izzymuzzet

Not a series and not similar to Luther really, but if you like true crime In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is probably the best in that genre I've ever read. A real page turner.

Astonishingly bad today. Takes some doing to be worse than Thomas but he managed it.

Three and a half years ago Boris Johnson was still Prime Minister. There's a long way to go.

We stormed the league in 2008/09 and only lost 4 games all season, so no we weren't booing then. The previous season when we got relegated - loads of booing. It's a long time ago now but I recall the atmosphere when we lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday when Hume missed the penalty was pretty toxic. The ground was full as well.

I said after the Preston game that I'd be happy to see this season as an opportunity to build for the future. Clear out as much deadwood as possible, build the team around a core of academy products and develop a style that can win us promotion next season. We'll be recieving a points deduction so promotion looks unlikely anyway - why not use this season to build something? At the moment we're getting the worst of both worlds. Marti is still playing players who have repeatedly failed AND automatic promotion looks implausible. If we were to have a squad something like the following, while finishing 14th, I would be fairly content. I just want to see some kind of plan for the future. Jakub Ricardo Nelson Okoli Aluko Winks James Monga Ramsey Fatawu Carranza Begovic, L Thomas, Choudhury, Thomas, Evans, Hutchinson, Mavididi, S Thomas, Page

Our top 3 scorers last time we went up were Vardy (18 Championship goals), KDH (12) and Mavididi (12). Vardy and KDH have gone and Mavididi has been injured and/or out of form. We’ll be lucky if we get 18 goals combined from our strikers. We might get 10 from James, maybe 12 from Fatawu. But ultimately without a proper striker who will score 15-20 goals we will not win enough games to get the 88+ points that would likely get us top 2. The play offs beckon, at best.

100% agree with this. I only started lifting weights in my early 30s and used 5x5 as my first programme. It’s incredible how quickly you start to feel strong. The only issue is I was ravenously hungry all the time once I started lifting fairly heavy. Now I’m in my 40s I find I have to watch what l eat much more so have to switch up the routine a bit more regularly.

I’ve had a few fans of other clubs comment that they’ve enjoyed hearing it pre match. I like that it’s unique to us. Along with the Post Horn Gallop it’s a nice nod to our long history. Not a fan of the Jersey Budd version myself but as we seem physically incapable of adopting the right pace for the Louis Armstrong version it will have to do.

Almost everything the club does on fan engagement at the moment screams "we think you're all thick".

Liverpool is fantastic. Just go there for work quite a bit so it's not much of a holiday destination for me.

They're both great. Free Trade Inn is one of my favourites in the UK. Some good spots in Ouseburn as well: Cumberland Arms, Ship Inn, Tanners Arms. But yeah it's not up there with somewhere like Liverpool or York for city centre pubs.

Newcastle Amazing architecture, great pubs, good restaurants, some decent galleries and museums, nice people. Short journey on the Metro out to Tynemouth which has a lovely beach. Half an hour's drive away you've got some of the best beaches in the country on the Norhumberland coast. Very underrated part of the world. Just avoid the Bigg Market on a weekend.

Agree with this. All our strikers are bad and none of them will score anywhere near enough goals, but Daka looks the best fit for the type of football Cifuentes (apparently) wants to play.

I know he is! I said so in my post! The point is more about fit within the overall system in the context of this specific game. Ayew drops deep and slows down play, Daka can stretch the defence by running in behind which will allow more space for our wingers and midfielders to create. Carranza may be the solution but as we've not actually seen him play yet it's hard to say. Would like to see him given some minutes on Saturday.

Not sure how best to go about it but Ricardo simply has to start. He is too good not to. Personally I'd drop Hamza and slot him in at RB but I think Marti quite likes his physicality. So a flat midfield 3 might be the best option. Centre back partnership is a doozy - they were decent against Charlton, very good against Birmingham and poor against Oxford. Maybe stick with it for now and hope they can develop together. As others have discussed the Soumare/Skipp experiment has to end now. Think James will come in for one of them, although there's an argument to say Winks should come in as well. Up top I'd like to see either Daka or Carranza come in for Ayew. We need somene who will stretch the defence. Yes I'm aware of Daka's limitations but he is at least willing to press and run in behind which will be crucial on Saturday as Cov won't sit deep.

This isn't the politics thread so I don't want to ruin it but the freeports conspiracy theory that's done on the rounds on leftish social media is some of the dumbest stuff I've ever heard. They're just Enterprise Zones with small tax breaks and even smaller customs benefits. Anyone telling you they're part of some sovereign individual plot to sell off Britain doesn't know anything about them.

Interesting perspective. On transport, I am noticing a difference in places that have a combined authority. Those powers seem to be getting passed up to that city-region level which makes sense for more strategic projects. Greater Manchester has done this very effectively but the likes of Liverpool and West Yorkshire now following a similar model. I know the local government reorganisation is controversial but perhaps covering that wider area will allow them to look at transport more strategically across the county and beyond.

Think you probably know this but planning is a bit more complicated than saying yes or no to a planning application. It's the place-making side of local authority planning departments that have been decimated. 30 years ago it was common to have an in-house chief architect and chief planner doing proper urban design work. These days there are barely enough resources to do building/planning control work. This is the kind of thing that happens when council budgets are cut by 40% or more.

Worth bearing in mind that local authority planning departments have been completely gutted due to austerity cuts. I'm not familiar with Leicester City Council's planning team but those I have dealt with are less than half the size they were 20 years ago.

The reality is that most city/town centres are essentially too big. The retail-led high street grew in the post-industrial and post-war era as shopping became a leisure activity. It reached its apex/nadir (depending on your viewpoint) in the early 2000s with the development of inner city shopping centres like Westfield as a response to concerns that out of town complexes like Fosse Park were having a negative impact on town/city centre economies. The rise of internet retail over the last 20 years has killed those as well, although some have effectively pivoted to more experience and food/drink led offerings. There are some interesting cases of towns/cities changing how they manage their centres. Stockport is pretty much making its town centre smaller - converting empty shops into flats and attracting bars and restaurants with cheap rents. Bradford built an enormous park/square smack bang in the middle of the city centre to give it a real focal point and make it attractive for families. On a smaller scale, Altrincham has responded to its town centre retail offer being gutted by the Trafford Centre by turning into a proper foodie destination. There's no future for retail-led centres apart from the largest cities - London, Birmingham, Manchester etc. Smaller cities like Leicester will need to attract people in different ways. Think the key thing for every city/town is to make it a pleasant place to visit - keep the streets clean, empty bins, tackle petty crime, brighten up shop fronts etc.

Pleased with the outs. Would have liked to ship out Kristiansen and a couple of others ideally. Pleased with the two midfield signings. I’m still worried about the strikers. Don’t know much about Carranza so I’ll reserve judgement. But I feel we still need a proper target man and would have really liked us to go all out for Ivanovic. That said, the main priority this summer was to get us on a more stable financial footing which does look to have been achieved.

Jakub Hamza Okoli Vestergaard Thomas Ricardo Soumare Fatawu Ayew Monga Daka Not great, but it'll have to do.

Yep, he did this several times and it's been a major fault in his game for several years. In a backs to the wall situation like the last 30 minutes on Saturday he's useful. Good at blocking, last ditch tackles etc. Similar to his man of the match performance against West Brom in our promotion season. Unfortunately he is sloppy in possession, switches off too often and is poor positionally. He scored a good goal against Huddersfield but was otherwise really bad, and was atrocious when he came on at Preston. He's far from our biggest problem, but he's a limited player and if we're relying on him in either central midfield or at right back this season we're in bother.

A theory: he has undiagnosed Lyme Disease.