lcfc_forever

Tanner tweeted again that the Richards announcement is following so should be soon. He only reports stuff where it's very reliable information.

I can also imagine the club being extra cautious given the ongoing PSR issues and not wanting to annoy the authorities by formally confirming anything until it's all properly registered.

Joe Worrall linked here but would be surprised if we were in for him given the Lascelles deal

Exactly that, got the team moving up the pitch.

His regression this season has been alarming, Begovic surely needs to come in to provide some calm and leadership - especially if Nelson and Oluko are going to play regularly.

I'm a big fan of King but seeing Ayew be the striker again was a poor selection, Daka has to start. And dropping Vestergaard (unless he was injured) and putting Okoli at CB and Thomas at LB backfired. That said, the team did work harder, show more commitment and as it pains me to say, Winks did make the midfield tick when he came on. We actually did better on xG for once as well. Pleased that Oluko and Page did well, especially the former. I was critical of Page in the previous match but he was much better today, especially for 60 mins. We need a sh*thouse centre-half desperately who clears anything and everything,, especially with Souttar out till at least March. LB has been a major weakness as well, as well as striker. Yet I see we're getting an attacking midfielder on loan, it doesn't make sense! For the choice of manager, we need someone who can organise a defence as the top priority.

Both Northcroft and Tanner suggesting the club will consult with the new technical/sporting director before appointing a new permanent manager. That suggests to me they’ll give King as much time as possible hoping he holds the fort so they have more time to make this choice. And if not, look to shore him up with a senior, experienced individual as an interim management pairing.

Article from The Times by Jonathan Northcroft who knows the club well. Found this para especially interesting: “With Andy King in charge for the interim, the appointment of Cifuentes’ permanent successor seems very likely to be delayed until the new technical director arrives, and the playing model is identified.” He did say the technical director was close to being appointed, makes sense for him to be involved with the new manager decision. https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/leicester-city-aiyawatt-srivaddhanaprabha-b99m9zftt ‘Leicester City is like looking after my son. I have to do it right’ Former Premier League champions and FA Cup winners are mid-table in Championship, but owner ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha plans to bring glory days back to King Power Jonathan NorthcroftJanuary 25 2026, 4.20pm Top says his time at Leicester City has been 16 years of ‘love and pain’ LEICESTER CITY/GETTY IMAGES Leicester City defied 5,000-1 odds to win the Premier League in 2015-16 TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND “Is that fair? Because at the moment we are in the Championship not the Champions League.” Top was at the King Power stadium for his first UK media interviews in almost ten years, keen to break his silence because he acknowledges communication with supporters is one of several areas where Leicester have lost their way. The first step to address the biggest area — performance on the pitch — was taken via the dismissal of manager Martí Cifuentes following a humiliating home defeat by Oxford United on Saturday. It left Leicester 14th and at their stadium, currently a depressed and toxic place, fans jeered Cifuentes and sang “sack the board” — with Top in attendance for the first time in two months. His absences are because he is often back in Bangkok running King Power, the duty-free company founded by his late father. “Even when I am 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,” he said. Cifuentes was sacked by Leicester after Saturday’s defeat at home to Oxford United MIKE EGERTON/PA “I feel the pain of supporters. I feel the pain and frustration of the whole club. I used to be a football fan and when my team lost I felt so bad. Now I have been an owner for 16 years and the feeling is still fresh. It’s painful all the same, maybe more.” His message is “we have to regroup and fight again”. The key, he believes, is nailing down a proper Leicester playing identity. A process is well underway to appoint a new club chief executive to replace the long-serving Susan Whelan, who departed in October, and the appointment of a new technical director is “very close”. The latter will work with Jon Rudkin, sporting director since 2014, to define the way forward on the pitch. It seems likely there will be input from Top, who said: “I am really involved and detailed with the team. Maybe I don’t talk much in terms of the media, but in terms of working with the management and the football side I am involved a lot and of course the responsibility is on me, whether we are winning or losing, bad or good.” Once there is clarity about playing identity, clarity over manager and player recruitment should flow. Top admitted that this has been lacking — especially since the departure of Enzo Maresca after Leicester’s last promotion in 2023. “We used to be a counterattack team, get the ball back fast, then we became a possession team. Now we don’t know what [we are]. We have to come back to planning again,” the owner said. Leicester City supporters have made their feelings about Rudkin’s role at the club very clear CATHERINE IVILL/AMA/GETTY IMAGES Leicester’s challenges include being charged with alleged breaches of Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) after losses of £201.9million in the three seasons to 2023-24. They expect the outcome of a Premier League hearing soon and are working under conditions that restrict how much their squad can be improved before the transfer window closes on February 2. “Yes, there is money to spend but it is limited. We’re looking for loans. Is it difficult? Yes, we can’t breathe,” says Top, placing his hands round his throat. “We have to comply. I don’t want to have [a PSR] problem again, because it’s a pain. It’s not easy. I am sure many other clubs are not saying anything but feel the same.” After struggling in the Championship — with a points deduction a possible punishment if they are found to have breached PSR rules — the pessimistic element of Leicester’s support fear a second successive relegation. Their owner is more positive. “With this squad it should not be [the outcome], like you mentioned, to be relegated again,” he said. “The players need support from the fans big time. Because nobody wants to see us play in League One. I’m sure that we still have a chance to get back, in this table, to the play-offs at least.” Rudkin has also been the target of fan anger and many are unhappy that he will be moved ‘upstairs’ and not moved on. The role of Rudkin, left, will change once Top appoints a new technical director MICHAEL REGAN/GETTY IMAGES However, Top mounted a defence of his trusted lieutenant. “Jon is [seen] like a bad cop . . . when we won the Premier League it’s because of Jon too. But nobody talks about that any more.” He describes Leicester’s journey in the 12 years since his father’s bold promise as “like a super-drama on Netflix”. After the title came the Champions League quarter-finals, winning the FA Cup, consecutive seasons of missing out on the top four on the final day, and then relegation, promotion and relegation again. Top believes it was the first relegation — in Brendan Rodgers’s final campaign, after allowing him a significant net spend — that did the lasting damage. He says he has “no idea” how they went down. “I talked to a lot of players at that time … I think the main problem was we had no experience of a relegation fight,” he said. “We were so relaxed. What I heard is, ‘Boss, don’t worry, we’ll be OK.’ We were not OK.” He recalled that when the season broke in November for the World Cup, Leicester were mid-table. After the league’s resumption, however, they won just four of their remaining 23 games. Leicester won the FA Cup final in 2021 after Youri Tielemans’ strike sealed a 1-0 win over Chelsea NICK POTTS/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES “You need some luck,” he said. “It was like everything turned against us. When we won the league, everything turned on our side.” The challenge, now, is building a squad not just fit to win games in the Championship but classy enough to stay in the Premier League if promotion comes. Over recent seasons Leicester have not got their profile of player right. Their owner admitted finding gems in the transfer market — formerly a super-strength — had become much more difficult and “our scouts will have to [search] harder.” With Andy King in charge for the interim, the appointment of Cifuentes’ permanent successor seems very likely to be delayed until the new technical director arrives, and the playing model is identified. The latter should also bring more clarity to recruitment, and the summer is pivotal. Nine of the squad — many on big deals — will be out of contract and big earners Jannik Vestergaard and Bobby Decordova-Reid are entering the last 12 months of their deals. Top admitted to “mistakes” in previous windows but said a committee approach to transfers will not change. “I think we have a really clear way of working. We have the round-table talk with the manager, Jon, head of recruitment and myself . . . the whole table has to say yes.” Throughout their miserable last two seasons the green shoots have mostly sprung from their academy, with products like Ben Nelson, Jeremy Monga and Louis Page breaking through. Having invested £100million in the Seagrave training facility, Top is optimistic academy talent will help power Leicester’s revival. Would he consider selling the club? “I think the first day I came in, 12 August 2010, with my father, we built plans, we loved football and we loved the club. I still feel every bit the same. I said in my first interview, when I was 25, I wanted to be in this for the long term. Selling the club is not the way to exit anyway. I have to make sure I complete everything here before I leave. Now I need to make sure the club is in a good place,” he said. Top has not stopped dreaming of Leicester repeating their Premier League title miracle LEICESTER CITY/GETTY IMAGES He added with a smile: “Then if some prince comes in, maybe yes, and the club can be like Man City for example . . . but I am sure that is a long, long way off. I still love it here, I want to make sure the club is being successful again.” Top has not entirely stopped dreaming of repeating the 5,000-1 Premier League title miracle. “I think to do it again, it would need a lot of time to plan and do it the right way. To replicate it, I don’t know. I want to do the same. No one can guarantee. But at least we have to plan to be there. I wish we could do it again.” The past 16 seasons have been a journey of “love and pain” and he sums up what his club means to him memorably. “Leicester is like my son to look after,” he said. “So I have to do it right. Of course a son can be naughty, or a son can fail the exam. The son can be top of the class and graduated, and have a bad girlfriend or good wife. You never know, but the love is there, the responsibility is there.”

