Ric Flair

Bookmark this post for September 1st 2024. Let's see how good our board and Mr Rudkin look after the remainder of this season and summer have been and gone. I think we're going to see some unpleasant truths about the state of our financial predicament. No doubt it'll all be defended because we fans don't have cast iron proof we're responsible for it as a club.

I like the reasoning on pur choice of strikers. I think Cannon revels in space being created for him by a player like Yunus.

If Rudkin has no involvement in the value of signings, he certainly has involvement in the parameters in which we sell players and also the wage structure. That is as big a problem as the signings have been that have failed. Also we've been through 4 different head of recruitment's since Rudkin was here and the common denominator is him.

He was Director of Football for the whole time we've failed to sell players, that's a fact.

It's down to the astronomical wages we put them on in recent years and the mind boggling transfer fees we've started paying for players. All signed off by Heir Rudkin. It's not all on him, he's been given carte blanche by Top who trusts him unequivocally. Whilst that trust remains, we will not see the seismic change we need. I hope we get it, the points you raise above are relevant and we have to learn quickly and act quickly. To do this we need a stark change in strategy on recruitment, but again I don't think we'll learn. The whole place needs freshening up.

I know all of this, I am one of the most boring posters for quoting amortisation and the amounts we need to sell for and the practices of FFP. But this doesn't alleviate how we overcome this. If we don't have the financial flexibility to take a loss on players then how can we create a model that enables the whole squad progression not to grind to a halt year in year out due to not being able to sell players. Every club has flops, every club has players they want to move on that may not have even flopped, what makes it harder to get rid of both types of players is a few reasons. We seem to have all of them - 1) our wage structure grew much higher than those around us who'd be fishing in the same pond 2) we pay transfer fees for players over the odds of others and 3) we have a poor track record of selling players we are happy to let go. Plenty of people defend the club that we nearly sold this player and nearly sold that player etc but the facts are we've sold Ghezzal, Diabete, Schmeichel and Castagne in the last 4 years, who we no longer wanted for a transfer fee. We've had bids for Soumare, Vestergaard, Iversen, Praet and several others that we know of and all fell through for whatever reasons. Happy to accept it takes two to tango but all of them doing so makes me less sympathetic. I see scant evidence we are changing enough to get us put of this mess long term. We've evidently overspent last summer, which is understandable in isolation due to the need to get straight back up but it still leaves us no nearer to a new strategy and we have the same board and director in charge of it all. We are set for the majority of the squad to return to their salaries from last season and what then? Time for a change of ownership.

Correct, other than nothing has changed and until it does we will face the same problems. Somethings got to give.

Whether he knows he needs to sell before he buys counts for nothing when the person who leads on selling players seemingly struggles to do just that. We've gotten a transfer fee for players we no longer wanted, 4 times in 4 years. That same person is Maresca's direct reporting line and whether Maresca is naive enough to be truly in the dark on the position we found ourselves in January or not, it doesn't change much does it?

Fair assessment, it's not looking great right now. The ownership will be busy doubling down on rebuffing any changes to the structure that are perpetuating this issue as well, so here we are.

We actually tried to get Maresca to replace Rodgers but he wanted to see the season out with Man City. Whether that was after Marsch rejected us, I'm not sure.

The dream is over under this ownership. Top will not dismantle the structure and rebuild it for a brighter future so the long term outlook is its time to sell up and go. Enzo will be gone before that happens anyway I'd have though, but that is my unwavering belief that needs to happen now. We are going nowhere under this ownership again.

I'm calling it as I see it. Once the trust is broken between manager and club, its the beginning of the end. He's already making it clear in his press conferences and interviews. Italian managers think nothing of resigning, they don't care about the financial loss of staying put. His reputation gets little negativity by doing so here either. See the season out, get the title or promotion on his CV and his philosophies and principles left intact. He's told us he knew nothing of the financial position that we are in for January, the entire operation this window once again has been groundhog day. Maresca won't be here by the summer of 2025.

Because the fee was a bonus/add on based on an outcome of something that is known before his contract expires at the end of June.

