Philkeavo

Game of two halves, we must improve, ffs 🤦‍♂️

Radio Leicester redeemed itself tonight after the shit show programme following the Birmingham game. Piper’s post match rant was brilliant. King’s post match interview was honest and thankfully he didn’t hold back - to his credit. Begovic oh my word what the fvck was that interview. Fvcking dreadful and shameful but probably sums up the players appalling attitudes.

How it possible in all that is holy that this guy still gets selected.

We speculate all the time on the Rudkin thread how Aiyatwatt continues to back him. I think the answer is all rather simple, Rudkin does his masters bidding. All the mind numbingly bad decisions are either made by or sanctioned by Aiyatwatt. He couldn’t fire Rudkin even if he wanted to because Rudkin’s decisions are Aiyatwatt’s.

As a fan the feelings of helplessness and despair watching the team and club continue to implode at an accelerating pace is dreadful.

The players seem determined to get us relegated. Beyond comprehension!

Cults never turn on their leader.

This is sadly the experience of a lot of players coming through at Leicester. I imagine this happens at all professional clubs.

This club finds new and novel ways to plumb new depths. It’s a tragic comedy 😂

We’re staring into the abyss aren’t we? Aiyawatt and his band of desperadoes that run our club deserve everything that’s coming. We, the fans unfortunately will suffer the ignominy of our demise as Aiyawatt tends his horses and puts his head in the manure.

It’s very strange isn’t it. The atmosphere in that dressing room must be absolutely terrible. Toxic club, culture and dressing room.

Rudkin = thinking, is the very definition of an oxymoron.

Prefer Tesco Clubcard points.

It’s more than grim, it’s horrific but why oh why must it be him. Aribo would represent everything that has been wrong about our recruitment in the past 4 years.

Yes, more cover required but another overpaid Southampton reject does NOT do the job.

I’ve learned they planned to sack him before his interview but couldn’t say so as they hadn’t spoke to Cifuentes yet. He therefore lied in his interview and made himself look proper prat with his bs reponse when asked the question by OPA.

Aiyatwatt’s playbook is to find a fall guy when the critics start to turn on him, classic deflection tactic. We know he’ll never sack Rudkin because it leaves him without cover. Today’s result must not be seen in isolation but more a culmination of years of his mismanagement. His deflection tactic no longer works. We’re in free fall and it’s all on him now. King Power or whoever the fvck owns us out.

Saddler is an excellent coach. His and Stowell’s reputations were somewhat unfairly tarnished post Rodger’s and their two game stint. This is a boost for King.

Wow he has just copied and pasted an old script!

Donated, good luck 🤞 What a terrific initiative in what has been an otherwise low week being a LCFC fan 👏

He’s not really telling truth is he, he doesn’t have a big job in Thailand. He was ousted from King Power CEO role.

It’s only pure unadulterated hate I now feel for this small minded self serving 💩 Hate is such a strong word but I really do hate him.

I thought the Percy article was bad but this is worse. He spends much of the article blaming fans for putting too much pressure on the players. Dear me 🤨…

