cityfanlee23

Here we go!

Can Tuna play upfront? what a strike!

We all love an underdog especially as Leicester City fans, I'm getting behind @Chelmofox

I really don’t see the issue with people complaining about a style of play. Points matter, but the only reason any of us watch football or began to watch football when we were younger was because it’s an entertainment sport. I love Formula 1 because I find it really entertaining and I find the technical and science aspects interesting. Some people don’t like formula 1, I hate tennis, others love it. Football first and foremost is an entertainment sport, if people have the opinion that the style of play is less entertaining, they are entitled to voice their opinion. Many clubs up and down the country build an “identity” based on what the fans of that club want to see, very few clubs like Leicester impose a style on fans.

Not sure if this was mentioned elsewhere but did anyone else notice Okoli almost passing out at FT? Watch him @9:20 when the final cross goes in for the final whistle, he crouches down, then seemingly nearly passes out and falls over, I was going to joke about his balance but that looked a bit concerning, dehydrated maybe?

I’m willing to get behind him but if every week is like today I might struggle. IMO we probably aren’t too far off in terms of players to go back up, with 1 or 2 more bodies we might be able to give it a good go, but my main concern is that there are still quite a few players that look like they either don’t want to be here, are just going through the motions, or have completely forgotten what that white sphere thing on the floor is supposed to be. Souttar looks gone already, Okoli somehow manages to reduce his ability as a football relative to the league he plays in, BDCR I just don’t even know what position he should play in, Mavididi needs a fresh environment he’s been awful for 2 years now and so far in pre season nothing has shown me he even wants to turn it around here. Hamza is hamza. League One is a perfect opportunity to maybe go for players who we wouldn’t have taken a punt on in the Championship and need a season at a lower level to properly develop, the pool of players available to us that can play at this level is massive compared to the top 2 divisions, I just don’t want to be groaning in October that BDCR, Okoli, Souttar and Mavididi have put in yet another stinker.

Ruud we didn't mean it mate, we were only joking, Ruud please pick up

Have to move the ball faster. This is the "possession for the sake of possession" that so many fans wanted to avoid, and it's why Martin got such a rough reception. Move the ball fast, create space, play on the front foot. Give me 65% "domination" and playing fast over 80% and sitting in our own half. Early days, still need a few players in the door.

These are the sort of signings we need, the likes of Watson and McFarlane are players that have great potential and *could* one day be prem players, but time and time again we see prem clubs loan players out but never quite find a spot to bring them back into the first team because maybe they are fighting for survival, at the top end of the table, or maybe just have better players there. Leicester could potentially if all goes well be a good opportunity for them to get real minutes under the belt this season, if we get promoted may be open to another loan signing next season, or potentially even moving permanently if they feel they won't get the chance needed at their parent clubs. We are in a bit of a weird place where we can take these players on loan and potentially discover a gem that we can convince to come permanently if we treat them properly and have a manager with a coherent plan.

I'm not THAT concerned about Okoli in League 1, but for the amount we paid for him, it's surprising just how often he manages to put himself at a disadvantage just by not getting the very basics right. I mean, look at the highlights of the game @7.10, look at the state of his feet, he somehow ends up square on to a guy running directly at him, anyone with pace there blazes past him with no issue. This isn't a moment of genius from the attacker, Okoli did half the work for him by putting himself off balance and unable to close the pass down. This is a "£20m" defender. He’s 6 ft 3”with the balance of someone who’s 12 ft 3” Surprising how often I’ve seen him do this where he just cannot get his feet right.

Yep, Puel did a very underrated job overall in squad building, he just didn’t have the charisma required to get the squad on board and that coupled with some genuine tactical and man management errors led to a very average return on points, but broadly speaking he achieved a very quick turnaround of an ageing and one dimensional squad, and despite the lack of “success” on the pitch he built a squad that was capable for the future with the ability to play different styles for future managers. His handling of Vichais passing was absolutely masterful. I am hoping that at the very least Russell Martin will do something similar in that the sort of profile of players he looks for (young, dynamic, technical and high pressing work-horses) will mean even if we end up failing under him, he will leave us a squad that can adapt to any future managers ideas. That was the legacy of Puel.

Do the thing FA….

