RutlanderFox

To the tune of the Macarena: He comes from Italy and now he’s at Leicester, He worked at Man City, he’s the new Guardiola, Bringing tiki taka to the King Power, Eeeenzo Maresca

I don't mind international football. Sure I prefer club football but I'd class myself as a fan of both Leicester and England and I therefore watch all the England games if I can so I can follow the team's progress ahead of major tournaments. I'm sure plenty of those who say they hate it or loathe it were in the beer gardens in 2018 and put their flags up every couple years which is hypocritical really. England games of late have admittidely been very boring but that's more down to the team and the management than international football generally. I find that watching the smaller home nations over international breaks has been more exciting in the past given it's a tougher ask for them to qualify for tournaments and there are more matches that have a 'big game feel'. The Nations League in my opinion is a very good idea that has been well implemented so far. I think because it's a new tournament people are unable to see it as a major prize for now anyway and understandably so. It is adding extra fixtures to the calendar which risks injuries but the matter of fact is international managers need these games as preparation for the Euros in the summer and it would be unfair to deny them games (Southgate only has 3 more before he chooses a squad from a large and competitive talent pool) in such a scenario. The alternative is to just not have a Euros next year. Organising friendlies however seems over the top right now as three games in 6 days for these players is too much at the moment.

Agree 100%. And to think that if some of the impatient folk on here were at the very top of the club then they’d have handed most of these their P45s two weeks into the transfer window

Yes that's right. We've already passed the deadline for the group stages and we didn't register him for that. He could still be available for the knockout stages though if all goes well for him (and us!) as there's a separate registration window for that. For this reason, I think that (assuming Vardy is unable to play any part today) there is a fairly high likelihood of Slimani featuring today since he can't play on Thursday in the EL. He's must have about zero match fitness so I can't see him starting though

He's a bit of an animal and he has a massive point to prove. Potentially a masterstroke. He has quality and I never felt he got a proper run of games before for us. We have him so we might as well utilise him and I'm excited to see whether Rodgers can get him to rediscover his best form like he did with Iheanacho

I'm sure he'd be able to resurrect it from there though.

Bloody hell, so even the last resort option in an injury crisis of raiding the u23s/u18s is virtually closed to us! We'll have to be looking into the u12s at this rate!

Any young centre backs to call upon with Knight out on loan?

Even he'd start over Benkovic!

They've gone with 3 games in October and November to accommodate the Euro 2020 playoffs from March which were postponed. Obviously they need to be played to determine who qualifies for the Euros in the summer! Plus they need to complete the Nations League before Christmas so the 2022 world cup qualifiers can start in March and not be delayed. International football is playing catch up just like club football. (Cue the "well why bother with the Nations League then", "no one cares", "I've gone off international football" comments but people would be complaining more if there was nothing but "waste of time" friendlies to play between now and the end of the year.) So countries in the playoffs will play their semi final plus two Nations League games in October then the playoff final (should they make it) plus the final two Nations League games in November. Countries not in the playoffs at all will play one friendly and two Nations League games each month. I agree playing the extra friendly each month is a bit unnecessary given the already congested fixture schedules

I think we still have a minute chance of getting into pot 1. There are enough teams ranked above us whose fate is TBD who could in theory lose. Extremely unlikely that enough of them will though. Pot 3 seems the most likely place for us

Turned out to not only be a waste of an afternoon for many on here but also for the journos at LeicestershireLive and LancashireLive! Had them fooled too

Oh dear. Just done it myself now and can only assume this is a glitch

Yep. I'm glad that that well and truly puts an end to the Sky Sports soap opera. It will be interesting to see how Barca get on with him next season as he's looked fed up for a couple years now but it will be even worse next season. Tbf a sulky Messi will still at least gain Barca an extra 10-20 points

Especially from a so called reporter!! The worst part is is that there will be Man United fans reading these quotes and believing the situation is really like this, which will take the delusion of much of their fanbase to new levels. I'd like to think the more level-headed United fans agree he's talking total crap. I imagine if Man United did pick up the phone and say to Dortmund "look, you've got to be realistic", the reaction at the Dortmund end would be very much the same as it has been on here. They'd hear the laughter aloud all the way from Manchester and be told in no uncertain terms to jog on! I just can't believe the businessmen at the top of multi-billion pound organisations such as a football clubs would talk to each other in such an unprofessional manner as Kaveh is suggesting

Going off topic from Lewis but since people are discussing Solhekol who saw this drivel he came out with last night?

Completely agree with this. We need to be adding centre mids who are forward thinking to the 3 senior options we've got as it is (especially with a packed campaign coming up) and Praet doesn't even fall under the forward thinking category entirely. We will also struggle to find someone of his quality who will be willing to come here and play behind Tielemans and Maddison. He does have a touch of class about him (see the Brentford pass and the pass over the top for Barnes in the build-up to Vardy's first goal against Newcastle) and I think he is under-appreciated by many on here. If he's good enough to get into that Belgium squad he's got to have at least something about him. Even if we get offered our money back I wouldn't risk losing him in this window. It's a categorical no from me

But I seem to recall at the end of last season season ticket holders at EFL clubs could watch the games on an EFL online streaming service rather than through Sky. This is something the PL could and should consider but it will never happen

He is very highly rated and it would probably be best for the lad's development to do at least a season at Brighton where he's guaranteed a PL starting place in a back 3 alongside more experienced centre backs like Dunk and Webster. I kind of hope Brighton keep him as it will be a two fingers to the clubs chasing him (even if one of the clubs is supposedly us) and a signal that they won't just roll over to let him go

Yes 3. Chilwell, Choudhury and Barnes. Thomas is regarded as under-age and does not to be registered for European games

True. Plus we need 4 home-grown academy players registered in our Europa League squad. With Chilwell staying we only have 3 established first-team players who meet this criteria

He was an academy product but I think people often forget, especially non-Leicester fans, that he wasn't a local lad and didn't support the club growing up. He was born in Barnstaple and raised in Berkshire (I believe) and didn't even join us until aged 15 but he played like a local lad and showed the passion, desire, commitment and will to win for the club that many of us in the stands would have if blessed with the opportunity to play for LCFC. To see this over a number of years was an absolute pleasure. He adopted the club as his own when arriving and we certainly adopted him as our own. We can only thank this legend for everything he has done for us and wish him all the best in his next move

Traore impressed me whenever he came into the Chelsea team that one season. That was about 5 years ago mind. I haven't seen much of him at Lyon so don't know how much he's progressed since then

He look slow and susceptible in his first few appearances but after the mistakes against Spurs there was no coming back for him from that

It's a long term project at Leicester and the opening of the new training ground in the next few weeks will signal that intent. I'm usually not a huge fan of the "we'd have taken this at the start of the season argument" given that the expectations for this season changed after our good start, but in this case it's a step in the right direction from last season. It would have made very little difference to who we'd have signed this summer imo given we have been able to sign the likes of Ricardo and Tielemans with no European football at all and the best players in the world have headed to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge before regardless of whether they've had CL football or not (Chelsea even confirmed players like Ziyech and Werner before their place was even confirmed and CL or not we just can't compete for these players at this time). And we've seen before that CL football doesn't guarantee a great summer window after what happened in 2016. I also think our transfer window would be largely unaffected in terms of player departures given we've had only 1 key player leave each of the last few seasons without European football and took in huge transfer fees in each case. I can't see any more than 1, maximum 2, leaving this summer. I'd be worried and would be questioning Rodgers' future if this poor form continues into next season but we now have a platform to develop off of so let's see how we recruit in the summer and start next season