LCFCJohn

No I don’t. But without his building of the club we’d have been stuck mixing it in the Championship. It was a perfect storm. Pearson wouldn’t have had the temperament to keep calm and probably not the tactical nouse. But Ranieri wouldn’t have won it without Pearson’s squad. Ranieri was a better tactician and kept the pressure off and did a great job. But you can’t compare the recruitment of either manager with the likes of Brighton in terms of credit to the ownership.

Not compatible examples. Brighton the structure is set by the club and managers are identified and brought in to fit this. The stuff we were doing well was implemented by the manager in Pearson. What have the club themselves done well? Give me some examples and I’ll happily admit to being wrong.

It was far more than Pearson abilities as a coach. Scouting (Vardy, Kante, Mahrez), sports science resulting in a really good ‘lack of’ injury record and psychology (was it Ken Way we had) were what led the club on the road to the title and that was Pearson and his team. He understood the importance of having the right people around. You could give Vichai/KP credit for bringing Pearson back but back is the key word. They booted him in the first place. Credit for Ranieri? Come on, nobody thought that was an inspiring appointment. I’m not sure what you can particularly point to where you can give them credit for an actual well thought out plan or strategy. As the years go on it looks more like blind luck.

Not good reading. Although if those are this year, and we expect them to be reduced by a decent level, Souttar and possible Skipp would be fine to keep as they both contribute well next season and importantly, don’t seem to be bad eggs like some of the others on that list. The rest are one of or a combination of: - Too much even with reductions (Vardy/Ricardo) - Not going to contribute what they are being paid (Daka/Ndidi) - Poor mentality/characters (Ward, Faes, Vestergaard, Coady, Winks, Soumare) - Pointless (Edouard)

It does feel like a directive which is coming from above RVN… Which would be good in that it could show the club could be realising what needs to happen.

Ok, I get if you are saying loaning him and him returning if promoted is preferable to losing him altogether. Although then there’s the argument of finances and whether we can justify losing key players from the squad without funds coming in to replace. It was just the wording of that being the ideal option that was all. Yeah there’s no guarantee we go up. If he, or any others, stay and play in the Championship next season, I think they would just have to take responsibility for their own performances. If they play well but the team come up short, there will be options on the table. From Bilal’s and Okoli’s point of view, they would have a year less PSR value so a move would be more likely next year. They might move permanently or go on loan. But both are young and joined us as we were newly promoted. Unless they are completely detached from reality, they must have realised relegation was likely. Yeah, I’m sure they would hope that their individual performances in that scenario would get them a move. Particularly in Okoli’s case that hasn’t happened and Bilal has hardly taken the league by storm, even though we can see the potential. Personally I think the club should keep them to play if they can’t make profit to reinvest but there’s no right or wrong. If wages are still our issue you’d hope these guys aren’t the problem!

Why is the ideal not that they stay and get us promoted out of interest?

Brownhill is 4th highest goal scorer in the Championship from central midfield, 13 goals and 5 assists. To be fair, we should probably be all over that! The others have all be good players but have had their time. To be fair they all have the ability still I think to be good players at that level but we need to get away from the wages they would command and bring in players on the up.

I get that sentiment. However, we are down. That is indisputable. Whilst we want to win games, if we win a couple of games when relegation is confirmed as the season draws to a close (which we might given we have Ipswich and Southampton), it will be an excuse for Top to brush off what came before. If we get the most disgusting, embarrassing relegation possible, it is more likely to draw attention to the mess and put pressure on Top to take it seriously. Yes it’s not nice in the short term to want to lose but it is definitely more likely to be a positive in the long run.

Haha yeah I know that would never happen. Just that it would take being whacked over the head with it for many of those in the stands to even realise!

I genuinely would not be surprised if 2/3 of the ground don’t even realise relegation is confirmed when it happens unless it is said over the tannoy. Completely clueless robots.

Probably easier said than done but ignore them. Complete key board warriors. I do hope that you have managed to separate the heathy debate about the messaging (all from people in agreement with the cause) from those cyber attacking you. It will be understandable though if you don’t wish to take on another one 👍🏻 For what it’s worth, the final messaging seems spot on.

I’m all for getting rid of Vestergaard, Faes and Coady. I’d be happy with Nelson, Souttar, Okoli and a new face if they could be a starter that brings the traits you mention and plays alongside Nelson. Centre midfield is a big area for us. I’d happily see a massive clear out. The only one in their own right you couldn’t make a case for being realistic to move on is Skipp. So do we look at who can partner him? I don’t think Winks is the guy. It’s not just about players being destroyers or blunt instruments. A player like Bilal is tough and gets stuck in. You can balance flair and talent with that imo. I’ll admit my view on Winks is also tarred with the Copenhagen/Enzo thing and the thing about living away but seemingly not integrating with the squad (can only be the reason for it being raised). When we have had players in the past like Kasper who came a long way, they did their talking on the pitch.