Our financial issues are now well known, we'll be low balled to high heaven in that period of the window opening and the end of June. If we need to sell KDH to comply then it will be a bloodbath. Maresca has gone on record as not knowing our financial impasse this month. He's now experienced first hand the inability to sell the required player/s to get signing/s. This will be the start of the breakdown of the relationship between board and manager. It may sound sensationalist to you but we've seen it before. This won't be a long and prosperous era for club and manager. He'll hopefully get us up and I'd be surprised if he does another year.

I'll say it again, you only breach FFP at the end of a financial period. It's highly likely we already need to sell someone before the end of June when the window opens again and the accounting period closes. This £500k was not going to change whether the above was relevant or not. In the last few weeks alone we've earnt that in Iversen going, Casadei going back and some of the loan fee credited + wages and qualifying for the 5th round of the FA Cup.

This is an understandable stance but it relies wholly on there being a huge culture change. Sorting it out in the summer how exactly? If we go up, our squad are back on the wages they were pre relegation. The 5-6 permanent signings we've made in the Championship, will there be a new wage structure that's more in line with what new PL / lower end PL teams pay? Because if it isn't then nothing changes. Any player is highly unlikely to be sold because other clubs can't or won't match their wages. Unwanted players, which every club has and is not easy to move on, become even harder to do when the wages are higher than average, there's a certain amount they have to be sold for in order for us not to show a loss and we don't have the flexibility in our finances to do so in order to let the current manager shape the squad how they see fit. @Lako42 has hit the nail on the head. The past board/Rudkin/Top are trumping the present day version because even if they are trying to learn from their mistakes, the damage has been done. I'm not convinced there has been the seismic shift needed, and rhats why this doesnt get sorted in a few months time. It'll be more pain and agony and this is the beginning of the end of Enzo. We've lost him.

I think it's more than that, even if Top were ruthless enough to make the change. We need a whole new strategy, which isn't just the brainchild of Jon Rudkin. Time to sell up Top, I'm done with you.

Those still able to give Rudkin, Top and our board the benefit of the doubt, I admire you. However, I'm no longer going to tie myself up on this. It's quite simple for me and it's about the future. How does Leicester in its present structure, get themselves out of this situation where we cannot sell players except the obvious outliers? Because if we can't learn the ability to do so then all of this is irrelevant. We are sailing so close to FFP and we now have our card marked on our financial situation. If we are poor negotiators then we face the same problems in a few months time when we'll be lowballed for the handful of important 1st team players we have. If we do still need a sale for thr end of June then heaven help us. I think it's the end of the road, we need a new strategy and in all honesty a new ownership. Top is not going to make the changes himself, he'd changed everything but the area that continues us in this perpetual issue. We aren't suddenly going to start selling squad players, I highly doubt we've made serious changes to our wage structure that gives us financial flexibility that we evidently need to strike the balance and not be hindered. So this pain and agony will continue. We must be the most unluckiest club in th world when it comes to negotiations with other clubs, there's certainly not a common denominator in all of this.

Was that under Rudkin or Terry Robinson 😂😂😂

Spread over 5 years is only £4m in the accounts.

My favourite will be when Inter agree to releasing Sensi on a free transfer tonight, so we can then sign him outside the window over the next few days and we still can't.

This can still be signed pending a work permit, that will be a formality as he's in a top 5 league and even if he failed, we are allowed a certain amount of players that don't qualify outright.

Benrahma is a £15m obligation in the summer.

Your fault you little norris, you were asking me for evidence of his weapons. I've given you them. We were all over the shop vs Brum and he helped us see out the win. He has one of the highest aerial win % in the country. He's been MOTM in a few games he's played for us (Brentford away, Newcastle away). We have the worst record out of the top 8 for conceding goals from set pieces and late goals is becoming a huge issue, with a few hours of the window to go it's evident he's staying here (unless the Saudi window is longer - Al Nassr did want him). So we might as well use him when we have slender leads with minutes to go.

I wonder what the mental turmoil will be to Fabrizio Romano and more importantly Sensi himself after tonight. I'd still not be surprised to see this fall through.