Fox-LMA

Sell up. He went waaay down in my estimation last season. Has good raw attributes but from what I see on the pitch: He doesn't play to his size, or read play well enough, is non-committal & is instinctively reactive. All of that adds up to a defender that is error prone. As his disasterclass against QPR proved.. Still can't get over how bad he was there. To be honest, I can't see him improving. The skills I listed can't be coached. young players either have them & go to the top, or they don't, & sign for Torino. A long faded lower mid table team in a declining league. Also I HATE this team so much I practically want ALL of them sold. They reek of defeat.

I was a big fan of Ings in his prime. I assume we all were. He was a bona fide PL striker, a lethal finisher & his England caps were well earned. But he isn't that anymore. Otherwise he wouldn't be joining us in L1. I'm not ageist. 34 year old players do have their uses. But I think my main issue is that I don't understand what kind of player he is now. He's been a cameo player over the last four seasons so I can't really assess what he's lost or even gained from his heyday. His game was centred around well timed movement with decent pace & using that to find space in the box to finish. Can he still do that now? If not, has he managed to adapt & counter the movement he's lost? If he hasn't, then what does he really offer? I also question his motivation. Does he still have the hunger to succeed? or is he just going through the motions until retirement? I do think his fitness record has been overblown. He had that awful, near career ending injury whilst at Liverpool & missed 18 months. But he did play a lot of his best football after that, & his injury record since has been somewhat standard for a player of his profile. Impish centre forwards who move a lot do tend to pull hamstrings... I've seen some hyperbole from posters claiming that this will be a 'disaster'. It can't be, it's only a one year deal. it's risk free as far as signings go. A free transfer on a one year deal will always be cost effective almost regardless of his salary. If it works & he has an Indian summer then great. If not, well then it's nothing ventured & nothing gained.

For me thats the strongest home kit we've had for years. I love the wyvern references & the aesthetic of the l/s jersey is very good. Pricing is horrendous. Though it's sadly an inevitability once the £45-50 cap was removed. & the manufacturers wonder why fakes are going through the roof!

Last time I will post on this issue... 1. I was talking in terms of purchasing. We didn't have a budget last season. We haven't paid a proper transfer fee since Jan 25. Like I said, RM wouldn't come if we didn't have one. He will have either better options or will wait for a better option to arrive. 2. No. Thats not how modern football works. Manager requests the profile of player, scouts/analysts find said players. Manager/DoF makes their decisions & DoF gets the deals done. Although LCFC are said to be old school in this regard & give managers some autonomy. One may say to our detriment. 3. Tyler Dibling. Gifted but temperamental. RM is the only manager to get a tune out of him so far. David Moyes hasn't yet. Mikey Moore did well for him at Rangers. Sam Amo-Ameyaw played his first senior football under him. He's at Strasbourg now & an Eng u21 international. 4. Yes. Rangers is an institution rather than a football club. Like a low level Real Madrid, you HAVE to win. Rodgers once said managing Leicester was a holiday compared to Celtic. 5. Didn't do Maresca any bad. I recognise that he's world class - I saw signs when he was here - but he needed a proper break & he got it with us. Not at Parma. 6. Yes it probably does. 7. There are positives & negatives in anybody we appoint.

Well not my choice, but... 1. In order to attract someone like RM we must have an excellent budget for L1. Otherwise he wouldn't come here, & would rather take his chances once the season starts & the firings begin in the higher leagues. 2. The players that we bring in at this level should be receptive to his methods. Unlike the dross of recent years who thought they were too big time for our managers of recent past. 3. Has a good record with youth. Which will be vital for us in the coming years - regardless of the leagues we are in. 4. After the shuttle crash at Rangers, will be desperate to succeed. 5. Only 40. A baby in managerial terms. He still has his career ahead of him & plenty of scope for personal development. Let's hope he starts to realise his potential with us. 6. Nice hair & beard (as a beard guy - v important). 7. Missus.

