in the wrong place.

Then there's Richie Worrall replacing bomber. Bomber wasn't doing a lot wrong in at the time. Remember this was a winning team. I wasn't against this move at first but we soon realised the team balance was completely shafted along with any sort of team bonding. Worrall is great at leicester but bomber was doing enough to justify staying. 

I forgot to mention dropping Dan Thompson for Kemp. That didn't help matters either looking back. 

So looking at this season what I can say is I feel let down. I've stated this many times before. You don't fix what ain't broken! Saturday nights, winning, good crowds along with a chance at silverware was a recipe for success. I generally don't see the pull of the prem. Seriously the riders are all the same but in different kevlars. It's just a different league with only a handful of top riders. The only riders I've gone wow at this year are fricke and Emil. So someone please tell me......why did we move up? Honestly I can't think of anything that justified the move. 

I'm not obsessed with top riders at the club. I just want a team that's stable and gives it there all. You can see why Wolves are so loyal to there riders. They are unbeaten at Monmore and you can get a connection to certain riders .

OK should probably end this rant. Plus things could be worse. I'm hopeful leicester will be OK next year. I real feel for wolves fans along with the panthers.  So I will probably head to bed now thinking of what could have been rather than where did it all go wrong? 

Can't disagree with much of what you have said there. Leicester's implosion was triggered by the Nick Morris incident but it's how you react to those situations that counts, maybe the Batch signing was a bit knee jerk but who knew we were then going to get the Craig Cook we got... we were still in contention for a pay off spot even with Cook in the team but when the final round of team changes came we were left with the scraps from Sheffield and that for me was more telling than what went on with Batch & Cook... other teams were snapping up Woffinden's, Laguta's, Holder's & Lambert's and we went for Lewis Kerr... it was never going to be enough. Whether that was down to the Bates or Dickson's lack of experience in the big league I don't know.

As for the Kemp for Thompson, I kind of agree with you and kind of don't. Undoubtedly I think Kemp was an improvement to the team but I do not think we should have binned Dan off, for me that's more of a problem with the rules that allows that to happen, Dan wasn't the only RS to be dicked about during the season.

Stewart Dickson has said we've had a good season, I beg to differ, it started off well, very well, too well? But since the Nick Morris drugs bust it's been nothing short of a disaster with just 2 wins, both coming against a comedy KL team and the 2 draws at Wolves

Part of the reason for moving up was the the locality of the other tracks in the league, so with the demise of Wolves & Peterborough you have to wonder whether a drop back down next year will be in the offing, if indeed there are multiple leagues.

Personally I have enjoyed watching the higher quality of rider and not the ones that just swap race suits

Edited September 8, 2023 by iainb

[Teromaafan]

I've generally been quite supportive of Dickson because he is a winner (except this season!) and although his team changes have been ruthless, it is his job to deliver a winning team and managers have to make decisions. Much has been made of the Morris situation and blamed for the team's slide. The fact is he was unavailable from that point on and that could just as well have been due to an injury. So regardless of the reason, an immediate replacement was required. Although it didn't work out with Batchelor, I would not be critical of the one in one out swap made at the time. It was the next team change where I think Dickson has to hold his hand up. Double changes (usually dictated by team points limit) are risky and they must not weaken the overall 1 to 7 team strength. Worrall is no better than Harris and Cook was a massive gamble (he has never had a sniff of an opportunity elsewhere). As other posters have highlighted, other teams have brought in GP (or that standard) riders when making changes. Okay so that might mean having to accommodate a 3 pointer at reserve, but the team has clearly lacked top end support for Fricke. That said, for all we know, it is possible that Dickson tried to go down that route but the owners couldn't/wouldn't finance it.

[Big Al]

If we take it as being true, that attempts were made to sign Robert Lambert and then Artem Laguta, at least the management/owners were trying to rectify the downward slide. They couldn't influence what those riders decided to do by way of other options. Even the hugely persuasive Martin Rogers came within a hairsbreadth of signing Peter Collins in 1982 only to be thwarted when PC had an eleventh-hour change of mind.

So in the end, more was needed from Richard Lawson and Richie Worrall than they were able to deliver, and I'm fairly sure that both were limited by injuries which impacted on their contributions. Has Nick Morris ever apologised?

 

[justathought]

13 hours ago, foreverblue said:

Dickson clearly hasnt a clue. 

I think he probably has more than you do. 

[Wee Eck]

5 minutes ago, justathought said:

I think he probably has more than you do. 

Will a win at Edinburgh tonight take his “other” team into the CL play offs?

[Pinny]

I know Dickson won the league with Glasgow in about 2011 but apart from that, what else has he actually won? Genuine question by the way.

