At the risk of engaging in a touch of understatement, it has been .
When left for Celtic in June 2000 the Foxes were an established Premier League side, had recently played in European competition and won the League Cup twice in three years.
But success in football can be ephemeral and then elusive. Once the sun sets on a golden era it often turns dark very quickly and leaves fans hankering for past glories. It is gone before you realise and years are spent wondering why.
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Towards the end of Derby's torturous Premier League season boss Paul Jewell declared: "The pain we are suffering now, I will repay next season with promotion."
The 44-year-old's confidence was understandable. Derby might have mustered just one win in their season in the top flight - and that prior to Jewell's appointment in November 2007 - but he knows how to get teams out of the Championship; his track record proves it.
The Liverpudlian had previously won promotion to the Premier League with both and and was looking forward to repeating his success at Pride Park.
But the Rams are currently and Jewell, a man raised in a socialist household, with principles high on the agenda, resigned in the wake of .
Derby are 12 points off the play-offs but just five above the relegation zone. They have won just seven of their 26 league fixtures this season.
Jewell had obviously decided he would not be able to deliver on his promise.
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Christmas is, so the old saying goes, the season to be merry.
But for some of us this is only possible if we blank out the current position of the club we support, while for others it in itself is a reason for festivities.
The Championship season recently , while League One and League Two lag just a couple of rounds behind.
By now we have a very good idea of which teams are shaping up to be Christmas crackers and which have the look of a bit of a turkey.
This is my take on the lay of the land in the Football League - be sure to let me know what you think.
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Not exactly great is it, getting the sack a few days before Christmas?
But football is not a sentimental business and for failing to live up to the huge expectations at Leeds United.
There is a pressure to succeed at the Yorkshire club that doubtless is in part due to the fact that Leeds were playing Champions League football at the start of the Millennium.
Those days are long gone, most fans have come to terms with that, but they still expect better than League One. And having failed to get out of the division last season, promotion is the only aim this time around - and a run of five straight defeats in all competitions has clearly been too much for .
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, London, the Saturday before Christmas.
Hordes of shoppers looking for some last-minute presents are piling into the recently-opened , west London's mammoth new cathedral to capitalism.
Several hundred yards away a church of a different kind is in session as in their last fixture before Christmas.
The festive season is in full evidence on the walk to the ground, with supporters discussing their plans and hawkers selling QPR Santa hats (the traditional red giving way to blue). The Superstore is also doing a roaring trade, with security operating a one in, one out system.
In one sense it is a very traditional scene, one that could have been found at grounds the length and breadth of the country. Yet Loftus Road and QPR are changing. The club has been infused with its own touch of Italian style over the last year, with presiding over the Championship side.
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Sam Allardyce took a wrong turn when he left in the summer of 2007 but has been given the chance to .
Allardyce cited a as the reason why he walked out of one of football's more secure positions.
Inextricably linked to this was his ambition to manage the England team. He had impressed the Football Association board when he was but lost out to Steve McClaren and felt that managing a high-profile club would enhance his prospects.
He might have established Bolton in the Premier League, taken them to a and into the Uefa Cup but he lasted less than nine months at Newcastle and the challenge facing him now is one of restoring his damaged reputation.
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Peter Taylor was naturally disappointed after at Aldershot on 6 December.
Wanderers had played 18 games before the 3-2 reverse and were the only team in all four divisions not to have tasted defeat.
But after thinking about it for a while it occurred to Taylor that his team's unbeaten record had become a motivating factor for opposition teams. Perhaps the defeat wasn't such a bad thing after all.
"Now people cannot say any longer 'let's be the first to beat them', that has gone out of the window," Taylor told me. "It might do us a favour."
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In some ways manager is back to where he started.
The midfielder was in his mid-20s when he gave up his business as a builder/plasterer and left behind non-league football to try to make it as a professional.
Hessenthaler took a wage cut when he left Redbridge Forest to sign for Watford but it was a gamble that paid rich dividends. The 43-year-old, who had cost the Hornets £65,000, went on to make more than .
More than 300 of these came with the Gills, with whom Hessenthaler experienced both the pain and ecstasy of the play-offs.
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Hello, I'm Paul Fletcher and I mainly write about life in the Football League. I have a great enthusiasm for a whole range of sports and love to spread the word about the great game of rugby league. You can also follow me on .