Claudio Fannieri

I actually think the only way we were going to do a deal for Sensi was as a replacement for KDH in the event someone made a late move for him that was acceptable to the club.

If we cast our minds back to when KP first took over, very similar mistakes were made, the hiring of Sousa and then Sven plus the crazy levels of spending for a Championship club, until Pearson returned and has to try and repair the damage, we were a mess, now if I recall correctly Vichai was not as involved or didn’t appear to be at the very beginning, therefore you have to ask the question, does Top have enough acumen and financial control to be the head of a football club, as it seems to me are in a very similar position to where we were and making very similar mistakes, which makes me question if the current ownership and its team are genuinely fit for purpose without Vichai.

One thing that did cross my mind, what did actually happen with the Casadei recall, did Chelsea really terminate the loan based on lack of minutes, just at a time when he was getting game time and was due a decent run in the side because of the injury to Wilf, for him to hardly kick a ball for Chelsea. Or was this a non-footballing decision by the club to start cutting back on some costs and trimming wherever possible and there was a termination option in January which we exploited. if it was a non-football related decision then it may well explain some of the frustrations Enzo may have when the club and certain high ranking executives, I guess it’s highly unlikely we will find out, but I never did quite buy that Chelsea recalled him, or the timing of it.

Daring to question Rudkin and co

A left footed, right winger would be lovely just in case Abdul doesn’t sign 😀

I think they leave unescorted now, usually from 80 minutes onwards

I think the only way Enzo will walk, regardless of whether we go up or not, is if he there has been a significant change in circumstances that wasn’t discussed/shared at the time of him joining. We have all worked in situations where we have been told the truth and no matter how shitty the situation is, you at least have the opportunity to fully understand the situation and can therefore look to navigate a path through the choppy waters, or you can choose to not take the role/move on. If the club decided not to divulge the gravity of the problem and the high risk of a breach, which would severely impact us in the January window and the very imminent and highly likely risk of a significant points sanction at some stage before next season, then it is fair to think that this would now lead to some cracks in the relationship and for their to be a real lack of credibility for the clubs hierarchy. However if the club did divulge that potentially choppy waters lay ahead and without significant sales of unwanted players then there was a real risk of a financial breach and this would severely restrict future spending beyond the last summer transfer window, then I think it’s less likely Enzo will walk away. This isn’t about his arrogance and/or whether he has achieved enough to warrant taking another job, this is purely about whether the relationship between the employer and their manager is one of 100% trust or if one of the parties has been sold a dud. For what it’s worth, if De Zerbi goes in the summer I wouldn’t be shocked to see Brighton target Enzo.

The club has given us 2 of the most amazing memories and achievements that I never ever thought I would witness. To win the league and then win the FA Cup was unbelieveable, and fully demonstrated the ambitions the owners had to disrupt the big 6, however I also feel how we reacted to those successes and our subsequent decision making showed a level of naivety, were giddy on success and on both occasions on the club lost focus and made very poor decisions. Do I want new ownership, I am not sure, as there are so many unscrupulous people out there, but it does need a massive refresh and Top needs experienced football industry leadership alongside him, the club has gone stale and needs new fresh impetus and ideas both in the football and commercial operations. My only concern is does he have the fire in his belly to make those decisions and then to recruit two respected and experienced operators to help rebuild the club.both on and off the pitch.

I couldn’t agree more, when you look at Leeds attacking options especially put wide, they are head and shoulders ahead of us. Yes Enzo has an ideology of how he wants to play and it’s an ideology that the club also want, so in reality they have to provide him the tools to be able to do that. it may well be the, or one of the most expensive squads to be relegated but it doesn’t mean it’s well balanced or packed full of high quality options in each and every position. The truth is the club has been terrible at shifting players on and we are in a situation where we have installed a manager to play a certain style but asking him to use players who are not necessarily fit for purpose. I think there will be a parting of the ways not because Enzo expects the very best players, but because I think he recognises that the club needs a massive refresh and he has high expectations of how the club operates, and too be honest the fall out of the last few weeks does not scream world class, it is rank amateurism. I think the only way Enzo stays beyond the end of the season, will be if Top clears out the deadwood that is holding the club back and that is both on and in particular off the pitch. The inability of the Director of Football to move on unwanted squad players is an area of absolute concern and failure, and has to be addressed if we harbour any serious ambitions of being a competitive premier league club again. However as much as I like Enzo, the other point is, we absolutely need everyone to be 100% committed to the club, if people don’t want to be here then it’s is better for everyone if we shake hands and move on, we have seen first hand the detrimental impact of having players and management who have checked out. Whichever way we look at it I think we are in for a summer of upheaval, Top has to be decisive, straight after the season ends he has to make the decision, either back Enzo and make the necessary changes to support him or back Rudkin and co and accept that we go in yet another direction.