This is the Percy Interview from The Daily Telegraph. Apologies if it has been already posted. It is almost 10 years since Leicester City captured the nation by winning that Premier League title, so it feels like a perfect time for the club’s owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, to finally open up. This is the first public interview with a senior Leicester official since 2016 and, to put it lightly, quite a lot has happened in the life of the 40-year-old Thai businessman known at the club as “Top”. “It’s like a movie, like a super drama on Netflix or something,” he says. For many Leicester fans, however, the past few years have seemed more like a horror film. After the glorious highs of winning the title as 5,000-1 shots to rampaging around Europe in the Champions League, plus a maiden FA Cup win, there have been two relegations, one promotion and nine different managers. Vichai (centre right) and son Top (below, centre left) celebrate with Leicester players after the club won the Premier League title in 2016. Srivaddhanaprabha also endured the unimaginable grief of losing his father, Vichai, in a helicopter accident in 2018 at the club’s King Power Stadium which claimed the lives of four other people. There is much for Top to reflect on from the past decade, although most Leicester fans are only concerned about the here and now. “The Leicester story is that we tried to create the underdog story,” he says. “We tried everything and we did a lot of things to make sure that the Premier League, even football in the UK, looked very interesting. “When we won the league, no one believed or thought we could win. We set the standard and everything is possible anyway. “A lot of players have left, a lot of new players came in, we tried to create new things. We won the FA Cup, we were in Europe, and then we go down. It’s too many dramatic things [that have] happened at the club. “It’s not easy for Leicester anymore because the size of the club does not match what we tried to achieve.” Once a beacon for similarly sized clubs, utilising strong recruitment and sensible mid to long-term planning, Leicester are now regarded as a club who dared to dream and paid the price. Currently 14th in the Championship, Marti Cifuentes was sacked as manager on Sunday and many fans are in open revolt. Issues over mismanagement, legal rows with the Premier League and the presence of Jon Rudkin, director of football, loom large at the King Power Stadium. On Saturday, as the team lost at home to Oxford United, there were chants of “sack the board”. Defeat by Oxford last time out leaves Leicester in 14th place in the Championship. “I feel the pain of the supporters. I feel their pain and the frustration of the whole club. I used to be a football fan and when my team lost, I felt so bad,” Srivaddhanaprabha says. “Even when I am away in Thailand I am watching every game. If it is 8pm here it is 3am in Thailand and I am watching until 5am. When we have lost it is not nice to be awake and feel stressed. “We know it is always tough in the Championship with many games, midweek games in the cold. It’s not an excuse that a team like Leicester is in this position. It is not nice and not what we expect at all. “I told the directors and other people that we used to be a very small club in the Midlands and then we grew bigger and bigger and we forgot what we were before.” Srivaddhanaprabha points to the financial damage inflicted on King Power, a travel retail company based in Bangkok, by the Covid-19 pandemic as a major reason behind the club’s decline. He also highlights the departure of Enzo Maresca to Chelsea in June 2024, weeks after Leicester’s promotion to the Premier League, as a bitter disappointment. Enzo Maresca won the Championship title but joined Chelsea shortly afterwards. ‘I still do not understand why we went down’ The most common theory for Leicester’s struggles goes back to the summer of 2021. With former manager Brendan Rodgers threatening to unsettle the big clubs and Leicester regularly challenging in Europe, the decision was made to back him. That summer they spent about £50m on Patson Daka, Jannik Vestergaard and Boubakary Soumaré and, crucially, made the decision not to sell any first-team players. Leicester’s model was always to accept the departure of a star every year – with the likes of Harry Maguire, Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater and Ben Chilwell bringing in well over £200m – but that summer the decision was made to keep the squad together. It ensured the pressure was on to continue progressing and stay in Europe, but Leicester missed out and were relegated the following season. “If you ask me about that time, I still do not understand why we go down. I have no idea,” Srivaddhanaprabha says. “I think the main problem was we had no experience of a relegation fight. We were so relaxed that we were going to be OK. “I could not play so I tried to help in every single aspect. The Premier League is difficult, but we shouldn’t have been in that position. It was like everything turned against us.” Relegation in 2023 was clearly a pivotal moment. Record losses of £92.5m were announced and Susan Whelan, the club’s former chief executive, warned that the consequences “will be felt for some time”. ‘Jon is seen like a bad cop, but we won Premier League because of him’ During this turbulent period in Leicester history, Rudkin has emerged as the No 1 target for supporters. Leicester’s former academy director, Rudkin