Guy

Aah, definitely! Trouble is you're always back and forward to the bogs too if you drink (esp. excessively!) before the match.

I only tend to drink after the game - as if you're half cut you simply can't focus properly on what you went there for in the first place - to see a game of football!

In short RVN has been a gamble that has simply backfired after the questionable appointment that was Cooper.....mostly based purely on short termism in how he did as M.United's interim manager in the autumn (incl. those two games against......us!) and obviously less so on his time at PSV. I think it would be nuts to show the faith in him next season as we surely sink straight back to the Championship.

Also Spencer Prior and Kasey Keller in the following close season!

It must have come back to bite him possibly, he was never the same for the second season in the Prem. under O'Neill and was sadly sold to Wolves...where he never shone. I think he came of age at Pompey in the early 00s though!

I can't really argue with any of the above! The egos need culling out of the club that have become ever present this season for sure, how Faes and Vestergaard are still being picked for their national teams remains a mystery - unless they up their games for Belgium and Denmark. I must admit to never watching either nation in any detail so don't know on that score! As for the players signed for this season then the aforementioned trio Cooper signed have been at best bit part players, are clearly well past their prime in Ayew's and DC Reid's cases and all three have clearly made us worse, not better - which is surely not why they were signed! Okoli has shown more promise but is at the mercy of the poor players around him so perhaps hasn't been able to shine because of it. Meanwhile the only Ruud signing, Coulibaly is still something of an unknown quantity at this level and going by who we signed him from, a mid-lower league Serie A side, then he is likely to be more at home in the Championship....next season! As for the way forward as things stand (assuming of course we're relegated), then I think Ruud will be on his way either before the season's end if things carry on as they are, or certainly in the summer if he takes a compromised pay off perhaps and goes back to being in a role that suits him more as somebody like Ten Hag's no.2 elsewhere. He is obviously way out of his depth in his present role with us as many others keep saying time and again and I think it has taken him by surprise, especially working for a club that has seemingly mislead him to date it seems in terms of empoty promises! I'd be amazed if he's still here in any capacity next season.

He had a thyroid problem for the initial period he signed for us IIRC, which was diagnosed in time before he suddenly came a saint in that Charlton away game!

Correction : the Brighton draw was a fortnight before you originally posted on 27.12.24 - so in just over two months of league football we've mustered just one win, faaaarkin' hell! Well you're 100% right in what you say - as was your late December hypothesis, probably brought on by "that" Wolves game a week earlier and Ruud's incompetence and lack of knowledge of the club being sharply exposed by his playing Danny Ward in goal for it! n Anyway as long as Top and Rudkin are at the wheel, so to speak it will only remain as a downward spiral for the club. Enzo's appointment last season for the Championship was maybe a shrewd one, not a gamble that backfired like Ruud has been but that was all tossed up the wall when he left for Chelsea and we then made not one but two poor managerial appointments! There's no team unity anymore it seems, Seagrave's luxury training facility has been a bit of a disaster and made players soft, the supporters are deeply divided between them, Ruud's tactics and team formation are the same, week in week out - what's to like at the moment?! The way forward is definitely via the youngsters/academy, blended with the right sort of experienced players next season of course but who that will consist of obviously remains to be seen! I'm like many though, in that I think it will be a long while before we can get back to the Prem. if we go down this season - and even longer if the EFL then sanction us over PSR next season with a points deduction!

Scary to think we've only drawn one and won one since this was posted originally on December 27th - so it looks like panning out to be pretty accurate, Cannon aside of course!

It is rather strange how that 4th place in March (2001) under Peter Taylor's first season tenure, has since been (very) written out of history - mainly ever since the infamous Wycombe FA Cup defeat that followed that 2-0 league win over then FA Cup winners that May, Liverpool. Maybe it was a good defensive formation and us scoring more than we let in up to that point of the season that got us there - or maybe it was just pure luck but anyway, the rest as they say is history. Hard to say if the club was better or more poorly managed at the very top back then (the late John Elsom?), compared to now though re Top/Rudkin/Whelan : given that we went into administration after relegation and during the first season at our then new home of course re "the blue and white bowl"!

