LCFCJohn

I think the point is that it isn’t Leicester City anymore. Or in name only.

There’s a Derby, Leicester, Forest page that pops up on my feed which is generally decent fun. I was looking at some comments and looks like she has been involved in a controversy over some dodgy pics!

So you’re saying we can get relegated from the football league, go into administration, all whilst the Facebook super fans tell us to ‘back the family’ and ‘he just needs time to turn things around’ and we still may not be rid of him Last part of your post, absolutely. There’s been a lot of debate around the ‘investment’ of KP before we even got promoted back in 2014. I disagree with that as Pearson (Robins being your answer to ours with Pearson) was able to spend what we had wisely. Since the start, this ownership answer has been to throw money at crap and hope it sticks, with the exception of the Pearson tenure and briefly under Puel/Macia when recruitment improved a bit, albeit not the level we had under Pearson.

There will always be some (see Sheff Weds as well) but it is exaggerated at our club due to the devotion they have cultivated. It will have to get a lot worse for us than it did you (talking non-league, playing away from home, administration even liquidation) before people turn. Change will only come through administration and/or liquidation when it is taken out of the owners (and their followers in the fan bases) hands.

It doesn’t need to be either or (or you ok or how much). It’s more about how a normal person converses. You’re advocating not just treating another person normally in terms of a conversation because they are a well paid footballer and particularly because they didn’t contribute during their time at the club. Regardless of all this, it costs nothing to say in that conversations ‘I’m sorry to hear that, are you ok’? And ‘what is the plan next’? That would how a normal person would speak to another person. Regardless of whether Smithies contributed to us, he had a decent career for many years with a lot of appearances in the EFL. Just like when a person in a normal job retires, it can come as a shock. Aren’t there stats that there’s an increase in mortality for people after retiring? He might have been intending to have another couple of years playing at a lower level so being told his career was now done could still have thrown his immediate plans into doubt even if he knew at his age retirement was on the horizon. Nobody‘s saying he should have been given anything but the player has just had the news their career is done. A bit of empathy and check he’s going on his way ok would have cost nothing. Rudkin’s handling of it and people digging at Smithies and defending Rudkin normalises treating footballers as commodities and not people so it’s no wonder they turn into mercenaries! If it was a player who had contributed on the pitch, the reaction would be very different.

In terms of your last paragraph, the split in the fan base is because we have people defending the owner and putting him before the club. Until that stops, the fan base will be divided, the ownership will not be held accountable and we will continue to tumble down the leagues and/or administration.

Badge of honour She is vile though with her language and the way she speaks to people. She’s definitely the type I noticed appear circa 2014 and was what started to put me off going.

Both currently very quiet….wonder why!

Yeah as just replied to AKCJ, I was wondering what the reason was as it was the last one that came to mind. I did say he didn’t show that he would become the player he did and as AKCJ said, it wouldn’t have happened in our cesspit anyway. We just don’t know if a deal is still there to be done after relegation and whether he’d agree to come. And then if we even have the finances to do the deal even knowing he has a definitely resale value.

Yes I agree on all counts. I think you have basically said what I was suggesting. It was the last one that came to mind where we didn’t take up an option so I was wondering why. It was said we couldn’t afford it but it may be that they weren’t confident enough there was an upside to resale value. Not that it’s bothered them with most of the signings in recent years! Obviously James value is only going to increase but I wouldn’t bank on us trying to make the deal for affordability reasons if we are too broke to even do it initially.

Makes you wonder why we didn’t sign Lookman though when we had a similar option in place? There’s a couple of factors I can think which is that £14 mill or whatever that was is genuinely just more to fork out that £4 mill for James. And the other is that I don’t think any of us saw Lookman exploding into the player he has, whereas we know James value would only go up. So maybe those are the reasons. But I just get the feeling we won’t been be able to do the deal in the first place.

I’m not a fan of our clubs idea of ‘Pep-ball’ which has evolved anyway. But at least it would have shown some level of consistency and planning. They just have no idea and lurch from disaster to the next.

Agreed. It will also depend on what happens over the summer and how the season starts. If we start well and had a team together behind (doubtful on both counts), after 2 years of not being able to compete with anyone expect Derby County, some people might come back to just see us win again. Not those staying away out of real principle of course. But more of the same which is more likely and attendances will continue to fall as the more casual supporters lose interest. Or more people who do care, take a stand and stop.

Feels a bit like Spurs in 2016 after the title was mathematically sorted. They kept pace with us for a few weeks (not closing the gap but keeping up) as we have done with the relegation rivals. We beat Swansea at home convincingly and they slipped up against West Brom. After that, they fell apart and that weekend was pivotal. It feels like last weekend was that for us. We lost (ironically at home to Swansea) and the others won.

