Leicester City Discussion

[Dan+]

22 hours ago, Lucas said:

For me, he's using this net spend arguement out of pure frustration because he's not been backed this season when he feels he most needs it.

Ok, fair enough. Given injuries and a few players ageing now, you could do with freshening up.

However, he also fails to realise Leicester have recouped big money for the players they have sold and been able to reinvest that. Bar Villa selling Grealish for £100m, they haven't sold anyone else for big money. Newcastle haven't, West Ham haven't either. Those clubs have spent to close the gap on Leicester.

Leicester have been in the position to make huge profit on players and then look to find equivalents they can do the same to. It's how they roll as a business.

Ok, he may not have been there when they sold Kante and Mahrez but he's seen Maguire and Chilwell go for big fees. They have brought players in but they haven't hit the heights expected.

I get his frustration possibly with Fofana, he's not seen that money but it looks like this season Leicester have had to cut their cloth accordingly and that's something he's just had to deal with.

The only thing I'd say with regards to the ownership is that it feels very cloak and dagger on what Leicester's finances are (to the neutral) and if the fans don't receive any explanations and can only go off hearsay, they can't fully understand without context.

I think it's clear to see his time is coming to an end now the public moaning and digs against the board are coming out and you also wonder whether Leicester are hanging back providing him funds for fear it won't be well invested, in which case, they need to be pulling the trigger soon so its not at the detriment of PL status.

The net spend argument is just classic Rodgers and sums him up to be frank. It's a notoriously easy point to spin so it's no surprise that he's gone for it. The thing is, I don't think he's entirely wrong in everything he says, I do believe that we are in danger of being left behind simply because we don't seem to have the money behind us plenty of teams do (I mean you're paying more for Rutter than we've ever paid for anybody) and that in itself is an issue.

To me it's about two factors, how much you spend, but how well you spend it.

He is deliberately choosing to focus on the first point because it suits his reputation to do so. He's had a bigger hand in the second point given he brought along his head of recruitment when he joined the club, and we have absolutely nosedived in this regard. We're not only being surpassed in what we spend, but we're now getting far worse at spending what we actually do. But he can very conveniently ignore his role in that second point.

Our owner hasn't fully lost me but he's going that way because our answer to everything just seems to be do nothing and hope it gets better. Maybe that's a complacency we have because of the fact we do often seem to get away with it. I've had long-held suspicions we've been fortunate on occasion and I've never been fully able to shake them, and they're looking more and more to be true.

I mean just look at this window. How the hell has nobody come in yet? Rodgers was making noises again that three players would come in this window. So was he lying again? If he was - why is this not being reigned in? It isn't the first time. If he was telling the truth, where are they? And where is the urgency in getting them done? One of the reported links is a left back from Copenhagen for 5-8mil. We are the only club in this division who could make hard work of a deal so simple.

Rodgers for me needs to be sacked because he's as I suspected he would, actively looking to drag the clubs reputation down to save his own, and the problem is the longer he does this without any repercussion, what he says sort of becomes true. He's also massively underperforming with this squad no matter how many people pretend otherwise. Nobody would've put us in a relegation battle in preseason. Yet as it is now I look and look and struggle to see the three worse teams. We're 13th in the table but the trajectory is scary and the bottom 8 have hardly anything between them. We have 1 point against the top half all season and don't play anybody in the bottom half until March, other than Forest away - a place we're notoriously dire at.

I think 7/1 on us to go down is seriously overpriced. We were never fully out of it.

[Dan+]

I also just think his attitude towards everything is so wrong. It's such a loser mentality. If he's that horrified by the conditions he's working in, then leave. Only he won't because he's on massive money. So given you're on this massive money, why don't you try and actually bring something to the table for it? He would sooner throw his toys out of the pram than try and build up any siege mentality or work in adversity, and I think that tells you something about him. We don't have the poorest squad in the league by anywhere close, but I think what he's done has sapped all confidence away.

Look at what Eddie Howe is doing with a Newcastle side that has some quality and some pretty limited players. Their side has no business being that high up. I don't think it's a better squad than we had when we were pushing to be honest. People might disagree, but I don't think it's the case. Now they're an extreme example but just look at the difference. Then look at what we serve up against them. I think most Championship sides would play better than we did against them.

There are ups and downs in football. We had hard periods under Ranieri, under Shakespeare, under Puel, yet at least we acted, at least we didn't let it go on. We are being held to ransom by our own manager. It's completely humiliating.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Dan

[OrangeKhrush]

no heart, bunch of quitters. a new manager will have a hard task trying to get anything out of these charlatans

[Stan]

2 hours ago, OrangeKhrush said:

no heart, bunch of quitters. a new manager will have a hard task trying to get anything out of these charlatans

Sorry but you have this all wrong and I don't get why you feel so sure of yourself that you know our club more than the likes of @Dan and I do. 

This isn't something that has happened overnight. This is a rut that has set itself in thanks to poor management by Rodgers and perhaps higher up in the hierarchy. 

Players don't become bad overnight, either. They've been poorly coaches and had the motivation and confidence sucked out of them. You know fuck all if you're calling them a 'bunch of quitters', sorry. 

