ian__marshall

Interesting comments from Vance. Clearly referring to one of Starmer or Macron, most likely the former. Can't imagine that will do much good for relations. These tariffs and pause on support to Ukraine are insane. I really get the impression that this US administration are cutting their nose off to spite their face at the moment. The long term ramifications for them with these reckless actions will take some serious diplomacy downstream to restore confidence both with Europe and the wider world.

Decent interview with Jamie Lawrence on the Criminal Connection podcast. Seems like a decent chap, with an interesting journey into professional football. Talks quite fondly of the players he played with at the club.

Sorry but you're either on the wind up, a Russian bot, or live outside of the UK. I'd rather face that than bury our heads in the sand and bow down to Putin.

Surely he can't survive this run of form. The blokes clueless. I feel like I should be livid, but in all honesty I can't be arsed anymore. Never thought I'd say that but what's the point when he keeps picking the same players over and over again.

I was reading the Pearson thread discussing past versus current LCFC players and had a thought: is it possible to assemble a starting eleven with a modest budget and the right player characteristics today? Here's an attempt at a modern day era LCFC starting XI formed in the mould of a Big Nige side, focusing on cost effective and realistic (ish) options. Just a bit of fun nothing too serious, and let's assume we live in a miraculous world where we survive (we won't but that's a different conversation) Here goes: GK: Mads – Similar to a younger Kasper, one of the best in the league. RB:Trippier – Solid and disciplined, like Simpson. Matty Cash alternate option. CB: Michael Keane – Resembles Huth, experienced, decent pedigree, limited time to make the most of his career. CB: Ben Nelson – Untested but full of potential, adds youth to the backline. LB: Chilwell – Technically decent, has a point to prove. CM: Jobe Bellingham – Energetic, needs to emerge from the shadow of his brother. CM: El-Khannouss – A star in the making. CM: Morgan Whittaker – One of the best outside the PL (ignoring that he recently joined Boro). LW: Will Alves – High potential, showing promise at Cardiff. RW: Fatawu – Destined for bigger things. CF: Callum Wilson – Great finisher, good for a couple of seasons. It proved more challenging than I expected. I'd love to see others suggestions. Over to you...

Yeah, I think you're right. But aren't the coaches normally brought in by the manager usually treated in-line with the terms of the manager? I.e. kind of come as a team when sorting severance. Would explain why these two have gone first as they were around beforehand. Only thing makes me think RVN may be safe is that logically you'd move the manager on first then sort out the rest, but as mentioned with the incompetence of our board anything could happen.

Wonder if we'll see movement on Ruud this afternoon. Looks like a settlement of sorts. Maybe the older coaches are the first to go/be announced and a severance deal is being worked on with Ruud. Seems odd that the board would single out a few coaches but not move on the guy overseeing their day to day work. Then again nothing would surprise me with us these days.

Think it's hard to say definitively that just because someone was rubbish elsewhere they'll be useless at the next club. A lot is down to fit. Loads of examples of managers being good or bad at a particular club then they move and the situation is very different. Straight off the top of my head I can think of Moyes, Dyche, Pearson, Howe, Emery, Koeman, Benitez, Nuno, and there are countless others. Not saying Dyche is my ideal choice, but I get the impression he'd be a good fit for us. Honest bloke, demands 100%, won't take any BS; in many ways very similar to Pearson. Yes, he'd park the bus, the football would be pragmatic, and we probably wouldn't be competing for any honours, but where we are right now we need a safe pair of hands that will provide some stability and I think he'd at least offer us that, even if it's only for a few seasons.

Needs to go. Surely can't survive that run of form. We were bad under Cooper, we're truly awful under Ruud. Has to be one of the worst managers we've ever had and that's some going.

Need goals... I know let's sub on Vestergaard. RVN needs to go, blokes clueless.

The shape out of possession is sooo bad. That's on Ruud. Time to say goodbye I feel.

Was in two minds about going tonight. Just seen the line up and that's made my mind up.

@Silva Fox Finally

Don't understand why you're all being so critical. Such a well written piece, demonstrating his passion for the cause. He comes across as such an articulate, well educated young man. Evidently has the best interests of the club at heart. Can't believe we have fans questioning his motives. People have short memories around here. You do realise it wasn't that long ago we were playing League One football. You should all be so grateful for the last 10 years. If it wasn't for him and his family we'd still be playing the likes of Yeovil Town. Just highlights the hypocrisy amongst our fans on this forum. Bet you'll all happily tuck into your free Doughnut and enjoy your Coconut drinks tomorrow.