Nuno at Notts wasn't popular at the time either. Farke at Leeds has his moments. The fans there want him sacked after every defeat but you can't deny that he's done a good job there overall. Even despite the fact they didn't get promoted in 23/24.

Like most of this board, I have little time for Martin. He's overrated, will be expensive, & has an unearned arrogance that I find massively irksome. He is tactically naive & has this constant whiff emperor's new clothes about him. As in his methods are a mere fashion statement rather than genuine beliefs, or knowledge & expertise for that matter. & I say this as a lifelong supporter of technical (so called possession) football. His insistence on playing out from the back against Man City (!!) was pure stupidity & arrogance. I shudder when I think about it. I - as harsh as this is to say - don't think much of him as a man. He's thin skinned, vain, immature, quick tempered & has a knack of turning toxic when things don't go well. I remember in 23/24 he called out Jack Stephens by name after we beat them at home. Stephens -as we all know- isn't prime Maldini by any means, but he's a good honest trier who wasn't much to blame for any of the goals they conceded. I fully agree that underperforming players need to be dug out at times, especially our lot, but to throw an honest pro under the bus when approaching the culmination of a long, hard season strikes me as poor man management. I'm sick of all the small men at LCFC - & I fear that with Martin - we may accumulate another. However.... At 40 he's still a very young manager with plenty of scope for learning. Let's hope he's used his downtime since the disaster at Rangers to take stock of his practices. Modern managers have shown that they can learn from sackings (Emery & to a lesser extent Lampard) & adapt their methods. I think some of the revisionism on here over his time at Southampton is mostly unfair. We all know that success in football is largely dictated by player quality. You can have the best tactical plan but the players are the ones that get it done. & in 23/24 Leicester & Leeds had stronger squads than Southampton. We had Vardy, KDH. Ndidi & a motivated Winks. Leeds had Rutter, Summerville & Archie Gray among others. All PL proven & even Euro competition standard. Who did Southampton have by comparison? Joe Aribo, Ché Adams & Ryan Fraser.... Getting that Southampton side promoted was a good achievement. Just that it was dwarfed by the outstanding Ipswich that year. I watched that play-off final & they beat Leeds fair & square with (to my mind) inferior players. I know that the season after was a disaster, but their recruitment was as bad as ours, & bear in mind that they had a weaker squad than us to begin with. Their headline signing was Aaron Ramsdale ffs.. One win in 16 is terrible of course but it wasn't as if things improved after he left. The experienced & competent Ivan Jurić looked lost. It's also worth noting that he's the only manager (along with coach Simon Rusk) to get a tune out of the highly talented but temperamental Tyler Dibling. David Moyes so far hasn't been able to. Harnessing youth is an absolute priority for us going forward & Martin has shown that he can. We all know by now that when appointing a new manager, most of the conversations between clubs & candidates centre around 1. Coaching methods & style of play 2. Players already on the books (staying or leaving) 3. Recruitment budgets & transfer targets (very important - often a sticking point). Personal terms are usually straightforward. Normally the last item discussed. So does appointing Martin when we are in L1 mean that we have an outstanding budget for next season? I doubt he will be in it for the salary after two good payoffs from Southampton & Rangers. He can still easily command a good job in the Champ or abroad either now or during next season. Would we be able to convince a candidate of this standard to join us if we have sod all to offer them?

I'm not understanding this fascination with Challinor...

No. Likely to receive a ban. Will court controversy at a time we don't need it. Also, would he be as good at his job if it wasn't for the spying?

My theory - as boring as it is - is that ST's haven't sold out & they are keeping the rest until about Oct/Nov, where they will put them back on the market as 'Half Season Tickets'.

Pearson left first time around due to a massive falling out with Lee Hoos (the MD at the time). Mandaric backed Hoos & Pearson took the vacant Hull job. Nothing to do with King Power, who had only just begun their association with us as a shirt sponsor. Though I would imagine that they had influence over the decision to hire Sousa.