was promoted to director of football in 2014 and Srivaddhanaprabha’s support has been unwavering. That support has remained despite many fans regarding Rudkin as chiefly responsible for poor recruitment, overspending, allowing too many players to leave for nothing and the disintegration of the club’s culture. When asked about Rudkin’s position, the response from Top is unlikely to cheer up those fans calling for change. “Jon is [seen as] like a bad cop. When we won the Premier League, it was because of Jon too, but nobody talks about that anymore. We are trying to find a black spot in a white sheet all the time, which is normal, I do the same. Srivaddhanaprabha has stuck by Jon Rudkin despite fierce criticism of the director of football from Leicester fans. “Many clubs make mistakes. No club buys the right players all the time. We used to be very good. We have to be clear so that people, the scouting team, can work towards the system we’re going to play. “It’s not about Jon choosing players alone, so blame him. I never blame anyone. Everyone has to share the responsibility, all four of us. “I think he needs support and that is why I’ve come to my decision to change the structure to make sure that everything is the right way going forward.” Srivaddhanapraha insists he is working hard to improve the club’s set-up. The appointment of the club’s first ever technical director, who will report directly to Rudkin, is close, while a new chief executive and commercial director will be appointed soon. A new manager is now on the agenda after Cifuentes was dismissed on Sunday afternoon, a few hours after Top’s sit-down with a gathering of journalists. Marti Cifuentes’ sacking means Leicester have gone through nine managers since they won the Premier League in 2016. Another bugbear for fans has been a perceived absence of accountability and communication, so this interview is certainly a positive step forward. “We have to get back to the identity of Leicester, what type of football we should play and what players we should bring,” Srivaddhanaprabha says. “When changing the manager a lot of times, it’s not nice. I’m not a fan of that. But the life of a manager is results-based, so we have to be ready to improve. “I think it was so clear when we got Enzo [Maresca] on board, what football we should play, and the type of player we should bring in. We are really focused on how to improve for the club. But with the limitations, because of PSR [profitability and sustainability rules] and the markets are not the same.” ‘We’re living with the past haunting the present’ Leicester expect to hear the outcome of their legal row with the Premier League for alleged breaches of PSR soon. Their case was heard in November and a range of punishments are possible, including a points deduction, transfer ban or fine. “Every year we try to comply with the rules and that is super difficult. We can’t breathe,” says Top, putting both hands around his throat. “We did not plan to go down, and it’s impacted a lot of financials. PSR is a challenge. It’s testing every club now and Leicester are the same. In the past, nobody knew what would happen, but we’re living with the past haunting the present.” With such tough restrictions, Leicester can only recruit loan signings before the transfer deadline. Their current plight has increased calls for Srivaddhanaprabha to sell the club, but he insists there are no plans to move aside. “I think on the first day I came in with my father [in August 2012] and we built plans, we loved football and we loved the club. I still feel every bit the same. I’m very passionate about football and I said in my first interview, when I was 25, that I wanted to be in this for the long term. Selling the club is not the way to exit anyway. “Leicester is like my son to look after, so I have to do it right. Of course, a son can be naughty, or a son can fail the exam, and you [have] a pain in your head. “The son can be top of the class, and graduated, and have a bad girlfriend or good wife. You never know. The first thing for me is to identify the problem and fix it. I’m planning a lot to make sure that we are in a good direction first.” Thoughts of his late father are never far from Srivaddhanaprabha’s mind. Khun Vichai was an inspiration to all at Leicester and the driving force behind their remarkable rise. There is a statue of him outside the stadium, and photographs adorn the walls inside the offices. “When he left, and when we won the FA Cup, I think I did a lot of things for him,” Top says. It should not be forgotten that Vichai and Top have won four trophies during King Power’s ownership. “Of course it was not going to be enough, but I know he loved the club. I know what his plan was, so I want to keep doing the same. “I have to make sure that I complete everything that I did here before I want to leave. Now I need to make sure the club is in a good place. I still love it here, I want to make sure the club is being successful again.” There is so much to unpick from this interview. He gives off creepy vibes with “the club is my son” reference to “I blame no one”. Yeah, no shit Aiyawatt!

Wow, what a fvcking PR disaster this is. Now we know why the Board have probably discouraged him from speaking. The guys a complete moron and totally divorced from reality. I felt when I heard the OPA snippet the other day his heart was in the right place but now hearing the full interview it is clear we are completely FUBAR. He is Chansiri and not in disguise anymore.