Kitchandro

Sky Sports are so out of touch with what football fans want, no one wants to here from arrogant referees tell us what we’ve always known; that they don’t apply the rules consistently. Also Peter Drury must be an April Fool’s joke that went wrong and they felt too guilty to tell him he was only on for a joke. The bloke is an absolutely horrendous commentator. Every time anyone has a shot he has to say their full name and he winds it up for a really loud shout and then tails it off really awkwardly when they scuff it. He thinks he’s the star of the show. An otherwise entertaining game that makes me want to watch it on mute.

By the letter of the law there's no offence once the ball is in play (when Eze kicks it) as the law only applies until the ball is in play. So what should have happened is; the referee should have instructed the players not to stand in the wall because it’s an offence. The goal should not have been disallowed for that reason.

I give them credit for their protest at our ground, yes. Why would they care if LCFC make money from away fan ticket sales? They don’t support us. As for attending Hillsborough - it’s not necessarily how I would choose to protest with our club, but the difference is they did protest yesterday and it got loads of exposure. There’s no debate about how they feel about their owner and everyone in football, including the media is backing them, to the point where the Football League has actually had to get involved (even though they can’t make him sell). Our fans are different. There’s chants against Rudkin but no mass protests against the real problem, the owners. There’s no mass boycott either. It’s just not enough, too many have refused to oppose Top and that is part of the problem.

So many people missing the point on these threads. ‘No, Top is to blame’. Nobody is suggesting that the fans or Marti are solely to blame or more to blame than the owners. That doesn’t mean that the fans, players and manager are, in principle, exempt from criticism. There are too many fans who continue to spend money on the club. That’s not really a debate. Look at the amount of people wearing the new shirts for example. Now, a lot of these fans might be KPFC types or the kind that just go ‘for something to do’. And there’s no point arguing with these people because they obviously don’t really care. But if you’re on this forum moaning and you’re constantly fed up with this regime (and if you care and have even a tiny of capacity for reflection, you will be) then continuing to contribute to our attendances and club revenue is contributing to the problem. In the sense that an empty stadium on TV and a massive drop in sales would 1) give us media exposure that we badly need to pressurise the owners and in turn perhaps 2) force the club to do something in response. That’s how protest works in a world where, yes, you as an individual don’t have any personal power or influence. If only we had dug our heels in in January 2022 when the terminal decline had started and we had a manager, having just lost 4-1 to local rivals from the league below, began his sabotage to save his reputation. We should have mass protested for his removal then and there. The fans never did, Top wasn’t pressurised to make a decision, and you know the rest. At the very least media exposure for some kind of resistance to what is happening would give this club a bit of pride back. That’s what people see when they look at Sheffield Wednesday. Pride. Self-respect. A proper football club that demands standards from its owners and employees. Why did we even clap those Wednesday fans if we don’t want to be like that? So it’s all very well taking this thread personally and being butthurt, but you must know this deep down. If you go for the ‘social aspect’, you could just socialise doing something else. If the club actually stands for something more than the that, then have a bit of respect for it and say enough is enough.

The manager’s job isn’t to stick to one formation and then say ‘I don’t have enough good central midfielders to play MY system’. The job is to assess the squad and pick the best players in their favoured position. The idea that only one system can result in success is obviously false so a manager swearing by a formation, rather than a style of play or building a team around your best players, is clearly flawed. If we have no good centre mids don’t pick a formation that requires 2 of them. Can’t you see how contradictory this is? He’s persisting with something that won’t work but you think he can’t do anything else. Well, obviously that isn’t true. People keep saying this but it’s obviously something to do with the manager. He does manage the team. The idea that the best managers don’t make a difference is just silly. This is a difficult job but not impossible, everyone was saying this was the best squad in the league a week ago. I didn’t agree with that, but it’s not the worst either. To be clear, our predicament is largely down to a lot of things out of the manager’s control. I’m not having a go at him. But that doesn’t mean he can do no wrong this season. I think it’s fair to expect to see some positive signs and sensible decision making from a manager regardless of the players we have. He needs to learn quickly and stamp his mark on the team ASAP otherwise he’s got no chance. He must have known what he was getting into, the fans certainly did and we have no inside info.

I think the fans have perspective, it’s the players that don’t. They live in a bubble. You can’t expect to live an abnormally privileged life and treated like a normal person. It doesn’t work like that. He refuses to engage with the community he represents and that might also be seen as him not reinvesting into the local economy. He might be able to get away with that if he was so brilliant that he raises the profile of the club, but he isn’t. Football is about pride primarily. Footballers get everything from society and give little back. If anything they should be far less popular than they are. Nobody says he shouldn’t have a personal life, but it’s not like he’s mingling with the locals at the pub like Walshie and Izzet is it? His personal life is living lavishly in a mansion down south. He’s entitled to do that, but why should people love him for it?

Thankfully a small percentage of fans have a memory longer than 90 minutes though. Faes is symptomatic of what is wrong here. He and Winks are supposed to be leaders in this squad and what vibe are they giving off? That the fans are mugs you can give it large to even after two relegations.

We look a team woefully short on confidence and there’s no fluidity to our play at all. It’s very difficult to see us getting promoted based on the first two matches. They don’t look up for it, we don’t have a goal scorer and we’re very reliant on about 3 players. This season has midtable written all over it.

Must be difficult for our youngsters to come into a team that has played so dreadfully for a year.

