Ricey

His ‘idea’ will never be liked by the fans. It doesn’t resonate with why we watch our team. I like it when it works. I detest it when it doesn’t.

Another one that’s on Enzo unfortunately. I know it’s easy to scapegoat the manager after a defeat, but he’s only got himself to blame. Faes has needed dropping for weeks, Ndidi looks horrifically unfit and Akgun has not once looked like a winger, but there they all are in the starting lineup. He said there would be changes and there wasn’t. Add to that the baffling decision to swap KDH and Ndidi, then not change it when it clearly wasn’t working, and you have a pretty abject managerial performance on your hands. It was an arrogant performance. Just like Sheff Wed away and Bristol City away, we rocked up looking like a team that expected to win with ease. All of the fight and intent that we’ve showed in the last week was nowhere to be seen. To go away to badly out of form Millwall in such an huge match and create literally nothing until the final few minutes is unacceptable. I don’t trust this team to get us over the line.

Wout ****ing Faes. Beyond that though, it’s so predictable and unambitious.

Really weird to swap KDH and Ndidi round. Change it.

I’m already worried about Ricardo and Ndidi. Yunus hasn’t impressed me as a winger so far, but he’s earned his chance.

Any change will be for next season onwards. It won’t mean that we escape points deductions for last season and this season.

A luxury tax would work in some instances as it would allow clubs to be ambitious as long as they have the backing to do so, but what happens if owners lump it all on loans that then strangle the club further down the line? Also, for the mega-rich like Newcastle and Man City, it basically gives them free-reign to spend what they like and sail off into the sunset. A luxury tax, but still with some kind of spending/wage bill cap might be the answer. Regardless, we can't carry on with a situation where half of the Premier League are desperately trying to avoid points deductions each season.

They weren't new rules though. They had been in place for 10 years. I don't think they did have the right to be ambitious if it meant gambling the future of the club on it being successful, especially when that gamble effectively meant going all in on Brendan Rodgers and Lee Congerton, who both have a terrible records in regards to longevity and sustained success. No fan would have wanted that. They effectively built a financial infrastructure that only stood a chance of avoiding breaches if we carried on finishing in the top 6 and carried on being able to sell players for £50M+. That was never ever going to be sustainable and hindsight is not required to see that. We could still have been ambitious, but within a business plan that allowed for a bump in the road. Instead we put our foot down and wrote the car off once it hit the first pothole.

My only hope with that is that he's on reduced terms, knowing that if he had left on a free then there was no way he'd get a contract anywhere near like the one he had previously.

What I find staggering is that we lost £90m despite PL TV money and selling our two most prized assets. That is terrifying and makes me think that we have at least 2 more breaches coming for this season and next. What I also find staggering, but at the same time predictable, is that the clubs defence is "Well, we earnt the right to spend that sort of money because of sporting merit". I've not read the PSR guidelines thoroughly, but I can assure you that there is no mitigation or consideration for sporting merit. The only way you can safely afford to ramp up your investment is to increase your revenue. It sounds like the club started to budget for finishing in Europe (or at the very least in the top half) AND selling a high value player, all the while not budgeting for the fact that we might at some point need to sack one of the highest paid managers in the world and letting the wage bill run wild. That is not a safe or sustainable business plan. It was also going to end in disaster the minute we had a bad season. Even if we had finished in the European places last season, we probably still would have breached. Our wage bill vs revenue has been alarming for years. This has been staring the club in the face and they've done little about it.

Either the club didn't care about PSR, did the maths wrong or, more likely, they expected to sell a few players. Tielemans, Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Praet, Soumare, Choudhury etc etc. I think the club were confident that they could shift a few of those out, oblivious to the fact that no one was ever going to give us a good offer and no one can afford their inflated wages.

But what if the billionaire’s business acumen is the problem? What if the people below him are so close to him that they are bullet proof? At that point it becomes irrelevant that he’s a billionaire. He can’t spend his money if we are haemorrhaging money through incompetence.

After looking at the numbers and the statement, then yes, they have to go. It’s no time to be sentimental. There is no defence for those losses and the clubs reasonings for them are even more alarming. Top, Rudkin and Whelan are joined at the hip, therefore the only way for genuine change is for the club to be sold.

Guy who sits next to me left on the 79th minute rather than the 75th. Progress.

Southampton.

It's amazing how quickly the mood can switch when teams around you also win, especially winning in the way they both did. It's agonising. I tried not to watch both matches but then the score lines sucked me in. Ipswich's winner brought back some serious PTSD of Allison's winner for Liverpool against West Brom. Having said that, we are still in better shape than we were before yesterday's matches. We played well, displaying all of the things that we've been crying out for. Even if we haven't gained anything on Leeds and Ipswich, we can hopefully use the performance as a springboard to go on a decent run. Famous last words, but I think the remaining fixtures suit us. Next up are three teams near the relegation zone, who although they will be fighting for their lives, are down there for a reason. After that we have West Brom and Southampton at home, who are both good sides, but you would think they won't park the bus in the same way that QPR and Middlesbrough did, which could suit us. Preston away could be tough, as they are hard to break down, but they may have nothing to play for. Finally, Blackburn at home, a team which until yesterday had only won once since the 12th December.

Feels like the crowd are largely responsible for our more direct style today. Maresca turning to the West Stand and having a go at them for wanting us to play it quicker doesn’t bode well for the future. It was only 6 minutes in. Sounds like Faes cupped his ears to the fans after the goal as well. Reeks of last seasons arrogance.

Proper Bournemouth at home from last season vibes. A horrible realisation that things are grim and are unlikely to change.

I still can’t quite believe today. I was confident that a break would have done us the world of good, not only to rest but to adapt and try a few new things….but we looked just as tired and just as devoid of ideas as we did before the break. Where do we go from here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager so steadfast in his beliefs. I just can’t see anything changing.

If he plays Faes and Choudhury, I’m done.

Deduct the points this season, the outcome will be the same.

I have two main concerns, besides the clear capitulation that is happening in front of our eyes. 1. If we did manage to go up, his style of play just will not work without heavy investment, which isn’t happening. He’s carbon copying Man City, rather than simply taking inspiration from them, and it only really works if you have a squad head and shoulders above your opponents. 2. His style of play will never go down well with the fans. I get as annoyed as anyone with the “gerrit forward” brigade but the fact is the football is on the whole dull and it lacks all of the qualities that Leicester fans enjoy; tenacity, fight, resilience and intensity. The club seems determined for us to play a slow, heavy possession style, but after how hated Puel, Rodgers and potentially now Maresca have become, maybe the penny will drop with them that this isn’t the way.

Still our best striker. He had a mare but I’d have left him on as every miss fires him up more.

That’s that then. After a long awaited international break nothing has changed. Slow, predictable football with no variation of play. Maresca should be rightly criticised for his part in today. Ndidi shouldn’t have started when he hasn’t trained, Faes is a liability and yet again a total lack of subs or tactical changes to try and turn the tide. How many times have we seen the opposition start to make subs from 60 mins onwards and then begin to take control. All the while we just sit back and change nothing. He isn’t learning.

They are coming at us, which in theory should suit us, but we are just devoid of any confidence or composure.