One thing Enzo did was very quickly turned the general vibe of the club and fanbase around, from a few years of decline where it felt like things were very quickly collapsing after relegation, Enzo just gave off this calmness and leadership that felt like the club was going to turn itself around. After 2 seasons of collapse, RM is somewhat doing that again. We have a manager who has a clear identity, looks to have the players especially the younger ones buying into it and demands standards. Feels like he’s fixing the foundation first rather than just patching the walls like previous managers have.

Not sold on this one at all, but give me a 6/10 player that tries hard, the manager knows, trusts and gets on with, over the egotistical hand-me-downs our managers have been lumbered with for years now.

Yeah the hatred is bizarre really however I can sort of understand the frustration given the style he plays. I always liked Martin as a player and as a coach I think he often talks a lot of sense, sure he often does say things that are maybe a bit delusional but I think all managers do that especially when they’ve played poorly and lost a game, sometimes I’d guess its just about looking like an idiot to make sure the negativity of a result doesn’t affect players? Russell Martin was always a grafter of a player and it’s clear he drives standards, the fact Southampton players were rumoured to have asked for his return once Will Still got sacked speaks volumes if true. It’s been a while since we had players who wanted to run through walls for the manager so hopefully he can keep driving us forward.

Thanks Enzo 🤝 Position we need to strengthen ✅ Won’t cost us much ✅ Trained in a possession system ✅ Potentially the perfect signing for League 1. Early days but the McCarron/Martin era looks to have us turning a corner in terms of the general feeling around the club, Enzo did the same where he very quickly turned the ship around and made us feel like the rot was being stopped.

He's growing on me quickly, hasn't put a foot wrong so far, I can almost feel him massaging my shoulders trying to win me over and it's working.

Russell Martin as a player is the sort of character we desperately need. So hopefully he can translate that into his transfers!

I've lost a lot of faith in Tops ability to run this club over the last few years, however, I have little doubt he loves this club, I just sincerely hope he hasn't left it so late that he's selling the club out of pure desperation to the highest bidder, and he will atleast attempt to sell us to people/a group who can try to keep the foundation of the club stable and commit to rebuilding the relationship with the fans and continuing good work in the community. Funnily enough I'd be more confident in that outcome with a middle eastern group than an American one. I know Man City have seen a huge commercialisation of the club which is never fun, but they have spent quite a lot as far as I know on local infrastructure and trying to help regenerate the eastlands and have integrated the club with local facilities, which to be fair is pretty much what King Power have done. For example Citigroup cleaned up something like 70-80 acres of heavily polluted land to use for their football academy, but they donated 5 acres of it back to the community as open-access play areas, they built 1,000 social homes as part of a venture with Manchester city council. I'm not saying Citigroup are good owners, but they are certainly not the worst. I really hope Top doesn't just sell us off to someone who's only priority is extracting as much as possible.

Yeah I will need to try to look into them more, I guess I was just working out of there was a possibility of us spending a sack load of money now buying young players who can improve (on lower wages but higher transfer fees) so that if we get back to the Champ and PSR kicks in, we in theory could spend less under PSR rules to stabilise?

How restrictive are League One financial rules compared to PSR? Hypothetically if we were bought by an obscenely wealthy group, would we be in a position to spend more money now whilst PSR doesn't apply, to make sure should we get promoted we have a stronger base to work from?

Wasn't part of the "problem" at the club, but since 23/24 it's been a disappointing time, after the 23/24 season I genuinely believed he would become the next 50-60m player we sold, he's been absolutely nowhere even close to that since apart from the odd moment. From a buying clubs perspective, you've got a player who did amazing in the Championship, suffered a horrific injury, then came back and had a relatively poor season compared to his breakout season, in a lower league than you're buying him for. So there is a genuine risk Fatawu won't ever hit the heights we thought he could, there is a whole host of players who were brilliant in the Champ but flopped at Prem level. From our perspective it's sad really that he was never able to recreate the form from that season upon his return, he deserves a shot at the prem and there is a huge chance he could come good for them, we profit from the sale so it's a win/win for us. There's no way he'd have wanted to be in League 1.

The most corrupt World Cup in history. Infantino needs to be hounded out by football fans globally after this tournament.

Spain are playing with fire. So many chances wasted.