Dames

I think you're missing out the statement before that were Huth said that they were receptive of his changes and tried their best to adhere to them but they could see things weren't quite working and made suggestions which were completely dismissed by Puel. That's where he was working against the players because he was treating them as school children. In any work place a good manager works with his team, takes their suggestions on board and doesn't completely dismiss them out of hand. The authoritative approach doesn't work anymore, Puel sadly did not realise that and probably never will.

None of the results since the new year have been good enough - it doesnt matter what you’re building long term you must be able to manage short and middle terms too. Something which Puel has failed to do since new year and to be frank if we didnt get those 3 wins over that period he’d have been gone long before as the performances and results were not good enough. Not that as an outside fan you’ll get it because you’ll look at statistics such as possession and shots and average age etc which dont tell the full story.

Right decision if true. He did well in clearing out the deadwood and setting us up to clear out further in the summer. He brought some good players and gave others a chance and that wont be forgotten, especially if we kick on from here. However his inability to motivate the core group and have a proper plan B has cost him, its been clear all season Plan A hasn’t really been working and he only has himself to blame. Thanks for the hard work Claude but this is the right decision for all involved.

Degale was broken and gave everything in the Badou Jack fight and hasn’t looked the same since. Its obvious hes only fighting for a pay day and this fights been awful. Still Eubank Jr is no where near world level and probably never will be on this showing, Callum Smith would flatten him, horribly.

This fight has purely been made from a business perspective. Its why Miller confronted AJ at the DAZN conference last year - it was all scripted to put in place a narrative for this fight. No doubt DAZN have put huge pressure on Hearn to bring the Heavyweight Champion of the world to the States to show on their network. Its why they lowballed Whyte and tried to place all the blame on him because they knew he was going to reject low offers. An AJ vs Whyte rematch will do huge PPV numbers in the UK and Whyte rightly wanted a fair cut of the deal. As for the fight itself its a profile builder for both DAZN and AJ in the states, Miller is a bang average heavy weight with his only real strength being his weight, I can see AJ putting him away rounds 5-8, easy nights work. There is no way this fight will do much in terms of numbers on Sky.

Looks a lot better with a better more confident player alongside him. Its like Tielemans confidence on the ball rubbed off on NDidi. A Tielemans NDidi partnership on this showing has massive massive potential and if Claude even thinks about dropping either for Mendy he deserves to be shot out of a catapult back to France.

The media love the narrative that Newcastle are this huge successful club when really they are not. They are just in a big city with a loud fan base. They've not won the league for nearly 100 years and their last FA cup success was 70 years ago. Last trophy they had was a forgotten European Trophy in 1969. We've had a lot more recent success than them even in the last 30 years. Absolute joke to suggest we are a backwards step.

Has the potential to become the best player to graduate from our academy. I hope he’s given a chance to stay in the team until the end of the season and isn’t dropped so Maddison can be shunted out on the left for Tielemans in the middle.

I hear this and also what Babs is saying but aren’t there talks of reducing down the amount of games in the Europa League within the next few years? Might go some way to alleviating some of the concerns about too many games. Its never going to be a reality because Clubs will always prioritise the League above anything else but that mentality is leaving a massive gap in the cups to be exploited and as a fan you’re dying for your club to be the one that says ‘F it, we are gunna try and win the thing’ instead of ‘Put the reserves out, we’ve got Cardiff at home 3 days after and we need to be at full strength.’

Put it this way. We really can't be that bad if Inter Milan and Roma are sniffing around Silva who can't get a kick for us.

Wouldn't call that a lack of ambition I just think a lot of Leicester fans are naturally inclined to be pessimistic and therefore see posts like mine and think they are completely outrageous. I was talking about in 2 years time when realistically if we went and won a cup next season and got into the competition that way a lot of the younger players we have now would have improved (Provided we kept ahold of them which cup wins would help with). Under Puel we've beaten both Chelsea and Arsenal, in the past we've beaten Sevilla who have won the competition multiple times - we can beat anyone on our day but as i've mentioned on the flip side of things we've proven we can lose to almost anyone as well.