Yeah, Im with you. I think we could have tempted him if we stayed up & had an ambitious budget, which is what managerial negotiations ultimately come down to. But League One? No chance I'm afraid.

Seriously it would offer Aiyawatt the easiest win of his tenure. His sacking would have offered a real clean reset & (I imagine) go some way to winning over a fair amount of King Power skeptics. As it happens, I actually like the new boardroom structure. It has clear chain of command with each role having defined responsibilities. Which the club hasn't had since Vichai died. The problem is those responsible for the mess we are in are filling these new roles. We needed new people across the footballing structure.

Probably been said before. But I really don't think we can move on & build a positive atmosphere at the club with Rudkin here. Lets say for example: The rebuild goes well, we hire a good manager, we sign some good players who start well, the young players establish themselves, the fans are onside with it all & we are top of the league. But then we hit a bump & go five games without a win - which can happen, no matter how good the setup is - Then it will all be on again. The Rudkin Out chants start again, protests, Union FS will issue a terse statement & Jason Bourne will go back into meltdown mode... We will be back to the grind of relentless negativity that has plagued us in recent years. Rudkin still being here is a self failing prophecy. We need a clean break with the past. But our beloved chairman just cannot see it.

Next season's hire will be our most important for years when you consider the likely make-up of the squad. Leicester has become a club where players stagnate & get worse. Players leave us & improve. This has to change. We need a coaching obsessive who will be relentless on the young players on the training pitch every day. I've noticed that Monga's decision making is nowhere near where it should be, & his talent is stagnating as a result. He (& the others) require good day-to-day coaching to develop into the well rounded threats that we know they can be. Our whole outfit needs to focus on long term player improvement rather than short term goals. This is how you develop a good internal culture, which will lead to good results & promotions. I don't want a manager hired on the basis of "Oh, he will get us out of League One". This "that'll do" attitude is what has got us into this mess in the first place. So I will happily back a well sourced left-field appointment. Hopefully this is where James McCarron will come to the fore. I don't think for a second that Dirk Schreuder will come here, but his profile is certainly the right idea. Rather than some of the Championship/League One plodders that have been suggested on this thread.

Must admit, I would like to see Wasiliewski & Benalouane double mark Winks...

Look, winning at Portman Road is tough at the best of times, let alone now. We need to improve our home form drastically if we are to avoid the drop. That is what will be our potential undoing. Not the point we earn't today...

Serving some sort of a notice period i'd imagine. I don't know much about this guy. But I'm excited about the contacts he would bring. the City Football Group scouting & analytic networks are truly second to none. Full of players & coaching staff from around the world that, although most will not quite good enough for Man City, would be a benefit to a club like us. Maybe in time he could develop something similar with us & OHL. Although of course it would be on a much smaller scale. This is also an approach that as worked for us in the past. Nigel Pearson had a good relationship with Alex Ferguson which gave us access to these good young Man Utd players that - although not good enough for Man Utd - were good enough for us (Drinkwater, James, De Laet etc..).

A League 1 manager for a League 1 club...

By the look of LCFC's statement, an appeal will definitely be lodged. Also, does anybody know if this punishment is the end of the matter? i.e we've passed the PSR threshold in 24/25 & 25/26?

Allan Saint-Maximin is available. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/saint-maximin-leaves-club-america-after-children-face-racist-attacks-2026-02-01/ Out of our reach? Was on about £75000 p/w at Club America

I would highly doubt that a practicing Silk - especially one of De Marco's calibre - would be talking to a jumped up journalist about one of his ongoing cases. In fact it may be illegal.

Oh you're right. We have no budget, a crap board, a looming points deduction & a stadium full of (rightly) furious fans... ...But he has been on the record to the British press about being a lifelong Anglophile, & wanting to coach in England. No you're right actually. Pretty sure he will get a chance with a PL side soon. We are too much of a basket case for such a candidate atm.

Adi Hütter is available. Heard we held conversations with him around the time of Cooper, might we go back in?

Great idea! Might have to pay compo though...