Freeman's Wharfer

It would be an appointment completely lacking in imagination and nous. Another decision taken because we’re hamstrung financially because of how poorly we’re being run off the pitch. Another guy appointed because we have no clear succession planning or Director of Football across the up and coming managers of European or world football. An appointment that you’d have to go back on the minute you were promoted rather than someone who can build to be here for the next several years.

Henry Winter referencing the Trust survey today. Starting to get some good coverage - now just needs LCFC fans to play their part in completing it.

Drinkwater got a good reception from L1 just after he’d passed and swivelled so quickly to come back and acknowledge it. Get the sense with him and the things he’s struggled with mentally since leaving that he probably needed that a little bit. Probably came today hoping for a sign that he was appreciated and hadn’t ruined his title-winning legacy.

Club have used sustainability to block in-stadium things in the past and insist on digital tickets but handed out 30,000+ flags with plastic poles. The flags had that awful JV9 logo they’re trying to sell tat via the club shop with. The string banners at either end were just printed rubbish with no imagination or creativity. No message or meaning besides ‘GOAT’ to anything. It was night and day between what the paid agency churned out today and what UFS pulled off last season. To make matters worse, they’ll have spunked a load of money on that today and could have just enabled UFS to do something fan-funded at little to no cost to the club.

They did a decent job with the exception of two things: 1) The pre-match display was naff. Not a patch on Blackburn at home last season. 2) Current squad (bar anyone who’s played with Vardy for a few years) should have walked round at full-time if you were insisting on a ‘lap of appreciation’, gone in and had nothing to do with the Vardy presentation (deserved the “you’re not fit to wear the shirt)

I think people are starting to have that realisation. Some petty loud chants in the stadium today and especially whilst people were waiting for the Vardy presentation.

The more I think about it, I actually think he might be planning to be in the away end at Bournemouth and that’s why he’s not wanting to play. Rebekah Vardy has suddenly been popping up in away ends having not really done that over the last decade and I wonder if it’s almost like her figuring out what it’s like and how it all works for being with him in there at Bournemouth?!

I mean it doesn’t really help debunk the idea that player power has become too big a thing at LCFC, does it?!

Over to you, LCFC. Can you do a better job than the one we had for Blackburn at home last season? Pressure’s on.

Rumour has it Big Guy’s got the call back after an outstanding job defending Rudkin publicly on the pod. Any kid under 6ft 4, or who can’t kick people, isn’t getting a loan because they’ll never make it at the top level.

We’re also a nightmare for: A) being unable to update a chant to a past tense (see ‘on Wednesday nights’ still being sung with “we’ll be in” rather than “we’ve been to”) B) Creating chants tied to promotion or a manager which then go out of date (see Fatawu & Mavididi) C) Not setting a chant up quite right for maximum effect (see ‘Vichai had a dream’ which should have ended “Premier League champions” and then wouldn’t constantly get mistaken for us telling clubs who have been champions of England in 1940-whatever that they haven’t been - we could still be singing “Premier League champions, you’ll never sing that” to about 95% of the Football League)

Hilarious they’ve taken out the likes of Ward and Edouard from the options for men’s player of the year yet still have Fatawu in there.

It really is the pits at the moment. Reel popping up on Instagram of Monga stepping onto the pitch and a close up of a couple of his actions. The song over the top? 505 by Arctic Monkeys. The second line of the chunk chosen: “it seems like once again you’ve had to greet me with goodbye” and “I’m always just about to go and spoil a surprise”. Now I don’t think there’s any nuance to the song choice here, it’s just a good song, but it shows a complete blindness to fan sentiment at the moment which is all about “are we going to be able to keep this kid?”. If there’s no nuance or meaning you want the audience to take from the song choice then why Arctic Monkeys? What relevance does it have to Monga or LCFC? Why this song, even though a good one, released two years before the kid was even born?! I don’t want to create any kind of pile on but a quick browse on LinkedIn at the clubs employees would show that a lot of the employees in digital media roles are in their early 20s, not been at the club that long (so no doubt oblivious to how their audience really thinks) and very few would appear to have any real connection to Leicester. Surely it’s not that hard: employ someone who knows your audience and how they’re thinking.

