DJ Barry Hammond

People need to be realistic on this subject. King Power have converted around a quarter of billion in club debt to equity - meaning any party wanting to takeover ownership of the club would likely need very deep pockets. And that is just considering the potential cost price of buying a controlling stake of the club - it currently runs at a significant yearly loss too, requiring further significant capital just to maintain things as a going concern. So unless Top and Co end up wanting to sell out and do so to a party for a significantly cut price - a change in ownership seems very unlikely.

What’s this about RC Lens on the 10th August? In France 🇫🇷 too I believe!

A ruling authority doesn’t often act without an action has being taken. I think for Leicester, these ‘sham deals’ going through might be a good thing for defending its own position PS&R breach. It will also push the English game even closer to a football regulator.

There could well be an element of modern day O’Neill about him.

I’d argue that not signing Sensi was probably the right decision - even if that did piss off Maresca. The board did the important part of transfers in the pre-season, getting players in early and on structured deals. As for Rodgers and transfers - the board strongly backed him initially - it was Rodgers failure to secure Champions League football (twice) that played a significant factor in the following P&SR mess. It is therefore perhaps not a surprise that upon the demands of a ‘refresh’ for a squad that contained many of Rodgers own recent expensive signings doing very little ‘the board’ were not exactly responsive (and yet did try to do something in that January window)

Obviously there’s a lot of debate about who should play where for England - and indeed that is a problem. But for me, one of the more obvious problems is that none of the camp look like they’re enjoying being there. I haven’t spotted anything like dropping song names into interviews, random TikTok’s, the squad going on a massive bender together… the sort of things that makes the idea of playing yet more football at the end of a long hard season that little bit more bearable and indeed fun. This probably shouldn’t be a surprise given I imagine Southgate is a right mood hoover to play for… but I’d suggest this is as big a problem as who plays where and in what formation. I also ponder if this is another area where Southgate has errrd in squad selection, as I would suggest including Grealish would have at least made the camp a little more lively - even if he was just there to carry water bottles all tournament long. My other issue with Southgate (and fans in general) is the obsession over who should be in the starting 11. Gone are the days that all 11 have to play the full 90. There’s now 5 subs available to managers - so they really should be thinking of 11 + 3 changes as part of a game plan to get the best out of their squads (leaving a manager 2 subs for other issues). That means in my mind Southgate should probably be looking at the front combinations that gets the best out of Kane for 60/70 minutes, to then be replaced with 3 players that can then get the best out of your second striker (Watkins) for the remainder. This could mean that both Bellingham and Foden play at 10, just at different stages of a game - and would help manage the game time of your most important assets through a tournament. Clearly, Southgate won’t do this, so this is largely a moot point for the this competition… but hopefully this evolved mindset might creep into the thoughts of the many, many pundits and online commentators that continue to focus purely on a starting 11.

This might be an unfair narrative to firmly attribute to Cooper given the only reference point for this was a newly promoted (via playoffs) Forest side. It can certainly be argued that the balance of the squad Cooper inherits here is a much better starting point than he had at Forest upon promotion, allowing him to approach things completely differently in our current scenario. Indeed - you look at the makeup of our squad and the pace / directness it contains in key areas, we could prove quite potent away from home if we can get the defensive structure right.

Pretty sure he was performing dual player/coach roles at Bristol City for at least two years and has been doing his coaching badges etc - so he’s not exactly a novice.

I’m not sure we need another number 10 style player in there - we could do with some genuine width down the left.

The difference in feel in that midfield with Gallagher is night and day - someone that actually wants to get on the ball.

All of them walking out looked so tense and rather uninspired.

Trent’s attitude stunk that half - I’d have subbed him after 20 minutes. He was essentially hiding.

The Danes have deserved that. England have no clear pattern of play / way to beat the press - it’s odd.

Yep, that 3yr contract looking shrewd business!

We’re not getting £15 million for him now!

Trent looks really uninterested early on. Trotting about and hardly showing for the ball.

Mike Stowell’s available again I believe following his stint with Robbie Keane.

Well would you look at that! 😂

Yeah, that was different - Hoddle hand picked him for the England under 21’s and he had had a reasonable top flight career. Plus Taylor never had club managerial experience higher than Gillingham when he joined us - with all due respect to them. Cooper’s clearly a good coach, he’s made clubs better than when he joined them - and Glover is clearly not bad at recruitment - so I sense as a pairing they could do well for the club.

You don’t tend to get coaching jobs with Liverpool and England if you don’t have something about you - especially if your respective playing career wasn’t at the top level.

My hunch is that if it turns out to be Cooper - this could be a decent appointment for us. He’s not a charlatan like Rodgers and I imagine he’ll have a bit more pragmatism than Maresca - and indeed Potter. A lot of people are drawing Ranieri comparisons, but I might point to West Ham’s Moyes appointment in which there fan base didn’t really want him either time - and yet they were treated to largely good seasons, some decent signings, Premier League safety and a European trophy before partying ways for the second time. As a club, we won’t be able to out pass any of the top 6 regularly enough, so for us to be successful we need to find a method that works for our club - and I’m inclined to think Cooper is the better fit to find that for our club at this moment in time.

We don’t have much at the moment - we will certainly need to get players in - so is this necessarily a good thing for our situation?

It’s no risk really. If they get relegated he automatically becomes PSG’s new manager and they bag a hefty fee for him and his assistants.

I’d suggest conceding from your own corner in the dying minutes is a big tactical misstep.

Agree on this. Plus, I sense Moyes is probably more of a November / December / January hire for a club that finds itself away from where it wants to be. Of course that’s could easily be West Ham again 😂