Listened to Top's interview on BBC RL, and he referenced the change in playing style from Guardiola-style football to 'long throws' - that means only one man, Dave Challinor!

I genuinely think that was the plan, if not appoint BBM if we didn't stay up. But the form was so bad (e.g. the run of games without scoring) that it made keeping RVN almost untenable, and the club concluded they needed a fresh start with a new manager and assistant.

That was going from the bigger to smaller club, and Pearson left for non-footballing reasons. Seen O'Rourke's explainer is Andy King worked with Coleman when he was Wales manager. Still don't believe it, but if King is actually suggesting this, I'm scared! Being a mentor is one thing, but no way should be be managing the club.

Not optimistic, but Coleman is a joke link - they're not going to appoint someone they let go from our sister club when the stakes were much lower.

He lost his job at Leuven, so there is very little chance they appoint him. Smacks of when Oscar Garcia was linked, and he wasn't in the frame either. They're just putting 2 and 2 together and making 5. It's going to be a long few days at this rate!

Agree!

It's a crap source, and he failed at Leuven so this is very likely BS.

It won't be Coleman, especially having not succeeded at Leuven - either agent talk or footyinsider trolling us for engagement (which appears to be working!).

It's a longer post, that's just the preview - thanks for trying though

Behind a paywall 😟

Yeah, I think some of the criticism isn't fair - he has good intentions. But the issue is he's clearly out of his depth and he's got people around he trusts too much and have taken advantage without any accountability - these are serious issues and we've got to hope he gets lucky again and gets the next board appointments right as he's not selling.

Naive is a spot on description: Can anyone access the full version? Winter writes and speaks about us well so interesting to see what he said.

Not a random tweet, Fabrice Hawkins is one of the top French journalists

I think it's worth posting the full quote on 'we'll be OK' in 2022-3 - suggests to me he was concerned but kept getting reassurances they'd be fine. He's too much of a 'fan boy' and trusting, that's a serious problem. I don't think it was so much complacency. “I still do not understand why we go down. I talked to a lot of players at that time. 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. What I heard is: ‘Boss, don’t worry, we’ll be OK.’ We were not OK … I could not play so I tried to help every single aspect that I could. I can get in, talk to them, shake them up, whatever I could do, I did it. The Premier League is difficult, but we shouldn’t have been in that position.”

Could you imagine Rudkin continuing his grudge vs. Vardy by appointing Cambiasso as manager, the scenes!