Sly

Also a point to note, if we contractually have to take the obligations to purchase Dolphin and Fatawu, the might be factoring into our FFP decisions now.

Depends on how we look at it. I think we acknowledged last season we actually paid the rules the respect unlike others, then got our fingers burnt.

We don’t know what other deals were going on in the background. Mark Albrighton might have been going out on loan for all we know to Sunderland, or Danny Ward to Real Madrid. It only takes the plug to get pulled on those deals, then we are no longer freeing up the required wages that gets this deal gets done. It’s easy to blame the club, however the last day has so many moving parts. It only takes one of those dominoes to not fall, then the butterfly effect from that is the downstream transfers do not happen. You can reflect on why we made purchases in the summer of Coady, however maybe Enzo or the club didn’t appreciate what an asset Vestergaard would be at that stage. Another thought is that maybe, in terms of FFP we might have had a breakthrough in the background of Ndidi signing a new contract, so we don’t need to strengthen in midfield. We will get over the line and win this division by over 10 points in my opinion. The major challenge and rebuild starts in July, as currently Vardy, Albrighton, Praet, Iheanacho and Ndidi will no longer be Leicester players, freeing up over £20,000,0000 from our wage bill. That’s just under 50% of the current wage bill, to put it into perspective. So, so many moving parts, on what is a massively complex day in football, to proportion blame at the door of one or two individuals is wrong. Did we have the best squad in this division before the window opened? Yes Do we have the best squad in this divisions now? Yes Let’s just pull together, put our big boy pants on and win the game against Stoke tomorrow.

I’ll come back to what I said the other day. Our wage bill is what will cripple us. It’ll be a different story (hopefully) in the summer once the likes of Vardy, Albrighton, Vestergaard, Iheanacho and Ndidi etc are not earning those massive wages or have left.

I can see this one getting done early, starting a chain of events …..

https://trainingground.guru/articles/kalogiannidis-leaving-chelsea-after-13-years-with-richmond-coming-in CHELSEA Medical Director Dimitrios Kalogiannidis is leaving the club after more than 13 years, while Physio Ed Richmond is about to arrive from Leicester City. Kalogiannidis has worked for the Blues since August 2010, acting as Doctor for the women's team, then the Academy and then the men's first team. In October 2022 he replaced the long-serving Paco Biosca as Medical Director. He is leaving the club for family reasons, TGG understands. Richmond has worked for Leicester City for the last two years and comes in as First-Team Physio. He worked for Crystal Palace for five-and-a-half years prior to joining the Foxes and was also a Physio with the Wales national team from 2017 to 2019. Chelsea’s medical department has been overhauled since the takeover of the club by Clearlake Capital in May 2022. The other physios are Steve Hughes, who has been with the Blues for more than 20 years, and has been given the new title Lead Performance Physio, and Fearghal Kerin, who joined in January 2023 and is Rehab Physio. Dave Fevre, who was the physio for Manchester United when they won the Treble in 1999, was working for Chelsea on a consultancy basis for a year but has now departed.

