lcfc_forever

Great he's set to stay, and interest from other clubs was real. Most of us here have been crying out for change in the setup of the club following relegation and the FFP debacle, hopefully Enzo gets his way now and professionalises things.

You could replace Burnley with Leicester and it’s not far off what some fans have said this season 😂

He was good for the first half of that season as well, not just the Liverpool game. And while some of the praise may have been OTT, he deserves credit for playing so well against one of the world's best attackers.

From having Salah in his pocket, and being one of our best players in the 1st half of the 21/22 season to this, it's sad.

Brilliant! @Ric Flairyou posting that our youth team setup was poor, looks like it’s on the right track now. Hopefully a positive sign of things to come at Seagrave.

That was after the first few games, if at least not the friendlies.

Is that through what you know, or just how you think it will go? The players clearly love him, would be very damaging for him to go.

Just like we were in ‘cheat mode’ the year that we got relegated with top 10 wages? So much hindsight bias, most of the predictions at the start of the season were not automatic promotion as champions. As we started the season in an amazing way, expectations naturally changed. The FFP punishments clearly show the club isn’t being run properly, and he’s right to call out not being informed. Change is clearly needed, you’d be an ostrich 😉 to think otherwise.

Did superbly, a big upgrade on his first transfer window with the club. Read in the Athletic that Hermansen was a player he suggested in a shortlist to Enzo, and he obviously then chose him.

This is excellent from Dominic Wells: https://medium.com/@dominic.wells24/doms-comms-week-9-football-s-metric-51d67e77386c Explains the data behind a lot of Enzo’s decisions, especially why he persevered with Daka and Faes as the team performed better with them in the team. Very promising Nelson had a consistently strong impact as well. Warning: there is a bit of maths to this. But to Dom’s credit, he explains it well.

I’ve supported him a lot but my patience has gone now. Why does he keep playing Faes, he’s made so many errors that have led to goals? And Daka upfront, yikes! His stubbornness is ruining it.

They probably did tell the Nigerian FA this but they ignored us. Balague said we'd made requests to international teams to manage our players given the intense period ahead. Ultimately, comes down to the player.

Looks like Ndidi played the full match yesterday as well, along with Ihenacho.

Fully agree on not selling players whose contracts were running down. Seems like the board starting thinking like fans who got carried away rather than custodians of the club and clearly trusted Rodgers too much - so many fans wanted Youri to stay for example but in hindsight, better to have sold him earlier.

The context is clubs like Leicester were threatened with a breakaway so we along with other clubs were forced to go with it but just relaying what they said.

Listened to the Price of Football podcast with Kieran Maguire. It was far more balanced and nuanced than I thought it would be, thought they would hammer us. For example, it addresses the accusation that Leicester voted for these rules so why are they complaining now by highlighting how the big six later bullied the other clubs into accepting a worse proportion from international rights money, reducing their revenue. Seen the Mercury has highlighted this too: https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-victims-hidden-tv-9190348 My conclusion from this is the directors have screwed up but the rules have made it very hard for clubs like City to compete, (and if anything have got worse), smaller clubs are far too vulnerable to one set of errors vs. the big six and the PL and EFL aren’t coordinating so we’re getting a heavy handed approach.

I listened to the BBC RL podcast a little earlier with Guillem Balague as there were a few posts criticising it. I didn’t get the same impression as some of the critics here, I think those with an anti-Enzo agenda may have overly interpreted some things like the comment about not wanting in the manage in the Championship - Balague said it in a jokey way like a marathon runner says after a race they don’t want to do that again because of the ordeal. And let’s be clear about it, none of us want Leicester in the Championship but the Premiership instead. He’s also wrote about the hierarchy needing to shape up and modernise - look at the FFP thread and the previous season’s mess for all the evidence/info you need. It’s clear Enzo wants to change the whole setup of the club to compete over the longer term in the PL and has high expectations, which surely is a good thing? Where I think criticism is fair is playing a style with a high line with players that can’t do it through lack of pace (as well as Balague’s bias/not acknowledging that this squad should be promoted). The profile of player we likely need to play this style in the PL if we get promotion will be very hard to acquire - but then raises the question of choosing a manager with a style that doesn’t work for certain defenders, and no guarantee of money? Suggests there isn’t a clear vision at the club and inconsistency in what they want. The players clearly love playing for Enzo and I’m supporting the team to get the job done, that’s what matters. Anyway, make your own minds up and give it a listen but thought it was helpful to provide some balance/alternative view. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hkftr9?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Alves was also in the recent training video published by the club. Would be so positive to have them both in and around the 1st team squad.

So much doesn't make sense. Why go for a manager like Maresca which was somewhat a risk when he hasn't got a proven track record (not that I'm not supportive of him, I'm a big fan of what he's done so far) when promotion was so important ahead of a proven manager like Farke, Parker etc that have got form for promotion? I even remember hearing or seeing somewhere that they chose him so he could build the club and the style, and promotion wasn't essential.

Maybe we’re arguing the Maddison sale should come under 22/23 so not part of the EFL overspend?

Stefan Borson said a few interesting things in the Athletic. Essentially, unlikely we get a points deduction this season because of the legal process. The most interesting paragraph was this one - if this is correct, that means we sold Maddison on the cheap to meet PSR but just missed the deadline : “It seems clear they have breached and by my model, they have breached by in excess of £40m,” says football finance expert Stefan Borson. “The question mark is James Maddison’s (£40m) deal to Tottenham, which falls right on the edge of the (financial) years. That is good because they can say to the Premier League, ‘If we had sold Maddison the day before we wouldn’t breach by much at all’. That could be argued to be mitigation. The problem is they will breach again by quite a lot for this season.” https://theathletic.com/5361748/2024/03/25/leicester-city-psr-points-deduction/

Looks like a Daily Mail journalist agrees with some of the sentiments here re. Balague’s tweet:

Yep, Balague is an Enzo fan but the broader point applies - the fans need to properly get behind the team at home (the fans going to away matches have been brilliant), whatever is happening off the pitch.

Yeah, the threads should be combined. Thought this was interesting (posted it in the other thread as well).

Does this mean the PL are exceeding their authority, and it’s the EFL’s responsibility to investigate?