How can you call them charlatans as well ? Further proof you have no idea what you're on about. 

[OrangeKhrush]

8 hours ago, Stan said:

Sorry but you have this all wrong and I don't get why you feel so sure of yourself that you know our club more than the likes of @Dan and I do. 

This isn't something that has happened overnight. This is a rut that has set itself in thanks to poor management by Rodgers and perhaps higher up in the hierarchy. 

Players don't become bad overnight, either. They've been poorly coaches and had the motivation and confidence sucked out of them. You know fuck all if you're calling them a 'bunch of quitters', sorry. 

How can you call them charlatans as well ? Further proof you have no idea what you're on about. 

they have quit on Rogers, nobody plays for self ruin.  yesterday was embarrassing a pure unadulterated collective sit in.

Tielemans may end up at arsenal now, and maybe Maddison moves but the rest have sold the club down the river.

I was prepared to drag it out further as I thought Leicester have enough to stay up but like west ham they are in serious trouble

[Stan]

54 minutes ago, OrangeKhrush said:

they have quit on Rogers, nobody plays for self ruin.  yesterday was embarrassing a pure unadulterated collective sit in.

Tielemans may end up at arsenal now, and maybe Maddison moves but the rest have sold the club down the river.

I was prepared to drag it out further as I thought Leicester have enough to stay up but like west ham they are in serious trouble

So it's all on the players and Rodgers has done nothing wrong? Joke. 

[Stan]

We're about to make our first permanent January signing since 2018.

Victor Kristiansen, highly rated LB from FC Copenhagen. Small-ish fee, hopefully high reward.

 

 

[6666]

Reports are that Tielemans wants to move on a free in the summer so he can get as much as possible in wages. Don't know if Leicester are okay with that or if they'd much rather get something for him and move him on in January.

[Stan]

20 minutes ago, 6666 said:

Reports are that Tielemans wants to move on a free in the summer so he can get as much as possible in wages. Don't know if Leicester are okay with that or if they'd much rather get something for him and move him on in January.

I'd rather keep him and sell other bits of deadwood. I was resigned to losing him last summer which didn't materialise. And again this January. 

We need him to get us through to seeing survival out and then let him go as he wishes. In a better and right team, he could flourish more than we've ever seen. 

I think the club are probably resigned to losing him in summer too. He deserves European football and to continue to play on a bigger stage. I imagine there's some gentleman's agreement in place that we'll let him go in summer. Vichai was known for it, and it wouldn't surprise me if Top followed suit. 

[OrangeKhrush]

we have a Darlow and Dubravka for you, super cheap

[Dan+]

On 19/01/2023 at 19:18, 6666 said:

Reports are that Tielemans wants to move on a free in the summer so he can get as much as possible in wages. Don't know if Leicester are okay with that or if they'd much rather get something for him and move him on in January.

We'd get such paltry money at this point that there's no point. See it essentially now as paying a loan fee to keep him here for the rest of the season.

We've started moving which is good. Rumours of Tete from Shakhtar are encouraging, it's the right type of names but we need confirmations rather than rumours. Kristiansen is a signing I'm happy with but I think again, why could this not have been done on the 1st. I just don't think we're much good at getting deals done.

Souttar being linked with us. Cannot tell what I think of him but the Stoke fans' comments do encourage me about him. Last time we signed a centre half off Stoke in January we won the league 16 months later so there is that

[Lucas]

Well well well...

 

Not sure how accurate this is or if it's just a case of lazy journalism.

I'd probably sell him but not to Leicester, not whilst we're level on points. Makes no sense to strengthen a rival.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Lucas said:

Well well well...

 

Not sure how accurate this is or if it's just a case of lazy journalism.

I'd probably sell him but not to Leicester, not whilst we're level on points. Makes no sense to strengthen a rival.

It's pure bollocks. At least I bloody hope so. 

He's not what we need, is quite expensive for his perceived talent, and like you say I very much doubt Leeds will entertain selling him, let alone to us. 

I think it very much is lazy journalism. We need a left-footed right winger and from what I see, Harrison isn't that player. We're targeting Tete from Lyon/Shakhtar which does fit the bill, so maybe this is some kind of smokescreen. 

I'd be very disappointed if we signed Harrison for this fee.

[Lucas]

4 minutes ago, Stan said:

It's pure bollocks. At least I bloody hope so. 

He's not what we need, is quite expensive for his perceived talent, and like you say I very much doubt Leeds will entertain selling him, let alone to us. 

I think it very much is lazy journalism. We need a left-footed right winger and from what I see, Harrison isn't that player. We're targeting Tete from Lyon/Shakhtar which does fit the bill, so maybe this is some kind of smokescreen. 

I'd be very disappointed if we signed Harrison for this fee.

He can play there, he's done it for us before, infact on Sunday just gone. One of the best facets of his game is he's two-footed. Good on his right as he is with his left, and he can play centrally too so he's very versatile, any position across the front three behind the striker.

