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Preview Percy was full of praise for Arsenal’s MotM Anthony Taylor this weekend. Did we say “praise”? I think we meant something else...

Next up its another midweek jaunt away from London up to the East Midlands where we will be hosted by Leicester City. The last train to London leaves at 22:52 so even with the longish walk from ground to station, that should be doable if you’re not staying overnight.




So Leicester, then. Not the greatest of starts to the season for them really. It took them seven games to pick up their first victory of the season following three draws (1-1 at home to both Spurs and Everton and 2-2 at Palace) and three defeats (2-1 away at Fulham and at home to Villa and 4-2 at Arsenal).

The first win came at home to Bournemouth who they defeated 1-0. This was followed swiftly by the statutory three points at St Mary's where they prevailed 3-2 against Southampton. However, that was about as good as it got and they’ve lost four of their last five, their sole point coming from a 1-1 draw against Ipswich in amongst defeats to Forest (3-1 at home) Man Utd (3-0 away) Chelsea (2-1 at home) and away at Brentford last weekend where they went down 4-1.

The Chelsea defeat proved to be the final straw for the Thai owners who dispensed with the services of Steve Cooper shortly after. In truth, the hiring of Cooper seemed an odd choice for them at the time. Having been promoted under the stewardship of Maresca who promptly upped sticks in the direction of Chelsea, one might have thought that a manager of similar stature might have been the order of the day for the Foxes.

For all I know Cooper might be a lovely guy, but he hardly seemed to be the most inspiring of choices. One was reminded of all those clubs that kept Mick McCarthy and Steve Bruce in jobs for so many years.

It would appear that few tears were shed by the playing staff at Cooper’s departure. Straight after the Chelsea match they disappeared off to Copenhagen for their Christmas do, with video emerging of a banner referencing how much Maresca was missed being flaunted by the players. At this point it should be remembered that Cooper was still manager, the axe not falling for another 24 hours.

So enter Ruud Van Nistelrooy, fresh from a relatively successful spell at the caretaker helm of Manchester United. The Dutchman is still a bit of a rookie as a manager. Prior to his spell backing up Ten Hag over in Salford, Van Nistelrooy spent a season in charge at PSV who he guided to 2nd place in the Eredivisie before leaving due to a “lack of support” from the club.

Although the signing had been widely touted all week, the official announcement didn’t appear until Friday evening meaning first XI coach Ben Dawson was in charge at Brentford. This match will therefore be Van Nistelrooy’s first match in charge.

Daisy was dismayed to learn that Van Nistelrooy will inherit a squad containing nine new arrivals in the summer, though the first of these, Abdul Fataw, was simply the activation of a promotion-based obligation to make permanent a loan deal with Sporting Lisbon. He’s out for the season with an ACL injury. So, the first real arrival came in the form of Bobby Decordova-Reid who arrived on a free from Fulham.




Don’t ask me why, but I was surprised to discover that the player is in fact 31 years-old. I have no idea what age I thought he was, but it wasn’t THAT old.

They signed youngster Michael Golding for £5m from Chelsea. Since ha hasn’t troubled the selectors any we shall move on to the arrival of Caleb Okoli from Atalanta. I say Atalanta, he spent most of his time in Italy on loan bumping around Series B&C. They paid out £13m for the Italy Under 21 international.

A further £20m was spent on Oliver Skipp who had the misfortune to start out at Tottenham, for whom he was a regular a few years back before a season-ending injury set him back. Finding first XI opportunities limited at the toilet bowl the defensive midfielder pitched up in the East Midlands bringing over 20 England Under 21 caps with him, including one as a sub in the side that won the UEFA Under 21 Euros a few years back.

£5m was enough to secure striker Jordan “brother of Andre” Ayew from Palace. The 33 year-old veteran has been capped over 100 times by Ghana, though he has never really escaped journeyman status in his domestic career. Just the sort of player that would score against us then.

They spent a further £20m on attacking midfielder Bilal El Khanouss from Belgians Genk. El Khanouss was part of the Moroccan squad that emerged victorious from the last Under 23 African Cuppasoup having hosted the event last year.

On the loan front, midfield options were augmented by the arrival of Facundo Buonanotte on a season-long deal from Brighton. The 19-year-old, who has two full caps for the Argentinian national side, was on target in the weekend’s defeat at Brentford.

Odsonne Edouard was the second loan signing. He’s another in for the season, this time from Palace for whom he scored 18 in 95 league games. If ever you wanted a statistical metric for the difference between English and Scottish football, a swift compare and contrast of his respective records for Palace and for Celtic will do the trick. He played one fewer game in the league for Celtic but managed 57 goals in that time.

And on we move to the part we like to call “The Wild And Wacky World Of Association Football”. Well Cootegate continues to rumble on, the story even reaching out as far as our opponents this weekend.




Jamie Vardy has been reported to the authorities for Making a “derogatory” remark about Coote to referee Andy Madley, who it transpires is a friend of Coote. Details have been sent to the FA to consider. Meanwhile the rest of the world is wondering exactly what could be said about someone accused of so many misdemeanours that could possibly be considered derogatory.

