Xen

If the new signings live up to potential, then: Stolarcyzk Ricardo - Nelson - Vestergaard - Thomas Soumaré - James Fatawu - Ramsey - Mavididi Carranza I've said it in previous seasons and been woefully wrong, but hopefully a dynamic midfielder like JJ will help Soumare to step up a bit. Monga is technically incredible but I still feel he needs to be phased in a bit as an impact player until he's a bit more developed. Not doubting his potential for a second, but he's still a kid at the end of the day. Not sure on the second centreback alongside Vesty. Nelson potentially but he had a shocker last time I saw him (so did Okoli to be fair), and I'm still not convinced that Faes will be here when all the other windows close. Backup options for each position from the above XI would be: Begovic Choudhury - Faes - Okoli - VK/Aluko Winks - Skipp BDCR - Ayew/Page - Monga Daka/Evans That second XI should be capable of top-half championship at the very least. So as long as we don't have an injury crisis in one particular position, I think we're well covered on the whole.

8/10. For the players that we've shipped out, we've got good value for all of them. We've not brought much in in terms of volume, but if we treat the loan-with-option/obligation as if they were permanent transfers (they essentially are) then what we have brought in is good value on the face of it and has strong potential. Whether or not that is realised, only time will tell, but hopefully we're moving in the right direction again. And we've finally chopped some of the deadwood that's been hanging around like a bad smell. Bye bye Danny, at long last. A perfect window would've seen a few more on their way out (Faes, Winks, Soumare, Daka), a few more in (another striker, DM and CB) and generally business just being done bit earlier in the window. The delay on getting Marti in probably hasnt helped, but better late than never. But the most important thing is that we're making steps to address the financial situation and from the outside it seems as though we're back to being compliant again.

Spare a thought for Jayden Joseph. Second best JJ at the club until James Justin left, only to become the second best JJ at the club (though now out on loan) all over again.

Have we? Summer '25: Begovic Jan '25: Coulibaly Summer '24: Skipp, BEK, Ayew, BDCR, Golding, Edouard, Buonanotte Summer '23: Winks, Coady, Fatawu, Mavididi, Hermansen, Cannon, Doyle, Casadei, Akgun The three in bold are the only ones I'd say have been signed to add leadership, maybe include Ayew/Skipp at a push, but definitely doesn't feel like a targeted approach. Especially when we've now shipped out Coady and Winks seems to be on the way out as well. Begovic is a stretch too given that he's (hopefully) never going to need to play We're missing footballing ability, yes. But in the Championship we're still at the right end of that scale, we've just been majorly lacking in grit and application.

Short shorts

Its physically impossible to eat just one. If I open a pack, they're all gone. One of my close friends works for Mcvities and frequently brings freebies or samples of the new flavours. This is not helping Only the originals are truly addictive, mind. Mixed thoughts on the rest.

Is it? It was open last Sunday when I walked past with the new kits in the window... Odd choice if it was just for one game of the season...

He's definitely got flaws to his game and when he has a bad game its very noticeable, but he's still got ability and is perfectly fine for Championship level - especially as he's 'one of our own' and actually born-and-bred Leicester unlike some of our academy graduates over recent years. Since he came through in the covid season, he's been at the club through 6 different permanent managers, had a loan out, and had inconsistent involvement in numerous different systems. Once he's in a settled side with a clear role - as well as teammates who aren't making mistakes and inviting extra pressure - I think we'll start to see much better output from him. Still only 24 so not done developing yet. Not expecting miracles, but hoping for consistency at this level. Not going to write him off after a cup game where everyone was dire.

The system for the back 5 will be more or less the same whatever the personnel involved, and Stol will have plenty of time with all of them in training. It's not like he's our 3rd choice/youth keeper - he was our number 1 for a good part of last season in the premier league. We're fine to tinker. It'd be criminal not to give Nelson more involvement in a game like this (unless we're going to trust him enough to put him straight in against PNE). A who.e new back 4 for this game might be excessive, but we don't need to stick with Sunday's setup which was all over the place at times.

As much as I'd love to see them all involved this season... thats basically like putting out our u21s. A good blend of youth and experience will be good, but i think thats too far in that direction. I'd temper that slightly and instead go: Begovic Justin - Nelson - Vestergaard - Thomas Winks - Page McAteer - Alves - Monga Ayew Then bring on Aluko, Joseph, Evans for the final 30, whilst taking off a couple of the other youngsters. Manage their introduction to senior football, get them playing alongside some of the older faces who are likely to be in our usual starting lineups in the league, and integrate rather than overhaul. Maybe Choudhury in for Page to begin with if we want a bit more grit in the midfield but still allowing both Alves/Monga to start, or move Monga to the middle and put Mavididi out wide so we can give Page a full run out in a position we desparately need more options in, to see if he can hack it.

I'd rather a youth player come in, give their all and make mistakes, rather than play with Soumare bumbling around in the middle of the pitch offering absolutely nothing and actively hampering us. Or put Hamza back in the side, even if he's seen more as a RB now. Or just pull a random bloke out the stands give them a go. Surely Soumare cant keep getting away with stinking out the place. At least the likes of Faes and Vestergaard have some redeeming qualities, I'm struggling to think of one thing Soumare does well that wouldnt be easily replaced even by shopping in league one...

There were a lot of occasions last year where we conceded directly as a result of his error, and every single time he'd immediately look around and throw his hands up in the air as if it was everyone else's fault. Id imagine that's at least part of the reason why he's disliked by some.

The brilliant thing about the English language is that words can serve multiple purposes

There's enough wickets left that we can still afford to be a bit aggressive in our batting. Shame he couldn't connect with that one properly but its not disastrous at this stage. If we were 4-5 down I'd perhaps start to get twitchy, but we need less than 10 per wicket remaining.

Thought it was broken but the guy has just picked up what I thought was the hole

Oops...

Bit of ice and rest and should be OK then if so. We've done well to restrict the chase, so hopefully we can reach it without him being required and risk upsetting the niggle any further

Five-fer for Green. That's a great effort, that.

And that in itself is incredibly telling...

Even under Vichai, there was still a lot of pushback on here for anything gold on the kit, some of the forced Thai influence around the ground, support of the royal family etc etc. Its not something new, its just escalating. And with explicit political/military support, its gone way past the threshold of a general annoyance to something that has no place in our (or any other) football club. The issues people have with Top and the board are related - itd be foolish to say otherwise - but even looking at this in isolation its something that we should be aggrieved by and pushing back against.

Gutting.

Why would you spill weetabix over your table?

Looks like we're batting again first.

My sentiments exactly. When Mavididi has been poor, he's looked frustrated and tried too hard to make things happen solo. When he's been in a good run of form and seems happier, he's a much, much better player. If Marti can instil some confidence in him (and put a half decent LB behind him...) then he's got an incredibly high ceiling and will be one of the standout players in the division. Winks... Meh. If he plays and puts in effort I'll support him on the pitch as I would all players, but I'm certainly not going to shed a tear if/when he leaves.

Finally. Now, whats the next disastrously-handled thing we're all going to be up in arms about?