WilmslowFox

I've always felt that way too - we don't get to many games, so money spent in the club shop is the main way we pay something back to the club, and I'd feel very uncomfortable buying LCFC branded merchandise that doesn't benefit the club in any way. Having said that, others have made good points and I can understand the other side of the argument (apologies if that goes against FoxesTalk rules).

I would suggest following the Spanish transfer market to alleviate the boredom - Real Madrid have already spent a total of 276 million on 6 players.

Wouldn't ever disagree with anyone's pick of their favourite movie, as its entirely subjective... but claiming The Wizard of Oz to be the first colour film is just wildly inaccurate. It wasn't even the first film to be made using Technicolor.

Slightly niche, but we often take short family breaks that include an away match when it coincides with school holidays. Arsenal at Easter looks a good excuse for a few days in that there London this coming season, but there are plenty to choose from, with the Chelsea, Sheffield Utd, Southampton, Crystal Palace, Man City and Everton away games all falling outside of term time too.

Couple of seasons ago the away game with Swansea coincided with half term, so the lad and I planned a brief holiday in south Wales around the match. There's a direct train from Wilmslow to Swansea, so should've been simple. Then Storm Brian happened. We got to the station nice and early Saturday morning, and the Swansea train was cancelled. No matter, we could wait for the next one and still be in plenty of time, but that was cancelled too. It wasn't announced at any point at our station, but the trains actually *were* running, they were just terminating at Crewe, the next stop along the line, rather than running through to Manchester. Eventually we discovered this, caught a local train to Crewe and changed onto the Swansea train, which was running with speed restrictions the whole way, but got us there eventually. We jumped into a taxi to Liberty Stadium, and by the time we got into the ground it was EIGHT HOURS after we had left home. We caught the last 10 minutes of the second half. Incidentally, interim manager that day was Michael Appleton, who now seems to be a neighbour of mine in the less "footballery" end of Wilmslow - I spotted him in the local convenience store at the weekend.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/may/31/leicester-city-chairman-racing-legacy-bangkok-derby-run-vichai-srivaddhanaprabha-horse-racing

With Man Utd failing to qualify for CL, Man City facing a possible CL ban, and the likes of Ramos and Godin nearing retirement, could Madrid be a more tempting destination than Manchester should they come calling for Maguire?

I remember his wonder goal for Wycombe years ago that made him the youngest scorer in football league history or something, and have had a soft spot for him ever since then. Even so, it is hard to deny that he has failed to live up to his early promise, making no real impression at Liverpool, and not even maintaining a starting place in the Bournemouth side. He does still show the (very) occasional glimpse of the gifted player he might have been, but much like Gray, is far too inconsistent and is at the point in his career where its hard to see him developing any further than his current level. Not an improvement over our current squad - both Ibe and Gray would be better off in the Championship IMO.

According to Manchester Evening News, Maguire is Manure fans' third choice CB target after Kalidou Koulibaly and Matthijs de Ligt. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/manchester-united-transfer-news-koulibaly-16273830

Harry Maguire fridge magnet reduced to half price at LCFC shop. Do they know something? https://shop.lcfc.com/harry-maguire-magnet

If another team did come in with a large offer for HM, then taking the money and investing it wisely could be sensible (we *really* need to invest in a striker, or we're going to see Ryan Loft on the bench next season), but saying "no" would also be fine as a statement of LCFC's ambitions. However, if such an offer were accompanied by HM requesting a transfer and we still said "no" (a la Mahrez) then that would be a mistake as it could put off potential incoming players (including YT) who would not like the prospect of being "trapped" at LCFC when future opportunities arise.

Two footed challenge, general opinion is that Darnell was lucky not to see red.

I know football's a business, but if we are considering loaning Shinji to Palace or Huddersfield for the rest of the season, I wouldn't object if we "gifted" him to Cardiff instead for a nominal loan fee, given their circumstances and the goodwill that they showed to us at the start of November.