Meanwhile as if to reinforce the idea that the House of Lords is increasingly being populated by individuals promoted to that chamber not despite incompetence but because of it, we have Baron Bassam of Brighton proposing an amendment to the Football Regulation Bill whereby the Government could seize control of clubs who broke the rules.

Presumably his Lordship is worried that clubs may be muscling in on his Government’s monopoly of stealing money out of the pockets of pensioners. By the way, if you are of a certain age missing your winter fuel payment, you may recall that Bassam was caught out a while back claiming a quarter of a million quid’s worth of expenses for a second home he hasn’t got.

And so to us. It is alleged that David Coote partook in cocaine. I wonder if they drug test referees post-match because Anthony Taylor’s results from Saturday would have been interesting, I’m sure. If Arsenal supporters think they are in with a chance of the title they will need to ensure that Taylor referees every game for them.

He made deliberately incorrect decision after deliberately incorrect decision, time after time, to the extent that it resembled one of those hilariously bent Italian matches of the past where you could tell from the first minute which side had paid the going rate.

He started early, giving a goal kick for an obvious corner. He then colluded with every dive, timewasting manoeuvre and con artist manoeuvre employed by the visitors. Arsenal seem to have one basic tactic, which is to overload the far post at corners. And when they don’t win corners, well no worries Taylor can always be relied on to award them irrespective of who played the ball last.

Having done that he ignored a clear foul on Lucas Paqueta for the first. Southampton will be rubbing their chin at the ignored offside for the second and the dive from Bukayo Saka for the penalty was simply embarrassing.

The fourth started with a hand ball. The two goals we got must have broken Taylor’s heart, but the joke penalty where Fabianski actually missed the player with his punch only to see him clutching his face as if mortally wounded merely cemented Taylor’s MotM award from the visiting support.




Fabianski getting a yellow was the icing on the cake. Though his performance looked as bent as hell, Taylor probably destroyed this game for no more than his disgustingly high referee’s salary, making sure that any potential break was halted either by deliberately denying advantage, or allowing Arsenal players to feign injury to prevent quick restarts.

Now standards of refereeing in this country are already acknowledged the world over as poor. This is due to general incompetence and a failure by PGMOL to do anything to raise standards, the institutional arrogance that comes with having a cushy number that nobody can challenge. However, this was something different.

This wasn’t stuff missed by an official. These were incorrect decisions deliberately given by someone who clearly had some sort of agenda – something for which he has previous a-plenty. It’s the Mike Dean thing – referee wants to be the main focal point of the event and is not going to let little things like the laws of the game get in the way.

Earlier this season Taylor got “support” from PGMOL for getting online abuse for a dire performance. Now I’m not condoning such things, but I do have a suggestion that clearly hasn’t occurred to Taylor which is this. Why not skip the bit when you decide which team you are going to help before the game and apply the laws in an honest and even-handed way?

If you don’t cheat the paying public they won’t give you stick. Radical, I know. In the meantime, maybe the good Baron Bassam might like to look at proposing something sensible for the proposed Regulator to do for once. Like setting up some form of proper oversight of refereeing, one preferably that does not involve PGMOL or anyone else willing to cover for Taylor and his ilk.

So to the prediction. Well bad as we were, ours was only the second worst performance on the pitch on Saturday. Leicester will be a different kettle of fish to Arsenal, particularly with an honest referee in charge. There’s a full squad to choose from bar Fullkrug of course, with Kudus available once more having served twice the length of ban he would have done had he actually hit anyone.

On balance I think our defeat at the weekend should have had less of a psychological effect on us than theirs did on them. So, despite the new manager being in the dugout for the first time, the £2 I was going to send to Baron Bassam – heating an imaginary second home must be so difficult – will instead be going on a wager with Winstone the Turf accountant on an away win. Make that 2-1 to us please.

Enjoy the game!




When last we met at Not The Filbert Street: Lost 2-1 (Premier League May 2023)

Last game of the season, they needed a win to have a chance of staying up and even then their fate rested in the hands of Everton, for whom a win against Bournemouth would keep them up. We on the other hand were a couple of weeks away from the Thursday Night Conference League final in Prague. And it showed. A goal in each half, one from from Newcastle-bound Barnes, the other from still at Leicester Sideshow Bob Faes gave the home side a 2-0 lead. Pablo Fornals’ toepoke in off the post was a late consolation and the Foxes’ efforts were all to no avail as Everton’s 1-0 win opened the trapdoor.

Danger Man: Jamie Vardy

Still makes a nuisance of himself – probably needs a win bonus or two to pay off the missus’ legal fees.

Referee: Josh Smith

A Select Group 2 official being given games in the top-flight as part of his development. Has been in the middle for 14 Premier League matches, none of which have involved us. Let’s hope that he doesn’t model himself on the likes of Taylor.

Percy and Daisy’s Leicester Fact Of The Week Type Thing

The River Soar which flows through the city was once so polluted it was pink.

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