But I agree, I'd be disappointed if I was in your position looking at players like Jack who isn't necessarily first choice for us anymore. You could get better abroad for less no doubt.

I'd probably sell him given the emergence of Gnonto, Summerville stepping up from the U23's and Sinisterra being our best winger when fit anyway. Ideally, Newcastle would come back in for him and that would be good business for us.

[Dan+]

It just reeks of the Perez deal all over again so I really hope it isn't true. I cannot tell you the last good value signing we made from a Premier League side that hadn't just been relegated. I don't think he's bad but if that's the best use we can put together of £35mil then it tells you everything about why we've fallen to where we have done.

If that is genuinely the best they can serve up then we need serious changes. I mean we do anyway but that would be just total lunacy. It would be desperate.

[Dan+]

Tete is the one I want and have wanted a while, although when he went to Lyon I assumed we were totally out of that race. I got told a while ago we wanted him so there's definitely something in it.

The problem is I think we just won't have the nous to get this one over the line. We've not been quick enough this month in general. The Kristiansen deal for me sums it up. I'm happy with the signing and I think it's an encouraging one, a return to the type of profile that's made us successful in the quite recent past. But how has a signing from Copenhagen taken until three weeks into the window? Their season was over in November and he didn't go to the World Cup. Things are critical here, we need players in, he should've been ready for the Fulham game.

Now I'm more sympathetic on the Tete deal. It appears to me that we've got to do two deals to get it over the line, one with Lyon and one with Skakhtar, and it does appear that Tete's fairly recently fallen out of favour under Blanc for Lyon so it's one I think we've thought to try and move quickly on. But going back to Kristiansen, if it's taking us that long to get a simple deal like that done then I really don't hold out much hope for this one. I hope I'm wrong but I just can't see it.

Then I think we'll go back to Fiorentina for Gonzalez and I think they'll quote us too much, and we'll walk away.

I think Souttar will sign in the next week but I'm going to predict that it's Souttar only. I'm rarely happy with how our windows go these days. Leaving ourselves one short seems to be a real habit unfortunately.

[Stan]

Recently been some questions of the owners commitment to the club. Think those can be answered with how they've done this debt-to-equity conversion of £194m. Basically written that off so that money isn't owed to King Power any more. 

[OrangeKhrush]

I'm shocked you didn't try cash in on Tielemans, to know he is walking out a free agent must suck.   

I would prefer there be revision to free agent rules whereby if a club offers a new deal and the player refuses to sign, the club signing him would pay compensation as determined by arbitrators similar to how youth players are signed.  while it will be a lot less than if he is sold at least leicester would get a small return e.g. 7m or younger the player the higher the compensation

if the club failed to make a contract offer, the player becomes unrestricted and no compensation is paid.

[Dan+]

10 hours ago, Stan said:

Recently been some questions of the owners commitment to the club. Think those can be answered with how they've done this debt-to-equity conversion of £194m. Basically written that off so that money isn't owed to King Power any more. 

Yep got to give him some credit here. I've been calling for action and while he's not done 'everything' I want you can't accuse him now of just sitting there and letting us sink, which a month ago it really did look like.

We're really banking on survival now with those loans from the Australian bank.

 

21 minutes ago, OrangeKhrush said:

I'm shocked you didn't try cash in on Tielemans, to know he is walking out a free agent must suck.   

I would prefer there be revision to free agent rules whereby if a club offers a new deal and the player refuses to sign, the club signing him would pay compensation as determined by arbitrators similar to how youth players are signed.  while it will be a lot less than if he is sold at least leicester would get a small return e.g. 7m or younger the player the higher the compensation

if the club failed to make a contract offer, the player becomes unrestricted and no compensation is paid.

Part of me wonders if they think they can convince him to stay. I don't think they're going to manage it but the seeming lack of interest in him has surprised me.

[Dan+]

Sammy Braybrooke does his ACL too. I'm honestly just beyond fed up of it. I don't know how it's even possible to be this unlucky, which makes me think it just simply cannot be bad luck. Why does this keep happening to our players? What is going on?

[Cicero]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

Sammy Braybrooke does his ACL too. I'm honestly just beyond fed up of it. I don't know how it's even possible to be this unlucky, which makes me think it just simply cannot be bad luck. Why does this keep happening to our players? What is going on?

Same with us. 

 

Chilwell ACL

Broja ACL

Fofana tendon rupture

James tendon rupture

Pulisic tendon rupture

[Dan+]

41 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Same with us. 

 

Chilwell ACL

Broja ACL

Fofana tendon rupture

James tendon rupture

Pulisic tendon rupture

We've had 10 in less than 3 years. I'm beyond blaming Rodgers at this point, we need a proper investigation into why this is happening.

It seems to happen to such key players too. Ricardo, Justin and now literally our two best academy players. It's gutting.

Even two you named there came from us!

[Whiskey]

Rodgers sacked.

 

[Spike]

13 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Rodgers sacked.

 

Just saw this as well. Too little, too late for Lester

[Stan]

7 minutes ago, Spike said:

Just saw this as well. Too little, too late for Lester

Not yet considering nothing is certain mathematically...