Like many others I am torn on this, but one advantage is that Harvey should get a proper chance to settle in the first team ahead of next season, rather than a handful of pre-season friendlies in the summer. I'd expect him to come on from the bench against Southampton, but to be a regular in the starting eleven for the rest of the season. A possible starting eleven for next season: Vardy Barnes Maddison Ndukwu Ndidi Choudhry Chilwell Maguire Benkovic Ricardo Kasper

Is sending a member of staff to spy on another team's training session unusual, or is it something that everyone does and the difference here was getting caught?

Given they are around the top of the PL2 table for the second season running it is disappointing that so few of the U23s are getting a chance to break into the senior squad. Hopefully with Hamza doing so well when he's been given a chance, that might change. Trouble is, most of the U23 goals seem to be scored by the centre backs - the most promising forward is probably Ndukwu, and he's been injured most of this season. Got to try something though, playing Iheanacho in his current form is like being down to ten men from the start of the match.

Don’t know how many here watch Only Connect, but last night’s show included a missing vowels round on Leicester. Apologies for the spoiler, but my Glaswegian friend Alisa put in a heroic performance and answered every question (one answer was King Power Stadium). It was particularly extraordinary as it turns out that she has never actually been to Leicester. For a moment I thought: “hey, why not crowdfund a trip to Leicester for her?” But then I remembered that she’s a Celtic fan, so having Benkovic on loan should be enough.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 50/100 My Time 93 seconds  

Maybe so, but I think Cardiff have made it clear they will be supportive of whatever decision is made. The first match is gonna be a strange one wherever and whenever it takes place - more about catharsis for the players and the fans than about the result.

Well, the lad is chatting away happily and playing FIFA downstairs, but I need to go talk to him now before he sees the Sunday morning repeat of MOTD. I only have to tell one 9 year old and that’s hard enough. Massive respect to Ian Stringer, still at the stadium to keep us informed.

**** **** **** watching the news in diminishing hope of any good news, and wondering what to say to the lad in the morning. thank you to every fan or player from clubs around the country who have made the effort to express their condolences here and on social media, especially to mark noble given the circumstances - i’d be perfectly happy if the FA were to rescind his suspension.

A few seasons back we had Fuchs and Luis Hernandez taking throw-ins, both of whom offered the option of a good long throw. I know its only a small thing, but this is one tool that we don't have in the toolbox at the moment (for all his other strengths, Chilwell sometimes seems downright uncomfortable taking a throw-in in the opposition half). I've noticed that Ndidi often takes throw-ins for Nigeria, and appears to have a decent long throw. Is there any reason why we couldn't add another attacking option and let him take the odd throw-in for Leicester?

As it falls in half term, I promised the lad we'd go to this game. We have a direct (if lengthy) train to Cardiff from here, and I thought the train tickets were expensive for an away day, but justifiable for a long weekend. Thanks to the Rugby international the hotel prices in Cardiff have doubled though, so its going to be pricey after all. I just hope we don't have a repeat of Swansea away last season when Storm Brian meant it took us eight hours to get to the match and we only saw the last twenty minutes.

Happy with Chilwell and Ricardo's attacking qualities, but they leave too much space behind for the opposition to exploit, and something needs to change to account for this. After the Crystal Palace drubbing it seemed obvious that we needed to switch to three CBs to better cover the space left at the back by playing attacking wing backs. With several new CBs arriving in the summer it looked as though we were heading down this route, but no, Puel's answer seems to be playing two (excellent) defensive midfielders instead, which almost paid off against Liverpool, but has evidently not worked playing a higher line against Bournemouth. Personally I would start to phase in a back three of Maguire, Söyünçü and Johnson (so that there is a bit more pace than would be offered by Morgan or Evans) as soon as possible. Also would rather see Albrighton (or Ndukwu) starting than Gray. We are always being told that Puel is great at introducing young players, with Chilwell and Gray cited as evidence, but they both made their first team debuts several seasons (and managers) ago - where are the opportunities for the likes of Darnell Johnson and Leyton Ndukwu who impressed in pre-season, but have been confined to the development squad since?