https://www.football-espana.net/2024/01/31/real-betis-targeting-move-for-leicester-city-star-as-deal-for-osasuna-marksman-stagnates Real Betis targeting move for Leicester City star as deal for Osasuna marksman stagnates Real Betis have struggled to score goals this season, and with Borja Iglesias having now joined Bayer Leverkusen until the summer, it is crucial that they bring in another striker for the second half of the campaign. Club officials have been working on this, although with just over 24 hours to go until the window closes, they are yet to agree terms with anyone. Osasuna’s Chimy Avila has been their top target, but talks with Osasuna have stagnated in the last couple of days, which has meant that Betis have begun to consider other targets. According to MD, one of those is Leicester City’s Patson Daka, who has just finished playing at the Africa Cup of Nations with Zambia. Real Betis have contacted Leicester over organising a loan deal, but the clock is ticking in this regard, as they only have until Thursday at midnight to finalise everything. The race is certainly on at Los Verdiblancos.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/leicester-city-eyeing-deal-for-ligue-1-centre-back/ Leicester City eyeing deal for Ligue 1 centre-back The Foxes could compete to sign a new defender icester City are interested in a late January move for Nantes centre-back Nathan Zeze. That's according to a report from French outlet L'Equipe, who say that the Championship leaders are among a number of clubs to have scouted the 18-year-old recently. Zeze already catching the eye at Nantes Despite the fact he is still only at the very early stages of his career, Zeze has started to break into the Nantes first-team over the past 12 months. The teenager has now made a total of five senior appearances for Nantes' first team, which includes two outings in Ligue 1. As well as that, Zeze has also featured on 25 occasions for the club's B-team, who currently play in the fifth-tier of French football, scoring once and providing one assist in that time. Now it seems as though that form, is starting to attract plenty of interest in the centre-back from elsewhere, as we enter the final hours of the January transfer window. Leicester among clubs keen on move for Zeze According to this latest update from L'Equipe, Leicester were one of a number of clubs to have watched Zeze play for Nantes against Stade de Reims on Sunday afternoon. The teenager played the full 90 minutes of that game, which ended 0-0, to leave Nantes 13th in the Ligue 1 standings, three points clear of the relegation places. That interest is said to have left Nantes worried after enquiries earlier in the window, and the next 24 hours will apparently be decisive when it comes to the future of the centre-back. However, it is claimed that it will take a substantial offer, to secure the services of Zeze from Nantes before the market closes. As things stand, there are two-and-a-half years remaining on the teenager's contract with his current club, securing his future there until the end of the 2025/26 season. That of course, means Nantes are in a strong position to respond to offers for Zeze from Leicester or elsewhere, between now and the end of the window. Leicester closing in on Premier League return Following their relegation from the Premier League at the end of last season, Leicester now look to be well set for an immediate return to the top-flight of English football. In the wake of their 3-1 win over Swansea City on Tuesday night, the Foxes currently sit top of the Championship table, 11 points clear of the play-off places. Enzo Maresca's side are next in action on Saturday afternoon, when they travel to the Bet365 Stadium to face Stoke City. Zeze could be one for the future for Leicester This could be an interesting signing for Leicester if they pull it off. Given his age and relative lack of experience at the very top level, it would be a big ask to throw Zeze straight into the first-team at The King Power Stadium. However, the form of Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard means it is unlikely they would have to do that, and so the experience he could pick up over time, may ensure he is ready to step into that role in the future, with the potential he is showing, suggesting he may be able to do so. As a result, given it appears they have been keen on a new centre back for quite some time now, it does seem as though this may be a deal that is worth pursuing late in the window for Leicester City.

Also, why on earth would Arsenal need him? They’ve got British players within the squad in Ramsdale, Saka, Rowe, Nketia, White, Rice and Nelson. KDH isn’t guaranteed games when he’s got to get past Rice, Jorginho, Odegaard, Havertz, Viera and Rowe.

