Freeman's Wharfer

Seen both the Netflix and ITV programmes and he’s pretty reluctant and reserved in both. I sense that’s very much not the Vardy those who know him get to see. In both it’s pretty clear that one of the two people in that marriage is very keen on the exposure and profile… Vardy has the air of the guy that’s been forced to tag along to a couples dinner date with another couple where he’s bored as hell by the other couple but his wife is best mates with the other woman and loving it.

Unfortunately this group has lost credibility as a mechanism to be able to achieve any meaningful change, in the eyes of the wider fan base. Fair play for trying to communicate to us but the letter just reads like a group of nice people who are trying their best but ultimately not getting anywhere. They’ve had the ear of the most senior individuals in the Club (including Top, Rudkin, Whelan and Rudkin) - access that some of the supporter groups would relish - and achieved very little of note. Two years in, I can’t see how the FAB in its current form starts to deliver.

So it’s basically a sledge hammer to crack a nut then, isn’t it?! Why should many supporters be inconvenienced because a) the club won’t re-vamp the away priority system and b) there’s the old trouble maker in an away end (which happens at every club)? It doesn’t really matter what the reasons are that people are against it when there’s such a small percentage in favour of it. I’d sooner find out why people are actually for inconveniencing their fellow fans. The hilarious thing is that this is introduced as we plummet to League One. The first time round they tried it was supposedly because of Premier League guidance/advice (well it’ll be a while before that applies) and this time round it’s brought in as there really won’t be a hot black market for tickets to see Leicester away in the third tier. IMO it’s about nothing other than control and clamping down on a profile of fan the club considers undesirable.

Introducing ID checks for away tickets. Only 18.3% of 3,976 respondents in the Trust’s End of Season Survey support this approach (you could only answer the question if selecting you typically attend at least one away game each season). There’s an absolute chasm between what the club hear (or pay attention to in the Fan Engagement Framework) and what the wider fan base thinks and feels. Box. Ticking. Exercise.

I want the Johnstone’s paint trophy or whatever it’s called now. Just that and League Two left on the bingo card in English football for us so let’s go hard at it and try and get it in the cabinet for the sheer ridiculousness of having it there next to the Premier League.

He’s a great story teller so that in itself made for an entertaining couple of hours. Biggest pearl was that he was offered the job before Ranieri. Bit too much Celtic chat for my liking. Get the sense he’ll either be staying there or back to his retirement, no chance he wants to get involved with the current debacle here.

This part is particularly illuminating. In all honesty, yes you could have been stronger at holding the club to account and challenging, Jordan. But you then at least go on to say all of the things that you probably weren’t allowed to say and have clearly been wanting to say for a while.

A match befitting of the whole thing: absolutely dire.

You might have missed this on the call last night, or be commenting without having seen it and the explanation of the distribution approach, but 15,000 hard copy leaflets were handed out before four matches, all other fan groups were alerted to the survey and asked to push to their members and the Supporters Club took leaflets to put on their coaches up to Blackburn away. You literally could not do more to widen the sample than just Foxes Trust members. The club know the sample is good and they are not in any way questioning that. What they possibly are at risk of misunderstanding is that this isn’t simply a case of only unhappy fans taking this survey - sure there might be a slight slant, in the same way you’re more likely to do a review after a bad experience, but the numbers and overwhelming trends in the data mean that is flawed logic.

‘European semi final’

Email came to me today about it being cancelled

Can’t move on social media without adverts to buy tickets for this popping up.

It’s a bit crap, isn’t it?

Would go down well in the stadium right now

Exactly what KPFC would say…

“We always knew this year was just about survival”… Well this just shows that to be utter nonsense.

Not seen it discussed or confirmed elsewhere but I wondered if part of the proceeds going to LCFC In The Community was to actually keep some people in a job that they might not otherwise have. Personally, I don’t want to contribute to the Vichai Foundation after the £25 Loyalty Tax went there and we’ve never heard anything since about where that money went and how it helped.

Which questions did you think were loaded/leading?

It’s funny, what I’ve seen in recent months with the protests and the surveys is this absolute desire for some to be ‘proved right’. ”Protesting like that, it’ll never work - you should do it x/y/z way”. “The only way the club is going to listen to the protests is if you paint the stadium red, stage a sit-in protest in the changing room and stop giving the club your pocket money”. “Good luck to those protesting, but Aiyatt won’t care one bit mate”…. Trust mobilises some form of action and offers up FREE MEMBERSHIP - like a membership tier WHERE YOU LITERALLY JUST NEED TO GIVE YOUR NAME DOB AND EMAIL ADDRESS - and people are like “ah, don’t think the club will listen to the Trust”. Trust runs a survey that tries to cover the vast majority of issues affecting supporters today and you get people going “bit long isn’t it?” despite it taking 5-10 minutes to complete. They then spend at least 50% of said 5 minutes writing critical posts about how the survey takes too much time or won’t make a difference. There’s a whole heap on fans who would rather be able to say “told you so” than actually do even the smallest inconvenience to try and do something/anything!

He was still when they met Rudkin

I reckon he’s here come the start of next season. Clubs won’t want to take a gamble on him injury wise and particularly not on the wage they’d have to pay to match his Leicester one.

Genuinely knocked me a bit hearing people actively cheering him. I understand if people don’t want to boo, or don’t agree with it, but to actively clap and cheer a guy that has disrespected and harmed the club and abused the fan base… They must think it makes them some perfect fan or that they’re doing a good deed in support of the team, but have a brain FFS! Might as well start chucking flags of Dennis Wise or Wes Fofana up around the stadium.

Forcing change to happen at the club will require a range of methods and approaches. Each of which will have their own merit. Not sure how you can equate clapping the players to filling out a wide-ranging survey that gives supporters the chance to express their frustrations through a more formal channel.

I’m going to defend Steve here and challenge the notion that he was speaking on behalf of the Trust. He was just down there having been out and about for hours distributing leaflets for the Trust End of Season Survey and then watching the game and going round to the protest gathering post-match. An in-the-moment encounter that he never expected, and hadn’t prepared for, popped up as Top came out. He was asked who he was (again you wouldn’t expect) and he mentioned that he’s on the Trust board in his answer to that question as well as saying he’s on several fan channels. He was not there to speak on behalf of the Trust and I don’t think it’s fair to take this interaction as him having done so. Believe me, the Trust is pushing the club and trying to hold it to account. The Trust does have subgroups in areas like Finance & Operations, Communications, Membership and the Women’s Game. These are all working day to day to help the Trust function but are of course only as strong as the number of helping hands. You’d be more than welcome to come and get involved and help any of those areas get better?

There’s a lot of competition right now, but the Communications Director might just about be performing the worst out of all the executives at the Club….