I actually think Andy King was brought in to help bring some actual Leicester insight and feel back to the team as a whole in these troubled times, not as a 'caretaker manager' replacement of a kind for Ruud before long - which now most of us are probably hoping for!!

This is it. Fatawu's belated introuduction into the game was what effectively won us the game at the death at Southampton in October, Bournemouth beforehand at home we just rode our luck (and then some!), to hold on to 1.0 - re those very fortuitous wins under Cooper. Likewise we were similarly very fortunate in Ruud's first game to beat West Ham, while injury deplted Spurs were even worse than us in that last time we won match last month. Four wins all season is horrendous at any level by late February and how Ruud is still in charge (regardless of the consequences of another sacking in a season), is well beyond me!

Possibly so, it might be better if he was in a different role now mind...for the best interests of the club, so it's not about him!

He might well have to if we want things to change managerially! I wonder what Vichai said after appointing and then sacking Sousa within two months?! Did he admit such a thing? Surely he did....

If Ruud walked - unlikely that he walks away from £2million though of course! - or indeed was sacked (still unlikely) - then I could see Vardy and Kingy taking care of the team until the season's end for sure...regardless of Top, Rudkin shenanigans, etc.

I've supported him so far since his surprise autumnal arrival but clearly he's been out of his depth managing here, despite always "talking a good game". On reflection to date after the 0-4 horror show reverse yesterday then he has been far worse at managing this team than Cooper (whatever others say in mitigation as regards them not being his players and it is the mess he inherited, etc). Under Cooper though we never once got truly turned over like we have been in certain games under Ruud. Looking back then it was ridiculous that he ever got he job to start with really, as others have continuously said ever since the wheels fell off after the Wolves defeat before Christmas. That's been a game from which we've clearly still not recovered, despite one or two glimpses of promise here and there since (the Spurs away win, a spirited display at Man. Utd in the FA Cup which obviously deserved extra time and in the league at Anfield, also holding an injury depleted Arsenal for 80 mins in last w/end's game as some examples). However the writing has remained on the wall since the turn of the year really and clearly Ruud is not going to turn it around in time now. Even during the Great Escape season under Pearson we had 22 points before that 7/9 wins game came at the death. I know football's a "funny old game" but with these players uinder this manager then I'd be surprised if we even cobbled together 22 points in total now this season, never mind stay up!

Just tuned in, Jesus .... 0-3 alteady....!! If Ruud stays after this (if it stays at this score or worsens), I'll eat my....car!

Strange bones of a board over the past little while indeed!

Agreed in the main, I think he saw the dollar signs after the surprise Man. United rebuff and so jumped at the chance of managing a Premier League side but he was still something of a panic appointment, given his lack of experience at this level. However neither Moyes or Potter wanted it at the time so the board were in something of a quandary at the time I guess....

100%, would probably be a good fit for Championship success, even with a potential points deduction.....if we did go down.

Another Maresca-type manager then for a repeat instant bounce back is what you must mean then. A big ask with this bunch of players though maybe, if Ruud isn't here by then! Maybe Rohl from Sheff. Wed. then...?

I could easily see Dyche being here next season though if we end up in the Championship, unlikely to be Ruud.....

We've also bettered Derby's 11 points tally for the entire season in 2008 - not much to shout about admittedly!

Probably easy to say but I think it was downhill all the way after we won the Prem. starting with 2016-17 season once Kante left for Chelski on the cheap which affected the whole team and players who'd shone the season before were then a shadow of the players they had been during the following season for one reason and another! While the less said about the transfer window that close season (Slimani, Hernandez, Musa....!), the better! After then, after a bit of an improvement under Rodgers in his first season or two then as others have also said ... Covid and the re-start in 2020 massively affected matters for us thereafter...to date.

Yeah, I suppose it's more than just about goals per se ratio re all around contribution too....!