Just to reiterate my stance, I wholeheartedly believe it’s time for Rudkin to go, whether it’s time for King Power to go is debatable. To fail these measures is 100% on the club. However the measure of £105m losses set in 2013 now actually equates to £150.8m and that isn’t taking into account football inflation, in addition the club owner has to underwrite £90m of the permitted £105m so further brings into question is this to protect clubs from unscrupulous owners or just a way of restricting ambition. Surely the better way to administer and protect clubs is to make the owner accountable for 100% of any losses and therefore they can be ambitious and overspend but it is purely at the discretion and out of the pocket of the owner(s)

I agree rules are rules and we have been absolutely masters of our own demise and there is no doubt the club needs a massive overhaul, however that doesn’t mean that the rules are right, the fact is the rules have been introduced to stop clubs being innovative, most teams will have a maximum of 3/4 years before they are pillaged by the big 6 and/or they naturally max out, like we did, hit their glass ceiling and fall away. It is happening to Brentford and I honestly believe it will happen to Brighton, and many more. Any club operating outside of Champions League with a stadium of less than 40,000 capacity is going to struggle with these rules to maintain any level of competitiveness. what I will say is that not agreeing with the rules but still recognising the massive mess the hierarchy have made of the club do not have to be mutually exclusive. I hate what modern football has become but also recognise the absolute pits the club has become in the last 2/3 seasons in our commercial and financial operations.

The club have made undoubted errors over the last couple of years, which has most definitely led to this breach and the subsequent mess we find ourselves in, would this have happened under Vichai, the truth is nobody knows. what we do know is when a club like ourselves who have won the premier league, been champions league quarter finalists, recent FA Cup winners, been challenging the top 4 and been in a European Semi Final, whilst also selling a raft of top talent for good money, to fall foul tells you all need to know about the rules. EPL clubs are not broke, far from it, but they are being dictated to, as to how much they can invest, and regardless of how they are performing or what cash reserves they have, they are being forced to sell their star players and/or enter into a self imposed incoming transfer ban to try and stay compliant with financial rules that are outdated and quite frankly corrupt to hand a competitive advantage to the big 6. When Newcastle who are now potentially one of if not the richest club, are scratching around unable to bring players in until they are forced to sell Bruno and or Isak, to wait for it one of the big 6, then you know the rules are corrupt. So whilst there is no doubt that the club hierarchy have made mistakes, not selling an asset in the summer after the FA Cup win and giving Rodgers too much of a free reign and giving him too long last season, I wholeheartedly support the stance they are taking as these rules are absolutely ridiculous and actively prevent teams from being able to be ambitious, dream or generate any level of sustained success. It is effectively match fixing but in a different way and at a level that effectively tries to exclude any teams except the big 6 from finishing in the top 6 positions. The only reason it isn’t quite panning out as planned is that both Chelsea and Man Utd have made such a cluster**** of being handed such an advantage. As for the proposed new rules, whilst they are different, it still ensures the big 6 are given a competitive advantage, as they generate higher revenues so will have far more wriggle room than the rest. Nothing will change and the % threshold of spend will just make it more difficult for the other 14 to keep their best players who will just get picked off by the big 6 at will as they will be able to offer contracts way in excess of the others. I am glad we are going swinging hard, I am done with this corrupt shit show, this isn’t sport anymore it’s becoming more and more like F1 where there a small number of teams that are genuinely competitive and the rest are there to be nothing more than also rans to make up the numbers. The game is on its arse and soon enough it will be where every week the big 6 will be steamrolling one of the rest by 3,4 or 5 week in week out. That is not what football has been about in this country and I for one hope we do as a club fight for the right to be ambitious, be brave and have a go at disrupting these spoilt little brats who want to control the money and their place at the top of football.

I realised I never said who I think will leave, definitely gone in my opinion would be KDH, Justin, Faes, Daka, whilst I think we would also look to move on fringe players such as Choudhury, Souttar, Kristensen, Soumaré and Ward, to create budget and wage flexibility. I also think all the out of contract players move on with the exception of Vesty and maybe Vards dependent on them accepting heavily reduced terms. Ricardo, Mads and Mavidid I would try to retain however if a suitable offer came in and they wanted to move then I think given reasonably low book values we may be inclined to move on and take the profit. I think the spine of the side would be Mads/Jakub, Coady, Vesty, Winks, possibly Riccy P, Cannon & Vards (if V’s both stay on) with a smattering of free and low value signings who better fit the Maresca profile and style and then a lot of academy players such as Nelson, McAteer, Wanya, Braybrooke and Alves etc who have been schooled in Enzo ball for the last 12 months.

if and its a big if, we fail to go up then i think we would see a lot of academy players promoted to the first team, highly likely players such as Nelson, Braybrooke, Alves, Cover, Wanya, Thomas, Briggs etc would become integral members of the 1st team squad as well as Opoku and Booth coming into contention after loans. Most will have had 12 months of Enzo ball so would be well schooled, whilst it would be far from ideal I am not so sure if we don’t go up this year that we necessarily have to completely rip up the blue print and start again with a new manager.