I quite like this co-commentator so far, not just the cliches we usually get, seems to have actually watched some football in his life.

Another avoidable kit clash because we can’t just have a normal coloured 3rd kit. *For the colour blind among us.

As long as we beat Sheffield Wednesday’s reserves, all is forgiven for two of the worst relegations ever.

Cup your ears all you want mate, we’re in this league because you’re rubbish.

Absolutely shocking decision 😂

What the hell is he smiling at

Jeremeh Monga Stay a little longer Don’t just take the wonga Score and we’ll do the conga No idea what tune but the lyrics write themselves

But when footballers do it and only get a few games ban…?

It’s about power imbalance though. If one person makes a political statement, that’s expression of free speech. If a group of individuals agree on something and decide to make a group statement, that’s the same. This is a powerful company, ran by billionaires, using a football club as a platform to support a state (not a cause or opinion, a state) that we don’t even live in without the consent or endorsement of the fans. We as a club are now associated with this, they have used us a way of spreading a message that we may or may not agree with. The fact that it’s related to the military actions of a state has all sorts of moral complications, especially as we have impressionable kids going to games and following them on social media. I’ve also got a problem with the phrase ‘it’s their club’. If that’s your attitude you can’t complain if we end up like Sheffield Wednesday, or support the Russian government or whatever. They have a responsibility that we are supposed to be holding them to.

But he only did that well for a short period. As a defensive midfielder everyone will forgive you as long as you keep your shape and don’t give the ball away. He did alright at that for a bit, but it’s no coincidence that we were completely outfought by any team who didn’t just let us play. He was hardly a dominating midfield general, and he’s been anonymous for large parts of his time here. Teams cut through our midfield unchallenged because he wasn’t doing his job. It’s been at least 4 years since he’s shown any sort of consistent form. He’s an incredibly lazy player as well which makes it very hard to warm to him.

This is really, really bad. If anyone is still forking out for club merchandise, there’s no excuse for continuing to do so after this. It’s one thing to run the club poorly on the footballing and financial side, to allow the fans to be insulted, to make the fans feel unwanted, ignored and ripped off, etc. But this is way beyond that. States have enough of a stranglehold on the world. To use a local football club as a mouthpiece for military propaganda, that’s absolutely shocking. Personally I wasn’t that outraged by the whole shirt sponsor thing even if it was a bit dodgy, but this is unforgivable.

Harry Kane is obviously a good footballer but I dislike him as much as any player. He was awful for us, incredibly lazy whilst our season was falling apart and then massively gave it the big’un when he came back with Spurs. I always suspected he was massively influential in the England setup when none of our title winners could get in the team for some inexplicable reason whilst somehow Dier managed to be a starter. I don’t know how any Leicester fan can like him. Selfish player, overrated and treated like a golden boy despite going missing in big England games whilst Vardy, a better player (with a better chance conversion rate) couldn’t get a look in because he played for Leicester. Maddison and Mahrez are the other ones who stick out.

‘Over the moon’, ‘special day’ 😆 Just say it’s a good career move and leave it at that.

I don’t think I’ll ever get back the excitement. When I went to my first game in the late 90s football was still perceived as a community activity for the average person and footballers were just people who had particularly good jobs. But sometimes they still had a drink in the local, you saw them in the shop, they were your neighbours. Even when I was 18 I remember we started the season under Sousa and I was buzzing. Over the years football has felt more and more corporate to the extent it’s lost all meaning. VAR, the financial gulf between clubs, players earning a disgusting amount, Sky Sports creating narratives, diving being accepted instead of stamped out - all this played a part in showing me football for the way it really is now. At our club there has been a combination of KP rebranding (the kits and stadium especially), clappers, ticket prices, goal music, stewarding, the treatment of fans and groups like Union FS, lazy players who have no connection to the area and managers like Rodgers and Puel who were clearly here for their ego and the money respectively. I just can’t trick myself into believing it means anything again. It’s a business, not a community sports team. I still care a bit and have some emotion towards the results some of the time, but I don’t get excited beforehand, don’t often watch and rarely enjoy watching.

I don’t know whether we will end up like Sheffield Wednesday, but the fact something like this can happen to a club as big as them means it could happen to anyone. That’s what we should be taking from this. Transitioning to fan-owned clubs is absolutely necessary in the long run, no other industry is protected by the government from billionaires and this one will be no different. The sport is rapidly heading towards complete ruin, and with the recent stats about how many Leicester fans feel completely disconnected from the club, I’d say we’re halfway there.

He was a promising player in his early days with us and had some patches where he looked good in a decent team in which his job was very basic: move the ball on 5 yards and hold position as a defensive midfielder. It’s the easiest job in football bar substitute goalkeeper. Nobody even expects you to tackle. He has been awful for about 70% of his time here but he plays in a position which rarely gets singled out for criticism. Look how Eric Dier thrived despite being completely useless, it’s the same thing. Ndidi doesn’t help himself by being really lazy. Watch him - rather than tracking runners in case there’s danger he’ll only do it once it’s obvious they are going to get the ball, and it’s astonishing how often players just run unchecked towards our back 4 as if we have no holding midfielder at all. He’s been here ages yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s been a particularly great or likeable player. He’s a rich man’s Amartey, in that sense. EDIT: just realised I’ve replied to an old post but still think it’s worth saying.