The lad's incredibly talented, has the technical ability to go on and be a superstar. His biggest shortcoming at the moment is he tries too hard and doesn't always release the ball when he should. That said I don't think it's any coincidence that this has become more prevalent since Ruud came in and suddenly just benched him despite being our best player at the time. That would have rocked his confidence massively. He's at that age where he wants to prove himself, and most players at his stage of development who suddenly find game time limited instinctively will default to trying a risky flick, taking on one man too many, or looking for the killer pass that has a 5% chance of success to try and impress the coach, even though the reality is that when it doesn't come off it only reinforces the reasons for not playing them. It'll be exacerbated by the fact that he'll know Brighton will be tracking him closely too, so will also be keen to impress them and stake a claim for 1st team football. Whilst I understand the need to sometimes take a hard line stance with flair players and reign in their tendency to over play in-order to instill the mindset that you also have to be less reckless, there is a fine line, and if you're not careful you can coach the creativity out of them to the point where they end up looking like a shadow of the player they're capable of being. I think he needs to play more personally. I just think Ruud needs to coach him better on the situations and areas of the pitch where you can and can't take risks.

I take it that was how much we were willing to pay another club to take him off our hands?!?

Please do one Ric, getting withdrawal symptoms. Please don't deviate, it wouldn't be the same without a Ric Flair Rudkin transfer rant, and let's be honest we're all thinking the same and it's a weekly dose of therapy for a lot of us 😂

Agree with this 100%. The original breach was serious mismanagement of the finances, but giving the club some leeway they gambled and it went very wrong. However the transfer fees recovered over the past 2 year's, and more importantly the wages that have dropped out of the accounts should surely see us in a much healthier position. If that's not the case given how much wages in particular accounted for, then we have some catastrophic issues in terms of the day to day running of the club.

I guess it depends which stat you look at approx. 1 in 2.25 per 90, or 1 in 3.74 goals to appearances. Agree with the point about playing level, big question mark for me,especially given his stats are solely derived from lesser leagues. The fact he's 29 with no resale value, I'm not convinced he's what we need, unless we are looking to recruit for next season in the Championship, in which case it could be a decent signing as he has a decent return at that level.

Akpom's goals to games ratio is awful, surely we can do better than this.

Wow, was livid with the line up but Dad's Army have come up with an amazing result!

Listening to 5live with a slight delay and following the game on this forum isn't good for the nerves.

Surely he's on borrowed time now. I don't disagree that we need a culture reset and a reshuffle both on and off the pitch. This pretty much confirms relegation now. There's simply not enough time left. Whether Ruud is the right man to oversee the revolution I have no idea. What is alarming is that he seems happy to call out a young player and another player who's struggling to get minutes, yet seems content with keepung senior players who've consistently been poor onside. Where's the criticism of Faes, Justin and Ward for all the howlers? Winks and Skipp for regularly putting in half arsed performances, and Vards for missing 4 sitters in the last 2 games?!? Instead he wants to call out a kid who's developing, for a 20 minute cameo which whilst poor, certainly wasn't any worse than anyone else, along with accusing another who hasn't stepped onto the pitch for months of falling over all the while. It's just utterly bizarre behaviour and borderlines either a bully boy mentality or someone who needs support in terms of their mental health. I swear that in some alternate universe, Leicester City is a highly popular soap opera watched by millions. You just couldn't make up half the stuff that goes on at our club.

Yet another glowing example of how well our club is run. Wait until the final stretch of the window with the world and his dog knowing how desperate we are for new players, then borrow money knowing full well it'll have to be filed with a public body. Everyone now knows not only are we desperate but we also have a a load a cash in the bank. Genius idea when you have someone like Rudkin negotiating deals on your behalf, what could possibly go wrong?!?

Got absolutely nothing against the bloke on a personal level, but he's not the right man for the job at this moment in time. If there's even the slightest possibility we could bring in Dyche it's a no brainier for me. We simply have to stop conceding the number of goals we have all season. If the board aren't willing to invest in a better defence, they need to bring in a manager with a track record of setting up a hard to beat team. Dyche wouldn't be pretty but he knows how to organise a defence and expects 100% from his players. At this stage I'll take unattractive football if it gives us a chance of staying in the league. With the run of fixtures between now and Wolves away, we have everything to gain as my most optimistic outlook is 5 points during the run ahead under Ruud's leadership. That would leave us having to achieve near title winning form from our remaining 5 games which being realistic isn't going to happen, so we might as well roll the dice and see what happens.