Yuki Abe at Leicester City Official Thread [R]

Firstly let me reintroduce myself:

My name is Paul, I am a Leicester City fan, based in Leeds UK.

I am interested in sharing news, personal reports, and anything Leicester City with you.

Yuki Abe has joined Leicester City, managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, and owned by a Thai consortium, this season for an undisclosed sum.

Many LCFC fans had not heard of him before, and saw this as a marketing ploy into the Asian football market. They did not know what to expect and thought it would take a very long time for him to get used to a very physical footballing league, and get to grips with the language barrier. This poses a great obstacle as a player who plays DM or CM generally.

I followed Japan and was very impressed by the team's overall performance in the World Cup, and knew when we were linked with Yuki Abe that this wasn't a marketing signing and was pleased.

Yuki has performed well, has got to grips with the type of football in the CCC and has got Man of the Match awards twice now. Most fans have seen a great improvement as he settles in and communication gets better.

I think there is a lot of worry, I think in Japan, that Abe has made a mistake by joining Leicester City in the CCC, and not a team in the top leagues of Europe, including the English Premiership.

But the quality of the CCC is actually very good, and exceeds some country's premier leagues! I am not biased in this view, and try to be objective about all things football.

Under SGE, I expect Abe to improve further and become a Leicester legend, we have money to spend and though we are lower in the league we are going through transition and will soon climb the table and be very competitive indeed. We will attract very good players through Sven's contacts and will become a team to be feared.

I hope you follow Leicester's results and news. I will update you with any reports I can from an unbiased fan point of view on this thread, and answer any questions I can.

You can find more info, links, and articles on my blog here:

http://sphericalfox.wordpress.com

I look forward to learning more about Abe from you, and if you can share any songs, chants, nicknames, or anything else that might make him feel more at home at LCFC that would be great!

Thank you for reading,

Paul

 

Re: Yuki Abe thread

We have a game on Wednesday, but will not know if Abe will play. This is due to the fact that we play our local rivals Derby County the Saturday following this.

Sven may want to rest him for the game on Saturday, but I will report any news, and of course how he gets on.

This link has been doing the rounds amongst fans. Good to see he has a sense of humour. The joke on the contestant is quite funny.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGFgHWu0PNs"]YouTube - 2010-07-24 Makoto Hasebe and Yuki Abe in ANS[/ame]

 

Re: Yuki Abe thread

Thank you all for your responses!

I have shared these with my fellow foxes on my blog and other forums! I do hope we can sing something in Japanese that would be special. I can hope!

If you remember any more, or have any more info that would be great. Does Yuki Abe have family? Kids? Are they back in Japan or moved with him in England? Anybody know?

 

Hi Mushu21,

There is every chance that we could reach the playoffs for promotion (rather than to win the league automatically). Sven is still building the team and getting them to play the way he would like them to.

We currently have a lot of loan players in the team, and this can be dangerous if their real clubs call them back or we do not keep them on loan until the end of the season.

But in January, Leicester will have some new players. Leicester can only get better. We have the money and manager to do this.

I will be back tomorrow to give you a round up of Abe's performance from a fan's point of view, if he is chosen by Sven.

 

Update:

Abe played in Wednesday's game at the Walkers Stadium against Sheffield United.

He played well and had a few decent shots on goal, and a few that were not. Was substituted for a striker in the second half, as were losing 2-1. However, we scored a penalty in the last few minutes of extra time. Phew!

Not a great game in honesty. We were swamped in the midfield and didn't make enough of the first 20 minutes where we dominated and made some very good chances after scoring early.

I think Abe is generally going to play in the first team unless injured. We have a very big local derby (against Derby County) coming up on Saturday.

Rumours are we are bringing another striker in on loan.

Vassell is a forgotten player, who when match fit will bring pace, great control, and hopefully some goals too.

I'll keep you updated as I have more news.

 

Thank you Saku2. I don't know if anyone managed to see the game through the link?

If not, Abe played well. The first twenty minutes he wasn't fully there, but his performance improved greatly as the game progressed. He also was booked for a bit of a naughty tackle. Can anyone tell me what Abe's record is discipline-wise. Did he get a lot of yellow/red cards?

Abe is getting better and better with each game, as is Leicester's performances as a team. We are slowly moving up the league, and if we keep up this form could reach the playoffs. Fingers crossed. It is very satisfying to beat one of your local rivals, and Abe certainly played a role in that.

 

Apologies for the delay in any updating.

Abe has done very well in Leicester's last game, but sadly we lost.

He had a good game though, held his own, and a couple of decent shots, and once again it has been noted how much more confident he is on the ball, and improving more and more each game. Opposition fans from Bristol thought he was our man of the match though we lost.

However, we have a HUGE game for most Leicester fans. We have a game against Nottingham Forrest this weekend. They are playing very well and have a very good team. But we have Abe, and we beat Derby our other local rivals quite well.

I do hope Abe continues his performances and I will update you further when I have more info.

Thank you for keep reading.