Maybe I am being too optimistic but I imagine in 2 seasons time if this were to happen some of the players we have now will be very very good players. We'd had a team littered with internationals some of them England internationals and I imagine we would have added to the squad. Maybe I am optimistic in the thinking we'd keep all our best players but if we did and they kicked on like we think they would we would be better positioned for a crack at that cup. Probably more around 15-1 in reference to how you put it. Some people are thinking I'm saying we should outright win it and theres no excuse if we don't and i'm 'delusional' but i'm not saying we should outright win it, what I'm saying is that we should have an ambition to have a go at the cups because they are winnable. Success breeds success and we are better positioned in terms of youth and potential coming through to capitalise on that success than we were when we won the League. I'm not saying we compete with the top 6 in the league outright but those top 6 teams are leaving gaps in cup competitions that we could exploit. This season for example realistically we could have beaten Man City this season to get in the Semis of the League Cup and then hopefully got passed Burton and we'd have been in the final. On our day we can beat anyone and we've proven that, on the flip side we've also proven we can lose to anyone too. If i'm being honest I think teams like West Ham and Everton also have the players resources to do something similar but like us and many other teams in the league they are priortising a high league finish and the financial rewards from that. Currently that is leaving a gap that can be exploited - it might not be the case forever. Also i'm not blaming Puel for any of this because the choice not to have a go at the cups is clearly a club decision and it has been for a while now.

We do struggle but with a few changes tactically and maybe another body or two and suddenly we won't be struggling. We have a good base with a lot of young players with a lot of potential. If that potential is realised in 2 years time these players will be very good players and capable of winning that competition. I'm not saying right now the way things are they would win it but with the potential that is there we can be aiming higher. My argument is that we have to start being as ambitious on the pitch as we are off it with the facilities and it will be easier to convince these players to stay. Financially we can compete with the big teams in terms of wages now so the only thing that could hold us back is on the pitch ambition.

I hear you honestly and I do understand your point. There is a long term project in place and I accept that its good but at the same time there is no reason we can't be ambitious in the short term either? Play your full strength teams in the cup - see how far you go instead of just treating it as second rate. We aren't the only team guilty of this, almost all the teams in the league are. In recent times these cups have become more winnable because of the distain they are treated with by bigger clubs until the latter stages. You used Spurs as an example but they are one of the teams that treat the cups as second rate also. I know players are going to get sold but my point is that they are short sighted what we don't want happening is all of our best players constantly jumping ship leaving us in a state of constant transition like Southampton who have slowly been sliding down the league for years now whilst selling their best players every season. Giving the players some short term ambitions is giving them something to aim for and believe in, no player is going to want to play with the aim of clearing a training ground debt, you don't get a medal for that. As soon as we slip into that Southampton mentality its going to be much harder to break no matter how good our facilities are.

What so as a fan I can't be optimistic or ambitious? Am I saying we should be winning it or he is sacked? No i'm not. I didn't even mention Puel to be honest. I'm saying with the players we have and the potential they have we do have a very good chance of winning it if we get there and hold on to those players. It would be 2 years down the line from now and if we kept those players i'd expect some of them to be very good. Are you really trying to tell me Leicester aren't as good of a club/team as some of the riff raff you get in the Europa League? We aren't playing with Danny Tiatto and Patrick Kisnorbo as our starting CM's anymore and we aren't flirting with administration either. We are allowed to have a degree of realistic ambition without it being labelled as delusional to be honest.

Thats due to a number of things. Kante was the only real star player to move on that season but he never really wanted to play for Leicester in the first place. Drinkwater left the season after which besides the Champions League run was a season we spent flirting with relegation as well as poor cup runs at that point you're thinking as a player well my stock is high and Leicester's is dropping like a lead balloon so i'll get out whilst I can. Mahrez left 2 seasons after - granted rumours are he wanted out but he still signed a new deal as the owners convinced him about ambition but then the reality of the situation hit and he was too good of a player to be playing for mid table. We've got a good core of young players now which is down in part to Puel but as a club to keep these players and not become a mid table feeder club we have to have some sort of ambition. You can start small with the cups and gradually scale it up but you have to start somewhere - players will be easier to convince if they see the club is working towards something. At the minute the only ambition is Premier League prize money and in a players eyes thats less legitmate than a League cup medal no matter how much you try to spin it. I know you'll throw the arguement about the new training ground and facilities etc which is all good and well but that ties into just playing for a league position for prize money to clear off debts.. not ambitious, not as ambitious as we could be.

