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Blue Army column by Steve Pumfrey: City fans will need patience
By LCFC | August 30, 2010
As a few cries of "Sousa Out" rang out around the Walkers Stadium on Saturday, it confirmed that the clamour by supporters for instant gratification grows more intense with each passing season.
I suspect the vast majority of fans see little point in a change of manager so soon into his tenure.
Many of the supporters now assessing the story under Sousa will do so with a measured restraint while still harbouring worries about the sharp decline in the team's playing fortunes.
Some fans went as far as to offer up comparisons between the current team and the Ian Holloway side relegated to League One for the first time back in May 2008.
Holloway's team missed chances and then paid the price with dropped points.
That is how it has been in both home games so far this season against Middlesbrough and Reading.
The side under Holloway also had its fair share of loan players – remember the Hungarians – but there was not one of them who was able to have a significant-enough impact to lift the club out of the doldrums.
At the moment, it is the Sousa signings such as Joao Moreno and Michael Lamey who are struggling to make any headway while more recognised players are left on the bench.
Matty Fryatt, for example, has experienced that feeling with both Holloway and Sousa.
There is another strand of thought being explored by some fans that, perhaps, City over-achieved last season, a team boosted by the likes of Jay Spearing and Martyn Waghorn who then returned to their parent clubs.
Dany N'Guessan and Steve Howard both had lengthy spells out of the team because of their impact. Now both of them are regular starters.
The defeat on Saturday also confirmed that Sousa may have left his lucky charms on his bedside table in Portugal.
For the second game running at the Walkers, Andy King looked to have a perfectly good goal disallowed and, although the first half ended with boos for the team, the abuse at the end of the Championship contest looked to be targeting referee Colin Webster.
The discontent, whoever it was aimed at, as well as an attendance below 20,000, despite reduced prices for guests of season-ticket holders, will have caused consternation among the new hierarchy at the Walkers Stadium, including Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn, who made an appearance on the pitch before the kick-off.
Standing alongside Sousa, the Thai businessman, just 25, looked a little overawed and was barely audible as he talked of Leicester being a nice place and told the fans that he hoped the team would win.
That looked improbable at half-time as Moreno twice won possession only to gave it away on each occasion to allow Jimmy Kebe to set up Gylfi Sigurdsson for the Reading opener.
That left City still looking for their first league goal at the Walkers this season, and band members of Kasabian must have been wondering if they were ever going to get any more royalties for their song, Fire, being used as the celebration music.
A bit more dosh will drop into the Kasabian coffers after the outstanding Lloyd Dyer's wonderful equaliser. City were much better after the break although they looked vulnerable in defence and a Reading goal through Matt Mills to regain the initiative was a bit of a gift.
City now go into an international break and fans will be fretting for a while now over whether it can only get better – or might even get a lot worse.
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