Jacob Greaves from Hull, O’Hare from Cov and Zian Flemming from Millwall

I don’t think he has been treated disgracefully, he has been very unlucky, the injury just before the start of the season meant he was not available and as a consequence Jannick came in and overall has been absolutely superb and has become integral to how we play. However I do wonder if his game time, or lack of, especially in the league is linked to a potential appearance clause, it does seem funny that since January time, there does appear to be less use of the wider squad and players who were being utilised regularly seem to be not as involved as often despite us looking jaded. I imagine the majority, if not all of the summer signings have some level of appearance clause in their loan or permanent contracts that sees add ons payable, it’s too much of a coincidence that Casadei went back to Chelsea to rot and then we have seen very little of Yunus, Coady, Cannon and I also feel it’s similar with Souttar.

There starting XI coat nearly £500m against ours which was around £80m. Whilst Chelsea aren’t quite gelling the individual quality and level of player they had at their disposal, I felt we gave a reasonably decent account of ourselves. Yes we looked exposed at the back, however we also showed that our style can be effective even against top quality opposition, we played well in possession and on numerous occasions we beat their press and got into good positions only for poor decision making or a lack of quality in the final ball letting us down. Being honest, whilst this is a barometer for next season should we go up, the reality is we will not be competing with the Chelsea’s of this world, the guage was Bournemouth and we showed we can go toe to toe with them in the last round. What yesterday showed me, was the gulf in class against the big six and this is what will continue to happen to most clubs. If we go up I think we will give a decent account of ourselves and our target should be to try and be the best of the mid to low range teams and then move from there. Yesterday was an absolute free hit and one where we came out with a huge amount of praise, credit and pride.

I think there are a fair few reasons why fans are feeling this way, firstly the interference from the authorities in how they are attempting to manipulate the game to ensure the bigger and richer clubs continue to prosper and dominate. secondly the finances involved, has totally changed the dynamic of the game, some of it for the better, but the majority of it is taking the game away from its traditional fanbase. And finally social media, there is little escape anymore, before, during and after games, timelines and forums are full of fan emotion and opinion, we don’t play for the best part of 2 weeks and years ago you could pretty much switch off and forget about football until the next game, where as nowadays it can consume your life as there will always be fans debating tactics, players, finance, will we bottle or not etc etc it is no wonder fans are feeling drained and fatigued. I am now 50 so I try to have a fairly balanced view and whilst I love my club with all my heart, I try to keep things in perspective wherever possible however there are times when I sit there shaking my head in disbelief at what I am reading and I do understand how it can be become consuming. Football is at saturation point it’s everywhere and it is very difficult to escape at times.

I thought we gave a really good account of ourselves, yeah we rode our luck at times but we gave them a hell of a fright and the red card really made it difficult for us. Remember they have spent the best part of a billion quid on assembling a squad. not sure there needs to be any bed wetting, if we can take that 2nd half into the remainder of the season then I think we will be ok.

Hamza is such a massive downgrade from Ricardo, lacks vision, everything is laboured in possession sideways and backwards rarely tries anything incisive and he just doesn’t have the football intelligence he is so often caught out on the blindside. We have actually looked bright in possession but decision making in the final 3rd has been poor. Next goal is critical if we can make it 2-1 then it could get tense and nervy for Chelsea.

Just listened to the pod and interview with Albrighton, make no mistake it will be a sad sad day when he is no longer involved on a day to day basis at our club. Speaks so well and passionately about the club, he truly loves Leicester City. What a servant, and to be a Premier League Champion, FA Cup Winner, Charity Shield, Champions League quarter finalist and scorer of our 1st ever Champions League goal……all that for a free transfer signing from Aston Villa. What a great partnership it has been for both parties.

Absolutely love Albrighton, he has been a terrific servant, great professional and very good role model to mentor to the younger players. Probably a little bit of a traditional old school type of winger rather than the modern day inside forward, he has always shown his worth and made vital contributions under all the managers he has played under. Would love to see him stay on at the club working with our academy prospects if a career in coaching is a path he wishes to go down, however I think he will want to carry on his playing career and can see him ending up somewhere like a Walsall or Burton for a couple of seasons, before hanging up his boots. The world moves on but will be a very sad day when he leaves the club at the end of the season.

I think it has changed sounds more of a Kasabian type tune

Can anyone enlighten me to the music that accompanies the when your smiling pods, thanks in advance

Another cracking episode lads, lots of interesting insight from Stefan regarding FFP/PSR and some good chat about our current form. Keep up the great work it’s an absolutely class listen every week 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