The amount we fork out on players wages, will forever cause us more issues than transfer fees. That will get naturally trimmed on the 30th June. The players (Vardy, Iheanacho, Ndidi, Vestergaard, Albrighton and Praet) that are out of contract at that time cost us around £335k per week. Factor that in, then it’s £17.4m per year off our wage bill. Naturally some of that will need to be replaced, however I don’t think we will aim to pay people in excess of £100k per week again any time soon. Smithies, Iversen and Casadei leaving have saved us £70k per week apparently! Then you consider that Soumare and Kristensen and Thomas were supposedly picking up close to £110k per week between them, I can see why they were shipped out on loan, with no hope of long term transfers, just to get the wages off the bill and help FFP. We can’t be sailing that close to FFP though, as the signings of the likes of Winks, Coady, Mavididi and Hermenaen won’t exactly be on cheap wages either. The crazy thing, even now our wage bill Is reported as being higher than the Luton, Sheffield United and Burnley etc now! We made a serious amount of profit in the summer with player sales, with Maddison, Castagne and Barnes leaving. Even with amortization considered against Maddison’s and Castages initially transfer fees, we’d have likely made north of £65m profit on those alone. That’s more than our annual wage bill. Consider we cut so much from our wage bill with the likes of Amartey, Soyuncu, Tielemans, Perez, Evans, Mendy and Bertrand leaving (£400k per week / £20.8m per year) and the fact we cut to meet FFP. The reason we’ve used so many of our younger players as backup, or even first team this season, is that it really drags that wage bill down if we’ve not had to replace at a significantly higher amount in transfer fees and wages. KDH won’t be on a massive wage with us, like Vardy, Albrighton etc and I understand he is pure profit from an FFP point of view. However, for me it would make more sense to sell a Justin or Souttar who are potentially on higher wage and don’t really fit our system. Obviously the key is in other people wanting them! Long and short, every player has a price and we saw that in the summer. I just don’t see why, or how we’d want to sell KDH on the cheap this month. Couple that with me might actually need him to accommodate squad registration positions in future years for Premier league and dare I say it European competitions.

You know what, you’re right

Next game and a reunion with Daniel Iversen.

Another 10 wins from our 17 games and I think it’s in the back to be honest. Ipswich and Southampton would need to average 2.2 points per game to get past us. That’s a major ask for them. We’ll keep grinding and get this done. Well played and move onto Stoke away.

Another 10 wins from our 17 games and I think it’s in the back to be honest. Ipswich and Southampton would need to average 2.2 points per game to get past us. That’s a major ask for them.

It’ll be interesting to see how we compete against Bournemouth to be honest. It’ll give us a feel for where we are in terms of ability. I do still think a top Premier League attack puts us to the sword more often than not. Yannick would have nightmares against Liverpool or Manchester City. The likes of Sheffield United, Luton, Burnley, Forest, Everton, Bournemouth, Brentford, Palace, Wolves and Fulham, aren’t exactly light years ahead of us. Marginal differences, a bit more decisiveness from the board and I still don’t think we would, or should even be in this league to start with.

Not a great deal of difference if you look at the bottom half of the Premier League. That’s why a single player “can make the difference”, if they’re able to create and score goals.

3-0 now ….. trust the process

No …… we dropped the ball, twice. We had and degree still do, have a mentality issue with getting stuff “over the line at times”. I was calling for Rodger’s to go after Forest away in the FA Cup but got abused for it

What team ever does though @Izzy? Unless you’re freakishly consistent like Ronaldo, Messi etc, then I’d better 99.9% of football fans state the same thing.

I’m not convinced this forum will ever be happy. We’ve got the best defence and attack in the league for goals scored for and against. Apparently we’re still shite though. We aren’t signing world class players left, right and centre to annihilate teams week in, week out.

Especially once De Zerbi confirms he’s going to Liverpool.

I personally think we’ve played our best football this season with Daka in the team. His movement causes havoc and creates space for others. He’d be a bloody nightmare to play against if he’s dropping deeper, allowing space for Mavididi, KDH and Fatawu etc to run into. Some people won’t have it though. If he’s not scoring, he’ll be classed as poor. All about the process and not the individual. Trust the system.

Whatever happens with Man City will cause shockwaves through the game, be it good or bad (from a Manchester City point of view). If they don’t face any charges, FFP and financial doping becomes a farce and I’d argue lots of clubs would then legally challenge the points deductions and trimming of the wage bill etc that has been forced upon them. If they face charges, Man City will drag it out but could be relegated from the league etc. Can you imagine that squad in the Championship? Never mind league 1 or 2! It would be unfair on the rest of the football pyramid. If they get banned from Europe, stripped of titles or the champions league title, then you could see a mass exodus.