LCFCJohn

I’m not a Thomas hater like most, I try and remain balanced. For me, he’s been no worse overall than Ricardo on the other side. He had a horrendous run under Cifuentes when it seemed he was responsible for a goal conceded each week. Under Rowett, his performances have steadied out more and been ok. Technically could that translate to being a good performer in L1? Yes in my opinion. Will he physically be up to it or get bullied. I worry he’d get bullied. Then there are his wages. He has to be moved in if possible even if performance/ability wise he could be ok. Also, we just need to clean house and get as many out who have been part of the decline. With Thomas, as well as being part of the 3 relegations in 4, even the year we weren’t completely crap, he was in a Sheffield United side that were. He’s had no positivity in years. Losing is ingrained as it is in the club. But that reason for moving him on isn’t unique to Thomas and it’d be easier to name those who you’d be ok with keeping on his basis (youth and Souttar basically)!

So funny you had to laugh twice, glad to have amused you To be fair, I realise it sounded extreme. But it’s no funnier or unrealistic than the p amount of posts suggesting we will sign James permanently or sign Dom Ballard or Pierce Charles etc!

Defensive midfielder with a number of goal contributions, knows the league, prime age, out of contract and only down the road? Na too obvious for our lot! Should be all over this. It doesn’t even feel like one where we would need to try and shift outwards first (like if say it was a centre back where we are well stocked numbers wise and need to see movement).

Yes, I did point out they moved upwards. It was more a case of someone saying he’s a Leicester fan. It won’t matter if offers come in and he needs moving on to pay Vestergaard’s wages. We likely keep him on the basis that moves that would be upwards, Championship clubs, may not be on the table.

I didn’t say he would. I said once we are in the same league if they come up, they would likely try. Barnes and KDH didn’t want to leave did they? They got pushed because of our financial position. Obviously they moved upwards so not the same.

Problem is, we have spent too much time giving out contracts to crap like Choudhury and Vestergaard and neglected the youth lads. Braybrooke as with Nelson is out of contract next summer. We need to extend. Nelson the ship has sailed. Page I know did recently. I’m not sure on Aluko without looking. If we can build around Aluko at rb, Page and Braybrooke as well, that’ll be a good start. The others I’m not sure how ready they will be to start on the first game but hopefully can be quickly integrated (Evans, Joseph etc).

Monga and Nelson will go. I do think we can keep the others. It was just a thought. If you’re Chesterfield, why wouldn’t you try? I’m not saying he would.

More of a we will need every penny we can get. Everyone will be for sale. If they stay in L2, Sammy probably wouldn’t entertain it. L1 he might.

Braybrooke only has a year on his contract come this summer. If Chesterfield win the playoffs and come up the L1, might they poach him from us? It’s a concern…

Point really is, although the final table shows that mathematically we would have stayed up, it doesn’t tell the story. We have just given up and you can’t say that is due to the deduction which was hardly crippling for our chances.

To be fair, I see it as we have been relegated on the pitch anyway as let’s be honest, had we been in with a chance of staying up today, even a point ahead of Blackburn with it being a straight shootout, winner stays up, what would have happened? Wouldn’t have been a 1-0 away win that’s for sure….

How? We cheated and were rightly punished. Absolutely fair. We went down because we are one of the worst teams this league has seen and absolutely stunk the place out. It’s justice on multiple levels we have gone down.

Away end celebrating like it’s 2nd May 2016 I’m guessing?

I get that. But at least they are united now. That is never going to happen for us.

Right leaning is different to far right and the things you have mentioned. Reform, Refresh or whatever they are called and Green are all bad news at their extreme ends of the spectrum. Pretty much all countries with happy populations are central in politics, mostly just left or centre, also sometimes just to the right. Leaning either way is not the problem. Extremes are.

Yes…by virtue of the fact they are at the end of their curve to new ownership. We are still on the way up to the peak as to how bad it will get.

Remember though, when Wednesday did it, they are backing their club whereas god forbid Leicester fans suggest any of the actions listed in that post, entitled lot . Oh and something something about UFS! I am envious of Sheffield Wednesday. As he says, they have brightness ahead now and to look forward to whilst we are plunging further into the dark. If they are completing their takeover imminently and actually build a team over the summer, regardless of a 15 point deduction (if that is the case) I fancy them to make that up on us and finish ahead next season. And their fans are united. Seeing how sections of our fanbase has reacted to our decline has been the saddest and most painful thing, way more so than the relegations themselves. It just shows we could be taken over tomorrow and still be a broken club because of our pathetic fans.