Contrary to the narrative peddled that anyone criticising the ownership must have only been around since 2016, the truth is that many of those of us who stuck by the club and attended week in week out during those 2004-2009 years are the ones that have stopped going out of anger at the running of the club. Therefore a lot of the support from back then they will have lost. If we assume many of the match going fans now are the ones who came out the woodwork when we started doing well, the question is how they react in terms of commitment to continuing to attend.

We had a much tougher run to get there than Man City ever have. Decent Championship sides like Stoke and Brentford (the season they were promoted) and then PL sides in Brighton, Man Utd and Southampton. It was a tough run. And credit to Rodgers (I never say that) for taking it seriously and playing strong sides. I can see why people make references to being fortunate in the final given the disallowed goal and some great saves by Kasper.

Of course In m my head, it was that poor run we had the season that ended in the play off defeat to Watford. If I recall, we were in the top 2, I remember losing away at Peterborough in the February time I think and we went on a poor run and recovered at Forest on the last day. I thought it was then so fair enough. So still speaks to the overall picture over the years but obviously not linked to the promotion.

This is a far too logically and sensible post. Ban yourself immediately I agree with every word. No issue with a statue but it would be far more fitting as part of the memorial garden. I also hate how many of our own fans seem to have accepted the erasure of our history. A proud history dating back 142 years. I will join you to face fire on the Pearson hill. As I have repeatedly said, the best owners either have a really in depth knowledge of football (Bloom and Benham being 2) or recruit people at club level (DoF etc) to ensure continuity and smooth running of the club. Our owners answer is Jon Rudkin…..The fact is, success has been tied to managers rather than managers being recruited as part of a club strategy and I have seen no argument to the contrary on this. If you look at the large sales that sustained us for years, how many were as a result of Pearson/Walsh or Puel/Macia? No many at all. As for the fact that UFS and the reformed Foxes Trust get the abuse they do, really winds me up. An example was when the Foxes Trust posted about having done a deal with Cavendish bar in Sheffield for fans to get discounted food and drink on Easter Monday, there was one single post complaining it was too far a walk to Hillsborough (ignoring the fact trams leave from outside Cavendish literally every 10 minutes and get to right outside Hillsborough in about 10 minutes). Whereas when they post about the season ticket deadline and challenging the club over this being before fans know which league we will be in, loads of comments abusing them!

I forgot about that one! There was a lot of debate about which way round it was. I feel given current events, you’d believe it to be the way round you have said. It does further show that getting promoted was not something KP should be given all this credit for as if that sacking is not reversed, promotion doesn’t happen. It just concerns me that people seem to think everything was absolutely perfect before Aiyawatt when there is evidence to the contrary. It also gets forgotten that we were a bit of a disaster following the title win. Relegation battles the season after, getting rid of Ranieri and Shakey. Puel was unliked. There was 14 seconds late gate in there as well. There were rumblings of discontent with the direction at that point. If anything, it feels like history was rewritten following the awful events of October 2018. Anything that was beginning to become a concern disappeared and any criticism was no longer allowed….

Pearson didn’t need loads on money to spend. Him having to unpick the crap that KP did when they took over delayed the trajectory we were already on based on Pearson’s first tenure. My biggest issue, looking back as I admit to not seeing it as the time, is the KP narrative that has been cultivated from day one. That is the reason we are where we are now as the amount of people who treat Vichai like a god whilst referring to his son tearing it down, aren’t acknowledging the link between the 2. Aiyawatt has been allowed to do this unopposed and applauded along the way because of the status in which people hold KP and Vichai. And this was something that has been happening from the start. So thinks like removing references to the past around the stadium, things like the trophy parade might seem trivial and unimportant. But if they had been treated like any other owner, the fanbase would have had the wherewithal to stand up for the club in recent years.

At this point, let the gap be more than 6 points!

I’m disappointed in him as I am with a number of the players. But the fact remains that many of them will go on to play at a higher level than we will be at and Rowett will likely manage again at Championship level, possibly before we even get back. Hard to judge most of them with the state of this club currently….and when I say judge I mean true levels.

He’s done a fair job at Championship level most of his managerial career. He’s let himself down not making an impact here, even in really adverse circumstances for any manager. I think people might have given him more of a chance if there had been effort to change things up. But I get irrationally annoyed when Anstey Nomads gets chucked in there to dig out a player or manager, even though I don’t want to defend or don’t even like the individual in question. I think there is enough criticism we can give out without exaggerating.

I’m tempted to put more. The bookies won’t think we will so odds will be good but we are in a terminal slide now. Promotion isn’t even something that I am considering a possibility. Relegation again though…

I don’t want us to keep him and agree he hasn’t made enough impact. But of course he is a League 1 standard manager. Doesn’t mean he’d be right for us though.