Viva

Cooper has got experience of keeping a newly promoted team up. No compensation needed too. It’s easy to see why he made the shortlist.

As has been said before, Ranieri won us the league. Nobody would have wanted him.

How about you wait and see how Cooper gets on first? Can’t really call it horrendous management until we see the results.

You’ve contradicted yourself a bit there. You say they are very visible in the good times, but silent in the bad times. Like you, I can’t ever remember hearing Rudkin in either good or bad times. I don’t have a problem with that either.

I think you need to realise we aren’t a top 6 team. We overachieved massively for 5 or 6 years. We can’t just sell the club and get back into the top 6! If we stay up this season and consolidate further the season after, then that is what we are.

They are an indicator that we overstretched on wages when trying to break into the top 4. Obviously Rudkin would have been a part of the decision making to do this. It did however help us to win an FA Cup and have a good crack at the top 4, because we would have sold Vardy and Schmeichel for example, way before this if we were staying totally within our means. £130-140k a week wages would not have been affordable. With some good decision making last summer, we are back as a Premier League team. Let's see how we do from now.

No I don't. There would obviously have been a case to get rid of Rudkin too. However, he stayed and we did a good job last season with player and managerial recruitments. It just seems ridiculous for people to pin the blame on Rudkin all the time and for people to make out like he is clueless. Ignoring the fact the he has been Director of Football over our most successful period.

I wouldn't say virtually two years sat in the top 4 and an FA Cup win were disasters. The best few years in our club's history, but ok let's ignore all that then and just focus on the couple of years after the FA Cup win.

You can try to word it however you like, but he took responsibilities for Director of Football in December 2014 and was officially announced as permanent in February 2015, still before some of the transfers you listed.

Interestingly, Huth even namechecks Rudkin in this article about his signing. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2463810/2021/03/28/huth-exclusive-supporters-want-themselves-represented-on-the-pitch-that-was-the-case-at-leicester/ “They were keen on me. Jon Rudkin (director of football) and Steve Walsh (then-head of recruitment) still believed I had a point to prove and fire in my belly. That was the case. The run we went on was amazing.” We then went on to sign Fuchs, Okazaki and Kante in the summer of 2015. Key players in the title winning season. I assume none of these were anything to do with Rudkin either? Also Ranieri arriving too?

Rudkin was Director of Football in December 2014. Before some of those transfers you have listed.

We won’t be financially crippled if we go down again. Lots of the big contracts have either ended or will be ending in the next year or so. Through good recruitment last season, we managed to avoid that scenario.

It’s mad that there are 121 pages talking about a Director of Football! One that has gone through some very good times, along with the bad. The good times get quickly forgotten though.

Not that unprepared really. As you say, we hadn’t appointed Maresca yet last year. Still got nearly three weeks to sort out anything for PSR.

Yes it’s a very easy excuse people keep using. He didn’t show up in the most important matches. Bologna obviously aren’t that bothered about keeping him either, so looks like he’ll be here next season.

Yes I did expect him to play better than Thomas was doing that season. Just like if we had bought a replacement for Soumare, I wouldn't have expected to see him back in the team that season. Rodgers wasn't the only manager we had that season. Dean Smith didn't play him too often.

If he doesn't have a good tournament though, then his value won't be helped. I certainly wouldn't negotiate a lower fee with Bologna before their option on him ends. Let him be available on the open market and see if we get any offers. If not, then we have to decide whether we want to keep him and whether he wants to stay. If the answer to either of those is no, then try to negotiate with Bologna for a fee that all parties are happy with.

I didn't expect him to be world class. I did however expect him to stay in the first team for the remainder of the season. Thomas had a very poor season, yet found himself back in the starting line-up. I feel like we often give players too long before deciding they are not what we require. Then it's too late to sell them for a reasonable fee. Soumare, Praet and Daka are three examples of this. If he stays and doesn't perform this season, then he will follow a similar route. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

My main memory of him was having a complete nightmare against Jack Harrison which ultimately cost him his place in the starting line-up. He can’t just be given a pass in the relegation season because he was young and no worse than some others. We spent a lot of money on him to help us stay up and unfortunately he didn’t really make a difference. I imagine it’s likely he will be here next season unless he has a great Euro’s. Will see what he can do then. I’m just hoping he’s not another Soumare where we have to keep loaning him out.

We were 10th favourites to win the league in 2019-20 and still only 8th favourites in 2020-21 after coming 5th the season before. We overachieved coming 5th in both seasons. You might not like to admit it, but we were successful under Rodgers during this period. It still hurt chucking away the top 4 finishes though.

Ah yes I forgot the fact that according to most on here, all the good signings are nothing to do with Rudkin and all the bad ones are purely down to him.

We just had a manager that won us the league and netted us £10m. Are you skimming over the fact that Rudkin chose him?

Chelsea finished one point ahead of us in the league in 2021 and won the Champions League that season. Man City also made the Champions League final. Man Utd in 2nd only lost on penalties in the Europa League final and Liverpool had won the league with 99 points the season before. To say the top four was at its weakest is just incorrect. It’s stronger than now. So for us to be so close to breaking into that on two occasions was still a very good achievement, alongside an FA Cup win.

I don’t think we would want to cut off potentially our best source of funds if needed.

The club shouldn’t just follow what people on FoxesTalk want. We have made plenty of good managerial appointments.