Paninistickers

A tale of two cities. Was chatting to someone from Stoke (a low bar,. admittedly) who spoke in glowing terms of their trip to Leicester this weekend. Walked along my usual river route into town this morning towards West bridge and was confronted (up the slip path to join st Nicholas circle) with 20 disgusting homeless junkies sat down blocking the path. I had to step over them as they wouldn't move. I know people like to sympathise with those with 'street lifestyles' but these were truly vile people.. and intimidating even for a fella who's used to that part of the city and the characters therein

Fair to say I've deconstructed his game a fair bit. His strength. His token press. Being (at best) one step off the pace chasing shadows (exactly as an amateur would were they thrown in at the deep end)....and as you highlight, his kicking technique. He can't kick a ball properly. Let that sink in. But, this time, I'm gonna highlight the thing that he's sometimes praised for. That one touch flick around a corner.. And I can take an educated guess why he does it. Because any parks player would do it if they were plonked into professional football. He does it because he has to do it. He hasn't the technique to control quickly enough nor the strength to hold off his man. Basically it's a process of 'get rid of it'... but in a way that doesn't look like he's just getting rid of it..

Ffs

Like Thomas's destined career trajectory was, at best, a couple of Carabao Cup sub appearances for us before being released. Joined Burton or Mansfield. Released 2 years later to join Anstey or Barwell. Jacks it at 23 to become an electrician. He should be by rights rewiring my gaff in the morning. He's for my money one of the luckiest, right place right time (injury crisis call up and covid - no crowds) footballers I've ever seen.

As seems to happen so often with City fans, we underestimate our brand. There's many players who'd see a career advancement opportunity to drop to league one, playing for a defacto premier league club in front of 30k each week, likely winning every week and building themselves some confidence and playing under a well known manager that, tbh, had some cockiness about him. Either that or slog away for 13th in the championship with Blackburn, Bristol City or Derby. Put another way, had Spurs been relegated last year there's plenty of players who'd still choose a temporary drop to the championship over Cov, Ipswich, Sunderland and Fulham

All understandable, but decision by committee is never a good idea. The current Trust board has been elected and as such, have the mandate to make bold, muscular, even unpopular, decisions. If the membership doesn't like it, the Board will be voted out (or subjected to an EGM for a vote of no confidence) Which brings a question...is the Trust a fans' representative group? Or is it a group to represent the fans? There's a marked difference. I would prefer it to be the latter.

Would be a brave and unusual move To bring in a CEO that lost hundreds of millions spending more money than her business made, breaking every financial rule her competition rules she helped create (resulting in sporting penalties that she created) and openly refusing commercial and ticket revenue streams.

Ive always liked the commonwealth games - a trial run for the Olympics. but this hasn't gone well so far. It needed to be on BBC. And, I don't like the disabled para sports mixed in..Punters like elite sport competition (whether they care to admit it or not) . Pretending to enjoy a 100m run like an egg and spoon race pace isn't a good idea. These sports need to be hidden away on BBC iPlayer

If I remember rightly (and I might not be) , wasn't Rodgers integral to the design and specifications? I'm pretty sure he was credited in the design and build process as having a driving role

Today reinforced my view that, if you went down to a Sunday park in Syston and found a competent 17/18 year old playing and then gave him the 7 years of elite training, analysis, diet, fitness and just general conditioning of daily contact with elite professional athletes, they'd be - at worst - on par with Thomas. Coulibaly is (presumably) a respectable,. unremarkable professional footballer but immediately had that touch, pace and strength that sets himself as a cut above a parks player. Thomas does not.

This Hutchinson lad is absolute nails. We might have something here. In terms of physique, strength and balance there are shades of Rooney

Dunno quite what your point is. My comments are all speculation. I know nada. But, like the police investigating a crime, the working hypothesis is 'the most likely explanation is the most likely explanation' .... I think you are awarding the prize idiot way too much credit. Owning 55% of a business and 100% of a subsidiary doesn't mean he's immune to being lectured/schooled/bullied/persuaded by the executive management and family members on how to salvage the mess he's created. The mechanics/ politics of Family, money and business are as old as time..

Oh come on, don't be naive. There are strings - informal and formal - attached to all sorts of financial support; mortgage lender to house owner. Credit cards to consumers. Parents to kids. Friend to friend.. There is little realistic chance that the idiot has managed to secure 25m-50m of money ....let alone secure it and there be no strings attached. The likeliest scenario is that he's been bailed out by the family business in order to keep the thing alive, in order to sell it s a going concern

By giving him between 25m-50m quid to deposit in the club's bank account to keep his shambles alive

The likely reality for KP (who appear to have pulled rank on the idiot son) is the club is worth nothing for them. A prospective new owner needs an easy 150m just to keep us going for three years. Plus, KP will need this short term bridging finance back that has bailed us for this season. So we are looking at a 200m investment. Which is probably a fair outlay for our size of club. But leaves KP with absolutely nothing. The logic says they'll try to shift the club itself (as it's shitting money that KP haven't got) but they will keep the seagrave and stadium freeholds, lease them back to the new owners with a view to buy at a later date.

