The true secret of Leicester City's success / doping thread merged

[DiscoSteve]

Lets be honest, this just confirms football is a thoroughly broken sport across the globe but particularly in England, examples being:

- money/business/TV has taken it over
- performance enhancing drugs lurking
- corrupt organisations in FIFA and UEFA
- the unique 100% non-existence of openly gay athletes
- the near 100% non-existance of UK asian footballers at the top level (ask yourself how well Leicester's team mix matches the town's racial mix?)
- away fans treated like criminals everywhere
- home fans treated not much better
- draconian restrictions on alcohol 'in sight of the pitch' or on a 'football coach'
- ticket prices gone berzerk

 

[LHarper]

Interesting to say the least although being cynical I am sure all the claims could be refuted http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-doping-of-leicester-city-players.html

This section from their article in February reads like the person writing it hasn't got a fucking clue what they are talking about.

It also needs to be explained how Leicester City, whose players unusually are given two full days off every week (more than any other team), are able to have three players (one of whom is 29 years old) in the top four fastest sprints in the EPL this season.
Leicester City train less but run fastest!
How?
Moreover, Leicester City were the least fit Premier League side last season prior to this conspiracy being established.
How have they moved from the least fit to the fastest?

Complete and utter bollocks.

 

[Tom_mcfc]

But it was enough to see them 7 points clear coming up the straight

I'm not knocking them, this thread says the key to their success and I summed it up perfectly. Whoever wins it will ultimately deserve it but it will be won on the lowest points tally and if even one of the top teams performed this season it would be a different story. Fair play to them for the consistency but Mahrez aside they are fucking horrible to watch

 

[sk3ptical]

something smells fishy i smell a conspiracy

 

[kevin horlocks wand]

I believed the fairy tale now I am starting to wonder myself. There are a few good players but to go from utter shite to world beaters.....

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

We really need to keep going and aim to finish second just in case ...

Wouldn't the media love that? Ha,ha,ha.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Many thought the same about Armstrong; that he was a lone wolf, yet it later transpired that virtually the whole of the US Postal team were “in”. And this was replicated right throughout the peloton as whole teams were "super-charged". Very few professionals opted out (it meant getting left behind from the gun, which meant no wins and no wages). And those that did ever speak out were, to use the cycling vernacular, accused of “spitting in the soup” and were essentialy quietened with little public outcry. The law of omerta was massive; nobody spoke out.

EPO was and still is to a smaller degree, the curse of competitive cycling. When micro-dosed, it’s very, very difficult to detect. Whilst it wouldn’t give a player bionic powers, super speed, what it does do, is allow a sportsman to train. And train. And train. With very little impact, ie normally a player would need to ally their training with the usual sleep/rest. EPO allows the human body to become almost impervious to the fatigue normally associated with top-class sport. It’s why it became so popular in cycling, one of, if not the ultimate endurance sport, where fatigue is a constant companion, especially in the 3 week grand tours (the pinnacle of the sport).

Would it surprise me to see it being used in top-flight football? Absolutely not. I’d be more surprised if it weren’t being used. It ticks a lot of boxes:

Easy to get hold of
Hard to detect
Positive impact on performance without raising too many eyebrows (a la Ben Johnson 100m run)
Negligible/no long term effects

Don’t think it’s a hard thing to arrange GDM. It isn’t. And wasn’t for the hundreds of cyclists who systematically used it. Daily. For years. I’ll hazard this is the opening salvo in a debate that will run and run (pardon the pun).

I've (hopefully) already indicated that my mind is far from made up on this - I'm certainly open to persuasion, and you make some powerful points.

I've already said I accept it exists in football and in all probability to a fairly widespread extent, but I still have difficulty with a whole squad, staff and management being in on it, for practical reasons. Football is not analogous to touring cycling where those involved in teams are relatively cocooned from the outside world. Football is notoriously porous, gossip wise, and I struggle to believe an entire squad are in on such a conspiracy, including those who aren't partaking, without something more substantial coming to the fore by now, not necessarily from the players themselves but from the retinue of wags, ancillary staff and general hangers-on that go hand in hand with football squads, all of whom would have the opportunity to extort significant sums, given what is at stake. No-one has put their head above the parapet - yet - at least as far as we know! Much like the moon landings, too many people involved to make a wholesale conspiracy plausible imo, on the balance of probabilities.

That doesn't mean I would discount significant numbers in any squad being involved and I guess that means we're debating about the form, rather than the substance of the problem in the sport.

I fully accept that's it's pretty endemic for the reasons you set out.

 

[VOOMER]

The dippers after the cup final?

 

[ccr]

Lets be honest, this just confirms football is a thoroughly broken sport across the globe but particularly in England, examples being:

- money/business/TV has taken it over
- performance enhancing drugs lurking
- corrupt organisations in FIFA and UEFA
- the unique 100% non-existence of openly gay athletes
- the near 100% non-existance of UK asian footballers at the top level (ask yourself how well Leicester's team mix matches the town's racial mix?)
- away fans treated like criminals everywhere
- home fans treated not much better
- draconian restrictions on alcohol 'in sight of the pitch' or on a 'football coach'
- ticket prices gone berzerk

No-smoking.

 

[Mancity1980]

We really need to keep going and aim to finish second just in case ...

Wouldn't the media love that? Ha,ha,ha.

Personally, if we win the title by default because the winners are exposed as drug cheats I would not be doing much celebrating. I don't remember Carl Lewis being too happy at the '88 Olympics (google if you are too young to remember/know).