Well, I’m just obviously not feeling as sentimental as others because I am just seeing a highly paid player who has been awful on the pitch and looking forward to him leaving. I don’t buy this legend stuff either. I’m not sure anyone since the title winning side can be classed as a legend. Tielemans for scoring the winning FA cup goal? Maybe, but contributed to us getting relegated soon after. Even in 23/24, my overriding memories are frustration as the likes of Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth getting behind us and beating us with ease through the space in our defensive right channel where Ricardo wasn’t. Granted that was the tactics from Maresca but as something who thinks a successful side starts with being defensively sound, seeing us give away such cheap goals was very frustrating. My view is that recruitment has declined going back to 2016 after the title win and has been downhill since. Players like Ricardo and Maddison were good signings as they were (both derailed by injuries) technically very good PL players (not world class). But they have also been a symptom of our demise in that even during our good years under Rodgers, it was technical ability at the expense of mental fragility, hence blowing top 4 twice, weak performances in Europe and the subsequent relegations. Although Ricardo wasn’t available during much of that earlier on due to injuries, the ‘leadership’ he has shown the last 2 seasons shows he also fit this description. He seems like a nice guy and I hope he gets a couple of years or so maybe back in Portugal to enjoy his football as he’s had really awful look with injuries. But I just think it’s being over done and symptomatic of this club under KP (including Vichai) to give hand out to players who aren’t contributing.

Another year older? Factually true but he has just turned 22! As a defender, he’s a number of years off hitting his peak. Zero chance Nelson stays for next season. Football scouts and clubs will look at more than a poor run of form in a toxic club in which only one player could hold their head high this season. Some players continually fail and get moves (mostly to us to be fair ) or fall upwards. Those in charge of transfers at well run clubs will see a player who has just turned 22, players well anywhere else he has been and see that he could be picked up for no more than about £2 million due to his contract running out next year. Of course there will be many Championship clubs interested and probably PL clubs as well (not saying Chelsea etc) but lower PL clubs who might even see a longer term investment to give him another loan to the Championship. He’s not playing in L1 for us anyway. Not with a year left. You’re probably right about Thomas (in your last post not this one) but even Stolarcryk, a year left, someone will punt about £500k for him to be a squad player. Norwich were offering £4mill before weren’t they?

Got to make the most of it. Going forwards in the coming years, the only time we will get to play a Championship team will be in the early rounds of the League Cup or if we get through to the 3rd round of the FA cup!

How will he fetch more than that? One year on his contract, seemingly no intention of renewing, we’ve been relegated and desperate for cash and he’s been dropped from our side so not first choice. He might be worth more but realistically, we either take a couple of million or lose for free next year so our hand will be forced.

I did say you don’t need 4…so I thought implied I meant 3. 3 senior CB’s plus the youth back up. That’s assuming a manager playing 2 rather than 3 CB’s as if the latter then you would have to review that of course. It’s realism as well. Think of poor Rudders trying to coordinate the signing of 4 players at all let along just in one position!

Not his finest moment. Hard to say without knowing the full context of what was said in both cases. Whatever critical things were being said were probably more ‘fair’ towards Winks and co this season than having a go at Pearson who was responsible for our rise from L1 before to the PL. So I could understand why he’d be pissed off whereas anyone involved with the decline of this club over the last few years should really own that. I say that not to justify abuse either way, but more that they aren’t directly compatible.

Yeah we don’t need 4 with TWB and Gray in the squad. Problem will be, as usual, we won’t be able to act upon the free transfers that are decent because we will take so long to bring a manager in and in the case of centre back, however likely departures are, they still need to happen for us to bring numbers in. We will be scrapping around for proper bargain bin frees and loans that haven’t already been snapped up. Grim…

It could be quite likely that all the centre backs go, or at least in their own right individually. It is whether collectively that all comes together. I suspect we will sell anyone we can. Faes - doing well at Monaco and 1 year left so even if they renegotiate the optional fee down in light of our relegation, they may well sign him. With a year left, he may also move on his wages for a longer deal. Vestergaard - similar to Faes with a year left and wages. Not had a loan of course but maybe a move to Europe. More a case of struggling to see him sticking around than seeing an obvious move for him. Okoli - can’t imagine his wages are as high as the two above and has been linked with moves back to Italy. Although this one might have more of a loan to Italy with an option about it. But still unlikely to be around next season. Lascelles - not even in contract. Not to say he wouldn’t sign up again on reduced wages but I guess we count someone out of contract as going. Souttar - wages will make it difficult to keep him. You’d imagine Sheffield United being interested. Not sure what the terms would be, permanent deal and if we’d end up paying some wages etc but you could see him going. Or rather not seeing it being possible to keep him. Nelson - the easiest sale of all of them. Still has a good pedigree despite poor form this season and still young. Other clubs will see that our whole club was a mess this season and it won’t reflect on him. With a year left on his deal, someone will easily pay the £2 mill or so needed to sign him.