pmcla26

I’d go with Woyo, Faes, Okoli, VK. We know Thomas and Coady aren’t any better, Woyo should get a chance because why else did we sign him and JJ has been poor this season. I’m fed up of Faes but I still think I’d rather have him in than Coady.

Surely Bobby Reid, Jordan Ayew and Jamie Vardy have the oldest combined age of any front 3 in the Premier League?

Didn’t we try to sign Okazaki in Jan 2015? Sensi. Pretty sure we went in for Slimani in summer 2014. I think Charlie Austin rejected us summer 2015. Craig Mackail-Smith. We used to have a lot of signings that seemed like players we scouted extensively over a long period of time or tried signing across different windows (mainly when Walsh was here) but now it seems to be a bit more random.

Robbie Brady and Michael Keane summer 2016, as if that window could have been any worse than it already was. Dwight McNeil for ages until he went to Everton. Loic Remy Jan 16, and that Italian/Brazillian striker as well (Eder?), remember a lot of people stressing when that window shut in case Vardy got injured at some point.

Brendan Rodgers with a proper director of football/sporting director and management of money would have seen us top 10 consistently since 2022/23. He’s never been a bad manager he’s just arrogant. The problem was (in hindsight) he asked for too much, was allowed to do it with Congerton, the club handed out big wages to enable what they wanted and then when 2022 summer come around they had all done too much damage collectively to go back on it. Someone in that board room in summer 2021 needed to stand up and say ‘we’ve had two good attempts at top 4, we’ve won the FA Cup, we need to look at the finances now and reset to go again’. Sell one or a selection of Tielemans, Maddison, Soyuncu, Ndidi and get the next crop through to build around Barnes. Instead Rodgers, Top and co. all decided to gamble and it went terribly wrong. Seems like they made decisions on emotion rather than practicality, like we did between 2017-19 that had got us to that point in the first place.

They’re a few Chelsea and United fans. Not been to Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford so not sure - it was more about speed and the staff they couldn’t believe how slow things were.

Every time I go to games with friends/family who aren’t LCFC fans they are always complimentary of our atmosphere (although the concourse is crap compared to their clubs).

It's not snobbery. Almiron isn't an improvement on our options. We should be improving the starting 11 to stay up, not signing squad players.

Large South Asian community in Leicester and he'll become Bangladesh's most high-profile international ever.

So we never get the chance to have another 5-3 vs Man United, or FA Cup win vs Chelsea? (and the same for all the other games where smaller clubs have beat the big ones) I'm not bothered about us not being one of the big fishes in the pond, it makes it sweeter when we get to stick it to our glory-hunting mates. This is what you expect when you sign up (or forced by family members) to be a Leicester fan. Personally, I think keeping football as it is would be the best thing. Where's the fun in winning the Premier League just because Everton, Brighton, West Ham and Leicester are the big clubs? You kill every dream or hope of another Premier League win against odds, gate crashing the top 4 or beating one of the big boys in a cup final.

There is always 3 keepers with every matchday squad in the Premier League. Usually for warm-ups and if one gets injured in the warm up then there is someone on the bench.

I'd argue the opposite. Harder to gauge your positioning, timing on crosses and balls into the box, coming out for 1v1s, all things that can lead to goals and be more costly than an outfielder being bailed out by team-mates around him. Hopefully that was why Stolarczyk played on Monday.

I can see Arsenal going in for Rashford. Martinelli's form has fell off a cliff and Sterling hasn't made any impact there.

Having a player that can carry the ball can be really effective when you're a side lower down bottom of the table, or one that spends a lot of time out of possession defending. Palace have always had a couple of players who were good at this during their time in the Premier League this time around and Wolves had it with Cunha in-form last season. Grealish at Villa was probably the best one in recent times. It was also something we lacked in 22/23 - we had finishers (Vardy and Barnes), and creators (Maddison and Tielemans) but only really KDH and Castagne who could carry us up the pitch, and as a centre-midfielder and right-back, that's harder than a forward or a wide player to be in the positions to do so frequently. It meant that even when we tried to play on the counter, it was ineffective.

You could see in the EUROs he looked like he had something about him. He got them up the pitch a lot against Portugal and looks like he was good defensively and tactically aware for a more offensive minded player. Not sure how he'd fit in for us or if he should be a priority. Might be one you have to sign in fear of missing out on.

Results so far have pretty much been exactly what I was expecting/hoping for going into the games. Was hoping to beat West Ham with new bounce Was hoping could beat Brighton as at home and on the high after West Ham win, but was happy with a draw (especially afterwards given circumstances). Wouldn't have been surprised/criticised if we lost, though. Newcastle thought there was no hope given the lack of availability in centre midfield.

Hasn't Sangare had injury issues himself, mainly?

I agree with this. Reguilon and Lindelof in our back line could really shore things up back there. Justin (hold hopes he'll come back to somewhat decent form next to a better defender) Lindelof Vestergaard Reguilon Survive and get though to the summer, sell Faes and replace him with some genuine quality in their early/mid 20s to take JV place in starting lineup, or hopefully Okoli goes second season Soyuncu mode when he's fully settled.

Possibly 1. his injury troubles previously, 2. he probably had aspirations of playing Premier League again and we weren't guaranteed promotion and 3. that's the year our parachute payments would have ended so we wouldn't have been stuck paying Premier League wages to him if we stayed down.

I'm convinced that there was some other financial motive with us and Spurs following Maddison deal that triggered this signing. It was weird at the time and it doesn't seem to be any different from what was expected.

Could see him playing right-back for us as opposed to centre-back. He shifts across and Kristiansen bombs on.

Merson provides 0 analysis or tactical insight. Just talks like a bloke down the pub.

They wouldn't loan him. If he leaves it is a sale for PSR to allow them to buy someone else.

I thought Textor was trying to get out of Palace and they aren't really working in the same way anymore?

I think they won't be as dominant, as you'll have Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all putting up challenges rather than just one side (first Liverpool under Klopp, lately Arsenal). Signing Zubimendi/Angelo Stiller to fill the Rodri void in january, then letting De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva go in the summer and replacing them with Wirtz, and Foden getting his prominent role at last would go some way to fixing things. Replacing Walker will be hard as their aren't many great right-backs out there that aren't at the top clubs already (I think Frimpong is better further forward - be more suited to Amorim's Man United than Guardiola), unless they relegate him to back up and Lewis is the starter full-time. Could do with another centre-back too that is of John Stones' quality that is available more often than he is.