Fox Covers: No 84

The Fox Fanzine No 84 – January 1999

Winning against Forest… as sweet today as it has ever been…

Fox Cover: LCFC Kit Launch Circa 1968

The FOX No 141 – April 2005 –

City had just launched their new JJB strip with a pompous and overblown internet campaign that might have been more appropriate for the Second Coming of Christ.
It had revolutionary new fibres… contrasting key lines… a 3D badge… an expiry date…
We felt a desperate need to get back to basics.

Fox Covers: Bridging the Gap

The FOX No 61 – May 1996…

This cover illustrates the growing concerns that we had that the gap between Premier and Division One would become too big to cross, creating a closed shop.
Looking back I think we got it wrong… a gap did open up, but it was between the very biggest clubs and the rest.  There isn’t that big a difference in quality between teams in the bottom half of the Premier League and the top half of the Championship, and we would have been surprised to see Burnley, Hull, Wigan, Stoke, and Bolton competing up there.
City did jump the gap that year, escaping the ‘Deadendsleigh’, thanks to Steve Claridge’s late winner at Wembley, and lived at that level for six seasons.

Fox Covers: Kalac Can’t Catch…

This is FOX 55 from November 1995…

We weren’t exaggerating were we?
We waited ages for Mark McGhee to finally sign Zeljko ‘Spider’ Kalac due to problems with his work permit. When he finally arrived we could only look on in horror at the worst display of goalkeeping we had ever seen, including parks or schoolboy football.
In his debut at the Hawthorns he looked distinctly shaky, but City were superb that day and managed to beat West Brom 3-2. We put it down to first match nerves. He’d be alright against Bolton in the League Cup tie at Filbert Street. But, oh God, he wasn’t.
Again McGhee’s Men put on an excellent display against Premier League Bolton, but all their good work was undone by the tall juggler in City’s goal who didn’t seem to have mastered the very basics of goalkeeping.
He never touched a ball for City again, though came on as a late, late sub in the 1996 Play-Off Final for a final, fleeting appearance.

That he went on to have a long career with AC Milan and Australia is a source of wonder for Leicester City fans.

(There are a large number of FOX back issues available – e-mail garysilke@sky.com for details).

Fox Covers: Getting Shirty

This is FOX 76 from February 1998…

The Martin O’Neill Era was in full swing. In next to no time City had got promoted to the Premier League, won the League Cup, played in Europe, and beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford. One by one the glory-hunting Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool shirts at school and on the park were being replaced by royal blue Fox Leisure shirts. It seemed as if the overwhelming tide had turned…  This cartoon, by Russ Carvell, was no exaggeration.