[Byker Biker]

52 minutes ago, Teromaafan said:

I've generally been quite supportive of Dickson because he is a winner (except this season!) and although his team changes have been ruthless, it is his job to deliver a winning team and managers have to make decisions. Much has been made of the Morris situation and blamed for the team's slide. The fact is he was unavailable from that point on and that could just as well have been due to an injury. So regardless of the reason, an immediate replacement was required. Although it didn't work out with Batchelor, I would not be critical of the one in one out swap made at the time. It was the next team change where I think Dickson has to hold his hand up. Double changes (usually dictated by team points limit) are risky and they must not weaken the overall 1 to 7 team strength. Worrall is no better than Harris and Cook was a massive gamble (he has never had a sniff of an opportunity elsewhere). As other posters have highlighted, other teams have brought in GP (or that standard) riders when making changes. Okay so that might mean having to accommodate a 3 pointer at reserve, but the team has clearly lacked top end support for Fricke. That said, for all we know, it is possible that Dickson tried to go down that route but the owners couldn't/wouldn't finance it.

Which is why Team Managers are not always responsible for winning and losing, slightly different when the club owner is the Team Manager. If the owner sets the rules and picks the team then the manager can only do his or her best on race night.

[Wolfie456]

18 minutes ago, Wee Eck said:

Will a win at Edinburgh tonight take his “other” team into the CL play offs?

Not unless they win by about 18pts or so.

[JoeW436]

I imagine a lot of work goes into signing a rider from the continent but Panthers managed to find Tarasenko and Wojdylo who both transformed our season whilst Leicester went for Craig Cook who is hit and miss and Troy Batchelor who is most definitely miss and surely the management knew that as well. Lazy recruitment?

[IainB]

29 minutes ago, Pinny said:

I know Dickson won the league with Glasgow in about 2011 but apart from that, what else has he actually won? Genuine question by the way.

2019 CL 

[False dawn]

8 minutes ago, JoeW436 said:

I imagine a lot of work goes into signing a rider from the continent but Panthers managed to find Tarasenko and Wojdylo who both transformed our season whilst Leicester went for Craig Cook who is hit and miss and Troy Batchelor who is most definitely miss and surely the management knew that as well. Lazy recruitment?

That was bad enough but to "fix" that problem by making changes that meant Bomber left the club, went down like a lead balloon. I'm not saying that Leicester would have made the playoffs had Bomber been retained. But they would have gone down fighting unlike that distrastrous performance last night. I know Bomber only got 3 last night and that wouldn't have helped Leicester had he been riding for them. But he brings more than his on track points. 

Overall, my feeling from talking to fans, was that the team had changed so much, it was hard to relate to in any meaningful way. It came down to just numbers, which doesn't excite anyone. 

[Ben91]

Rocked the boat in the name of winning and didn’t even make the play-offs. Lol. 

[IainB]

52 minutes ago, JoeW436 said:

I imagine a lot of work goes into signing a rider from the continent but Panthers managed to find Tarasenko and Wojdylo who both transformed our season whilst Leicester went for Craig Cook who is hit and miss and Troy Batchelor who is most definitely miss and surely the management knew that as well. Lazy recruitment?

Didn't Tarasenko or Woj sign on a visa from Plymouth or something crazy like that. It almost sounds like clubs have a number of visa's allocates to them and they're swapping them about between themselves, maybe the sport was out of visa's? Something fishy was going on

[Wee Eck]

21 minutes ago, iainb said:

Didn't Tarasenko or Woj sign on a visa from Plymouth or something crazy like that. It almost sounds like clubs have a number of visa's allocates to them and they're swapping them about between themselves, maybe the sport was out of visa's? Something fishy was going on

Tarasenko was Belle Vue. Wojdylo’s “visa” was more complicated…..allegedly

Edited September 8, 2023 by Wee Eck

[Wee Eck]

1 hour ago, Wolfie456 said:

Not unless they win by about 18pts or so.

Ah yes. I hadn’t spotted that Edinburgh won easily at Birmingham. So the Brummies need to win by at 18 for a run off for the bonus. More than 18 to be secure. Unless Plymouth beat Edinburgh as well!

[IainB]

6 minutes ago, Wee Eck said:

Tarasenko was Belle Vue. Wojdylo’s “visa” was more complicated…..allegedly

Somebody was defo Plymouth... may have been Laguta... like I say, I smell a rat

[40-38]

3 minutes ago, iainb said:

Somebody was defo Plymouth... may have been Laguta... like I say, I smell a rat

I didn't realise they were using other club's visas? Surely that's not allowed is it??

[IainB]

Just now, 40-38 said:

I didn't realise they were using other club's visas? Surely that's not allowed is it??

It certainly sounds very dodgy doesn't it, typical Speedway. I don't suppose there's anything to stop a club signing a rider and then "loaning" him out to another club for a nominal £1 fee