I’d go: Stolarcyzk Ricardo Justin Faes Coady Vestergaard Okoli Thomas Kristiansen Ndidi Vardy In a 8-1-1 formation. They do well against teams that attack them. We should not even entertain trying to win the game and just sit in for a 0-0 that sees them lose ground on the other CL chasing sides who get 3 points next weekend.

Against Liverpool the two tracks chosen by our beloved players were ‘Calm Down’ and ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’. You couldn’t make it up.

All involved should be really proud. They’re a badge of honour not just for UFS but the entire fan base. It seems like as much time and effort as making them goes into getting the club to sign off and giving the green light on them. That’s a massive shame. Particularly when the club then proceed to slap images of them all over socials and videos etc.

Well given that happened before any of us newer board members joined, I can’t say for sure. But I would imagine that those involved with the Trust at that point in time felt that they weren’t getting anywhere and, after several attempts, gave up trying to get answers to questions the club weren’t prepared to address. The club and Trust were working on the structure of the Fan Engagement Framework (including the FAB) at the time and maybe that also provided hope of a future where there would be a channel for supporter feedback - not just from the Trust - to the club. We’ll be pushing hard for the club to address supporter concerns this time around. For anyone with issues they would like raised, per the recent statement, please feed that into the Trust.

He’s trying to get sacked and become a problem, I’m sure of it. Never known a manager contradict himself so much. “Monga won’t play”… plays shortly after ”I have a contract for 3 years”…. then says he’ll discuss what’s best for the club ”We’re now playing those who will be here next season”… plays Faes, Soumare, Buonanotte and Decordova-Reid It’s like he’s trying to show he can be disruptive and force the issue.

So neither myself nor @CosbehFox were in that meeting with Susan Whelan. It was the Co-Chairs of the Trust Lynn and Steve. The meeting was not long after we’d joined the board and they were invited along to join an FAB session that she attends. They were asked to abide by the terms that the club has put in place with the FAB (those who are part of it have had to sign an NDA) and, even as a Trust board member, I don’t know all the ins and outs of that meeting. In all honesty I don’t think the fact that the club hadn’t responded to those questions in the summer of 2023 was raised. A year and a half on, I think the Trust had moved on from that situation and there were plenty of current issues to discuss. To be clear, and fair, the club hasn’t ignored the Trust for two years, there is fairly regular contact and there has been direct communication on several things (most recently the digital ticketing stuff and number of exemptions allowed etc). Of course, it could be better, and there’s plenty that the Trust would like to see the club doing more on. To get to that point will take more people being willing to get involved and drive change.

Of course an empty stadium is the strongest message you could deliver but it’s just not going to happen. This is football and people are emotionally tied to it. It’s also a club with thousands who will happily step into the shoes of any season ticket holder not renewing or (when we’re in the Premier League) plenty of tourists willing to buy a matchday ticket as a one-off to see a game. You don’t want your longest-standing and arguably most passionate fans substituted out of the stadium for those that would inevitably just replace them. Any dismissal of another approach that is grounded in “stop going” is starting from a position that sounds great in theory but is impossible in reality. It’s better to accept that and then think about what other routes are available than to dismiss any other efforts because they’re not an empty stadium.

That’s changing. Slowly but surely. Give us a little bit of time and a chance.

Congratulations on winning the wildest interpretation of that post.

Kudos again to UFS. There was also a banner in the West Stand (Whelan Rudkin Out) and the chaps holding it waved it in the direction of the Director’s Box for a minute or two after half time. The rest of the stadium is dead. Even trying to join in with Rudkin Out from L1 sees you as an isolated voice. Fan base needs a cleanse.

Fish rots from the head down. Get them gone.

Disappointed in Winks. Thought he was one of the good eggs. Seemed to care last season and looked like a good influence. We’d helped him resurrect his career, he was one of our best players last season. It seemed like it was working well for everyone. But then this season he’s shown himself to be an absolute tool. Get him gone with the rest as that big broom sweeps through the squad in the summer.