True but if the club is showing its going in the right direction by being ambitious it will be easier to swing it. You can have a good league cup/FA cup run and maybe win the thing. Next season you're in the Europa League why not go for that and win it. Season after that you're 2 trophys deep and now playing in the Champions League. There is a real winners mentality around the place and its much easier to convince your best players that its the right place to develop. The thing is this really isn't out of the realms of possibility for Leicester. It sure sounds a lot better than 'Well our ambition is to hopefully finish from 7th - 13th in the league because of money'. You win the league cup and then you're playing in a european competition which Leicester would stand a very good chance of winning.

Very true but in more recent times the field has been levelled slightly in regards to finances. 10-15 years ago anyone outside the top teams couldn't offer players the financial packages that were on offer at the top clubs but thats all changed now. We could offer our best players similar amounts of money the top clubs are willing to pay them so after that it all boils down to ambition of both the player of the club. You can be a first team regular at Leicester continually sitting around mid table not really challenging in the cups or you can go to one of the big clubs and try to force your way into the first team and challenge for trophies on several fronts. If Leicester as a club took the cups more seriously it would help us retain our best players as the club is showing ambition. Its all about mentality and currently the club has accepted a mentality of mediocrity in a time where we could be aiming much higher. It would be different if the top 6 took the FA/League cups seriously but they don't unless they find themselves in the semis and that leaves opportunity open for the clubs just behind them to really go and win something. Its not just a problem at Leicester it seems as if many of the chasing pack have decided that mid table Premier League is better than a cup run because of the finanaces. The reality is that players don't care about club finances as long as they are getting paid its not an issue to them so they won't see finishing in top 10 as a legitimate ambition when Man City or Chelsea are offering them the same amount of money as us but better possibilities in terms of trophies.

I'm very hopeful of this, we do have a lot of good young players with a lot of potential on the books. What I'm slightly worried about is that we are in big danger of becoming a feeder club to the top 6. No ambitious player wants to continually only challenge for mid table in the Premier League and I think this is why most fans are currently frustrated not just with the manager but the club in general. We are in a time where good cup runs are extremely possible as the 'bigger' teams don't take it seriously until the Semis and thats if they get there. We should at least as a club prioritise a good cup run and just see how far it gets us. Winning a trophy or two is a good way to keep your best players on the books.

Some journo is reporting on Twitter that Mahrez is unhappy with the amount of game time hes been getting. Seems like another case of the grass isnt always greener.

Might as well join now because as long as Wes Morgan has 2 working legs and a contract with the club he’ll be in the starting line up.

Can see him pulling a bit of a Milner and transitioning to a centre midfielder. He’s definitely got the engine to play in the middle and hes good enough on the ball. Glad to see he’s staying though.

That is honestly the best (and the worst) way i've seen watching our football described

Gerrard has worked with a lot of different managers and he's a clever enough bloke to have realised what works and what doesn't work and use that to form his own managerial style. It doesn't matter if its his first job or not if anything a young manager like Gerrard with his top level experience as a player is more in touch with the modern game. the modern player and knows how to motivate them whereas some managers that have been around for a long time that have had some degree of success tend to live on what brought them that success and never evolve their styles. Plus you can't rule out the effect it would have on a group of players playing under a manager that was genuinely close to a world class player in his prime and spent the totality of his career playing at a high level.

My point is that its easy to say that now events have happened but at the time he tied down his star player to a long term contract which shouldnt be used as a stick to beat him with, its a sign of good management. Look at it this way - if Puel managed to tie down Mahrez to a new contract at the end of last season you'd be using that in all the defences you make for him, regardless of loss of form/injury.