I think it's more existential than a sporting merit thing. My best guess is KP have realised the club was months, even weeks, away from insolvency. they've managed to summon up 40m of short term financing, which is there purely to keep the business in existence. Citibank appointed to sell it as a going concern - quickly. Probs on huge Comms to do so The division, the players, the strategy is all more or less irrelevant,.other than window dressing. Just a guess, but KP have pulled rank on the idiot owner...they need rid of the club and some semblance of cash to go back to Thailand to prop up KP itself

He also said a few days ago that the owner had deposited enough in City's bank account for us to comply with owner investment rules. So, based on that, we have enough to get by as a going concern, after many on here - me included - thought we'd be out of money (and out of business) in the coming months. The deposit is imo a life support mechanism,.so that there is simply something to sell. A desperate last roll of the dice by the owner / KP The owner and KP HAVE to find a buyer And quickly. It's the last days of Rome

I disagree. A properly run club of our size should be preparing and structuring itself today for a PL promotion campaign this time next year.

Shame. I've enjoyed the bar and the restaurant in the past. Tho the restaurant seemed always too keen to have everybody out by 9pm. I find the owner, Sam Haggar, a slightly odd fella. The Forge at Glenfield I've visited for the last few years. Never ever seen him talk to a punter. Always chatting, but always to the staff. And that's reflected with the staff. They too seem to keep a cold distance from the punters.

Only a view, but I think the trust could reframe its positioning. Be a shadow cabinet. Be an owner in waiting. Be viable enough and have such a compelling business plan that, in theory, it could attract PE investment. Forget the pressure group / fans representative group vibe. The club couldn't give a shit about all that.

Jim Donnelly ffs. No different to speaking to a utility company call center agent and ranting about the price of gas. The trust would be wiser to stop engaging with the club. Instead offer practical and detailed manifestos, press releases and open letters arguing a better way to govern.. For example, don't ask for 'lower ticket prices'; set out a business plan of what the prices should be, why and what revenues it'd make compared with existing pricing.

Gotta disagree with that. Derby is rapidly developing itself into a suburb of Nottingham. The transport infrastructure will hasten that. I'd rather we went out own way. Additionally, the dynamic (lack of) in Leicester isn't the same as Nottingham and Derby. Their interests aren't the same as ours. As a city, we have more in common with Peterborough, Northampton, Cov and Milton Keynes. Slightly more southern than northern looking. And rather lacklustre. I must be one of the few that thinks Soulsby has improved the city in cumulative micro steps. The problem is bit Soulsby but the residents of Leicester. Both the originals, who have little civic pride and will spend day and night saying how awful it is and the gazillions of recent immigrants, who don't give a shit about the place.

Nowhere in particular. I used to enjoy browsing the brochure and just seeing what vibe each had. We did inland France, Brittany, South West France (hotter) Austria and Croatia. We binned off Brittany as the weather is as unpredictable as UK and one year suffered a 17 degree cloud and rain fortnight so after that went much further south. But Brittany is the easiest to get to and weather obvs this year will still be hot. Stick the kids a little bike on a bike rack or boot, a football, badminton set and kids surfboard thing...they'd play all day long, find friends dead easy (usually Irish, Dutch, scandi) , go to the kids clubs, go to the 5 a side court..... Like a 1970s childhood fresh air outside and totally knackered for bed. You then sit out on the decking and have a few. Pay extra for the Aircon caravans tho!

Loads. Family holiday perfection I'd say.

Great review.. Another vote for Lake Bohinj. Stunning backdrop. Bled is the base though, there's a proper holiday feel to it. And the beach club at bled has lido type feel. I recommend Portoroz next to Piran. It has that old money 1970s sort of feels..Biarritz, st tropez vibes.. Rovinj is lovely. Take a cheesy harbour boat trip from there too for some coves and snorkeling and cliff jumping. Also,.adding Porec to the list, half an hour closer to Slovenia then Rovinj and similar old town vibes. For curiosity, Novigrad next door to Porec was grimly fascinating. A concrete 1960s Yugoslav shit hole. Nobody speaks English (all German and Italian) but a step back in time and, restaurants half the price of everywhere else.