Letter from the i editor: The good word

We’ve been bowled over by the volume of well-wishers writing, texting, tweeting and posting on Facebook to wish us a happy first birthday and say warm words about i.

To be honest, most of us have never worked anywhere like it, and we are much more familiar with abuse. To all of you, thank you very much, and please keep spreading the good word about i.

I write this just before heading up to the second city for our little reader celebration. You can see how it went on page 15. I am a little ashamed to say I have never been there before: Nottingham, Derby and Leicester yes, but not Brum. No reason. But I was really looking forward to it — especially as the Ikon gallery, our gracious host, gets such rave reviews from anyone I know who has been.

We hope that Ikon does better out of association with i than that other recent icon of the Midlands, poor Sven Goran Eriksson (“poor” and “Sven” are not two words you often see juxtaposed). No sooner had he started his regular column with us than he was fired by Leicester City (or officially: agreed mutually to part company). His crime? Surely not saying nice things about Fergie in i? It had more to do with Leicester being mid-table in the Championship, and losing 0-3 to Millwall at home last weekend. It leaves Leicester just two points off a play-off place. That wasn’t good enough for the club’s big-spending (for Leicester City) Thai owners — just 13 games into the season.

And the Government wants to introduce legislation to make it even easier to fire people? Don’t tell the average football manager. I really hope there isn’t a curse of i, and that I am here tomorrow to tell you all about Birmingham.