Funny how people can see things so differently but fair enough. I don’t think two centre backs, based on what we already have is at all realistic. If we shift at least 3 or maybe 4 of what we have, maybe. Nelson is going places and it’d be negligent to not have him in the team next season. I wouldn’t say no to a Wes or Hugh type alongside him but Nelson needs to play. JJ, nothing against him. I hate seeing a right footed full back on the left. When you already have a right footer winger on the left, it just makes the side so unbalanced. I just think JJ needs to move on. You say it is fine to have him at left back and ‘get by’ as we have other positions to fill but think we need two more centre backs despite having 6 on the books? Winks my issue is more with his mentality and commitment than ability. You talk about defenders that get stuck in but you need that bite in midfielder too and he is so lightweight.

Nelson’s hardly small. Not Okoli. If Souttar gets fit, I think those 3 are excellent options at centre back. I’m surprised you have therefore put both CB positions as * in your line up. For me, it is how many of Faes, Vestergaard and Coady we can shift as to whether we can bring a further option in here but I’d like Nelson to be one of the first names on the team sheet. I’d also be very disappointed to see Justin or Winks in the 11. We need a proper left back, not a makeshift one who has had one purple patch since being with us. As for Winks, he certainly doesn’t seem to want to be here. I’d have Skipp as the more defensive option and look for someone more box to box who can offer more going forward, someone in the KDH mould. If we played 433, you might also be able to go: Mavididi - ST - Fatawu New - Skipp - Bilal

Exactly. There will be a number of players we could go for on free transfers but in many cases, we are likely to miss out as we will need to shift some out first. An example is Harry Darling who is highly rated at CB for Swansea and out of contract. He’d be a good pick up but we are stacked at CB with: Nelson Souttar Okoli Coady Vestergaard Faes We will need to shit 2/3 of those, ideally all of, or minimum 2 of the bottom 3 in that list. That will likely take time and even if we do it, we will have missed out on targets and likely waste more money and wages on a substandard addition to the squad. Wide positions as well. We are well stocked with a better selection there but a player like Poku at Peterborough is available. We have: Fatawu Mavididi Alves Monga Evans Reid Ayew As with the above, we ideally want to shift both or at least one of the bottom 2. There is already a risk they are still around the squad and block the progress of the likes of Alves, Monga (if still here) and Evans. Fatawu and Mavididi should be first choice of course. So again, whilst we are faffing around trying to shift them two, we will miss out on someone like Poku as the position is one that we are ok in and we will have other priorities such as left back, central midfield and striker(s). So frustrating….

Possibly. Countries like Morocco are going to be different to England though and will play players who aren’t not necessarily in the top division as they don’t have as many options. The 2nd tier in England is still well within the top 10 leagues in the world. With England, we select often based on reputation so if a player is relegated with their club, they will instantly be cast aside. He can probably get some sort of reassurance from his national coach anyway. I suspect they are a lot concerned with their players sitting around taking money without playing like Vestergaard often has.

Yeah who knows. They should have smashed the league like they have this year when they spent £11mill on one player to be fair. Obscene for that level and they need to break 100 points as a minimum for their promotion not to be tainted imo. But I understand that PSR becomes much stricter in the Championship. There’s a lot of average sides in the Championship though so it doesn’t take much to find yourself in the top half.

Is there a reason people seem to be expecting Birmingham to do so well? I know they have money but they will be under restrictions in the Championship that they haven’t had in League 1. I’m also not sure Chris Davies is all that, he was Rodger’s assistant after all! But I agree about Sunderland. Ipswich should win it but it depends how they cope after the hype of their first top flight season for so long and the crash back down to earth, a bit like Luton in that respect.

I think Sunderland would be a bigger threat than. Sheffield Utd if they stay down.

Just making the point his transfer record was very mixed. Some would add Cannon but we did actually turn a small profit there. I think it was well accepted that Vestergaard was a ball set rolling by Enzo. Ndidi yeah, perhaps due to his long association with the club would be more likely post Enzo. Mavididi I missed off the good list to be fair. He is in my starting 11 next season. Winks I never liked the signing when it happened and don’t now. Massive overpay for a limited player with a weak mindset. Very near the top of my bin list for this summer. Coady is none of what he was meant to be. Massive overpay again. Point being, when we list the deadwood we need to ship out, there a decent amount that was still on Enzo. The last manager we had with an eye for recruitment was Puel despite his limitations as a coach. We desperately need someone with that ability again. Ideally with better coaching and man management skills of course.

True and hopefully so, thanks for the context. Yes it makes sense that the ones that are organisations could find a way round. I suspect the day Greek will find a way mind.

No but we’d sign the likes of Coady and Winks, and offer contracts to Vestergaard and a past it Ndidi so his recruitment was hardly great. Hermansen and Fatawu yes. Average to poor outside of those two.

I know they drew at Arsenal yesterday but their away record I think, has been pretty bad in general whereas Forest are very strong at home. I’d expect that Everton result to be an anomaly rather than the normal for visiting sides to the City Ground. I hope they completely bottle it but they do have the small points advantage and very favourable fixtures left.

I just looked this up and others such as Man City and Girona were able to play in the CL together. Apparently it is UEFA’s discretion as to whether sufficient safeguards are in place to prevent conflict of interest. So basically the fat Greek will pass a brown envelope and it’ll be fine so don’t get your hopes up.