Tinker on.

[rinswun]

Would Leicester fans take a guaranteed 6th placed finish and an FA Cup final appearance if offered now or prefer to play out the season?

[George2Loose]

Course they would

[rinswun]

Course they would

4 posts back Tighty said they'd spend and have a run at it if still top 6 come Jan. That's 6 games away, albeit a tough run of games.

Leicester will probably never have a better chance go get into the CL. Why settle for 6th and a FA Cup final appearance when worst case you'll probably finish 8th and possibly make a cup final any other year.

[George2Loose]

I think if u asked Leicester fans 90% would take it.

[arbboy]

Why would u want to be in the black hole of the Europa League finishing 6th?  No team with a tiny squad wants to end up in that league on a Thurs night with no financial upside at all which will cost you 6-10 points next season.  i would want champs league spot or tank and finish outside the top 6.  Finishing 5th and 6th is going to be a black hole in the next 5 years as teams realise there is no advantage being in the Europa league only fatigue and costs.  The huge increase in domestic TV money makes the playing level more level than ever and being in this black hole will really start to hurt teams with ambitions to reach the top 4 long term.   Once you are stuck in this hole you might never get out.

[TightEnd]

notwithstanding the downsides of the europa league next season, we'd take 6th and the cup final right now

i know there are multiple transfer targets identified for January, pursuit of which really depends where we are mid-January

[Longines]

Interesting, asked my LCFC supporting son what he would do expecting him to say let it ride. He was 100% take 6th and the cup.

Have managed to get him tickets to see them play - at Spurs in Jan via the Spurs website. Didn't blink an eye at the LE postcode, was quite surprised.

[Ironside]

thought this was funny

[Karabiner]

Was that a  ;bump;or just  ?

[Ironside]

just something i thought was funny and thought would fit in on the thread about the tinker man

sorry if i keep offending you

[Karabiner]

just something i thought was funny and thought would fit in on the thread about the tinker man

sorry if i keep offending you

I'm not offended, why would I be?

That joke was made when he became manager many(4/5) months ago.

It was funny then..

[TightEnd]

 Leicester are serious Premier League title contenders, according to Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal.

The Foxes, who finished 14th last season, are top of the table, one point ahead of second-place United.

They meet on Saturday (17:30 GMT) and when asked if Claudio Ranieri's team could win the league, Van Gaal said: "It is possible, I think."

Van Gaal called Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, the league's 13-goal top scorer, a "nasty" player to face.

Vardy marked his first Premier League start by making four goals and scoring the other as the Foxes beat United 5-3 in September 2014.

The England international, 28, has equalled former United forward Ruud van Nistelrooy's record of scoring in 10 successive Premier League games, and could break it on Saturday.

"He was already a very nasty player for us last year," Van Gaal said of Vardy.

"He scores, he provoked a penalty, now scoring 10 goals in a row, he is a great player. I only know Dennis Bergkamp as a player who did the same with Ajax. It's not so easy to do that."

--

 Foxes boss Ranieri called Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger "a joker" for suggesting that Leicester were title contenders, but Van Gaal thinks they can sustain their form.

"Normally these kind of clubs can compete for long time, then at the end it becomes more difficult," he said, before Saturday's game at the King Power Stadium.

"But in England because of the quality of the teams, because every team has the money to buy players - and they have bought players - the difference in the Premier League between the clubs is not so high."

[TightEnd]

very good balanced article

http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-united-blog/68/post/2727313/leicester-city-top-premier-league-table-can-they-stay-there

[Chompy]

Impressive numbers. Nothing wrong with being second

[tikay]

Henry Winter has left The Telegraph & joined The Times, & has written a 2 page piece on James Vardy today.

Alongside it, in a sidebar, he looks at where, over the entire history of the EPL, the leaders after 13 games have finished.

1st - 10 times

2nd - 6 times

3rd - 3 times

4th - 2 times

5th - 2 times

6th - 2 times (Newcastle & Aston Villa).