ClaphamFox

Signing Skipp makes total sense to me, for the following reasons: 1) We don't know whether Ndidi is up to the job any more. If he manages to rediscover his imperious 2017-21 form, fantastic - but we haven't seen that player for several years now. If we went into September and it became apparent that Wilf can't do it any more, our defence (which itself is questionable) would be horribly exposed. And even if Wilf does return to his best, his injury record suggests we will need cover. 2) Buying Skipp gives us he option of pushing Winks further forwards if necessary. 3) In games against the stronger teams where we're likely to have to defend for most of the game, a midfield of Winks, Ndidi and Skipp won't be a bad option to have. We always needed a new CDM. Whether Skipp is the right man remains to be seen, but the logic of strengthening in that position seems pretty clear.

Six points sounds about right for the first breach and would not be a disaster. The fact that the EFL’s investigation has been handed over to the PL is not surprising. The EFL forecast to be in breach last season and that investigation has not concluded yet. However, the there are three key points that none of these articles bother to address: 1) Previous reports have suggested the club is confident that the money received from Chelsea for Enzo and KDH. It’s unlikely this has changed, so why is this not mentioned? 2) Even if we were in breach for 2021-24, the money received from Chelsea would almost certainly mean it was a minor breach, significantly reducing the likelihood of a second points deduction. Not only that, but two years of the 2021-24 period would already have been dealt with by the punishment for the first breach. This would also significantly reduce the size of any second points deduction. 3) Does the FA have the legal grounds to impose a second points deduction anyway? It’s never been done when the two offences have occurred in different divisions. Added together, I think these factors make it extremely unlikely we’ll receive a second points deduction. All that has happened is that the EFL has handed its investigation into 2021-24, to the PL, which is hardly surprising given that the investigation won’t conclude until we publish our accounts for last year and we’re now a PL club. The dramatic headlines suggesting ‘Leicester face two points deductions’ etc are basically clickbait - they’re over-egging it to get people to read the story. I still reckon we’ll get six for the first breach and nothing will come of the EFL investigation. I can live with that.

As much as I’d love us to buy a high-quality attacking midfielder and striker, those players have a higher premium and likely to have more options. Given our situation re: the threat of a points deduction, it may be that our only route to genuine quality attackers is via the loan market.

He was awful in his last two PL seasons with us, but brilliant before that. It would be a massive gamble to assume he will somehow rediscover his 2017-21 form, although obviously I hope he does.

He won’t be behind Wilf.

Rumour has it that it’s possible to scout players in different positions at the same time.

We are obviously going to bring in more attacking players. It just appears that we’re signing Skipp first, likely because our targets for more forward positions are proving trickier to get over the line.

The player only wants Rotherham.

The Sun article merely repeats the widely-known fact that the EFL was forecasting a breach for last season and slapped a transfer ban on us. It doesn’t make any reference to how the £40m we received for Maresca or KDH may have affected whether we breached last year or not. In short, it provides precisely zero new information.

The article does not state that we breached PSR last season.

Winks will do fine as a deep-lying playmaker, but we need a proper DM to play alongside him. Wilf used to excel at that but there are huge doubts over his ability to do so now.

Do you think Wilf is up to it?

So Monga came on as a sub last night for the Under-21s and started today for the Under-18s? Still time for him to make Monday’s squad then…

Szmodics is only on the bench? McKenna clearly doesn’t fancy him then. Can we all finally agree that he’s a one-season wonder who won’t cut it in the PL?

No - we’re playing in a much tougher division with a weaker starting 11. Fortunately we have a couple of weeks to change that.

I think he was bought for his physicality and pace rather than his ball-playing ability. Unfortunately defenders with pace, physical presence and good ball skills tend to be expensive.

I suspect you’re right and that at least part of the problem is that Cooper is trying to play in a similar way to Enzo because he doesn’t want to change a winning formula, but he just can’t coach it with the same passion/conviction because, deep down, he doesn’t believe in it as much. Enzo’s obsession with his ‘idea’, for all its inflexibility, at least brought total clarity about every player’s role and what was expected of them. From the first games in preseason last summer, it was clear that the players understood exactly what they were supposed to do; this summer, by contrast, they’ve looked lost and devoid of energy. This doesn’t mean that Cooper is a bad manager or even that the players don’t like him. But maybe he’s just struggling to provide the same obsessive clarity they had last season, and their confidence has dropped as a result. The departure of our best player and the lack of quality additions obviously won’t have helped, either. The good news for Cooper is that expectations are so low at the moment that it wouldn’t take much to lift the mood - if we lose on Monday but play well and provide some excitement, the fans will get behind him and we’ll have something to build on. If we actually get something from the game, the sheer relief could generate some real momentum. If we want to survive this season, we need to turn the KP into a fortress the way Forest did at the City Ground under Cooper. Let’s hope something has clicked on the training ground this week and the players understand what Cooper wants from them better than they’ve shown so far.

After telling the whole world that we desperately need attacking midfield talent, it would certainly be a bold move by Cooper to leave out Buonanotte.

Don’t be so negative. That article was probably written yesterday - the 15th, not the 16th! They might have finished the weighing up process by now for all you know…

He wrote, “I’m not surprised Sky have used it.” What was there to re-read? He’s edited now to clarify.

How have Sky used it?

It was very obviously made-up as a joke. The wonder is that anybody took it seriously.

it ”It’s the wrong targets, Jon! And they’ve gone wrong!”

There’s a big difference between being picked for your country in the Euros and playing in the PL. I don’t think Vestergaard is a PL quality defender - we only gave him a new contract because Maresca wanted him, then Maresca buggered off. Cheers Enzo 👍 Faes is a bombscare with a poor attitude and nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. Coady’s fitness cannot be relied upon. Nelson has huge promise but is very young. The jury is out on Okoli but the early signs are not particularly promising. Unless we improve our defence between now and the end of the transfer window, I can see us having the worst defensive record in the PL this season.

Buying a centre back made complete sense as we badly lack quality in that area. Whether Okoli has improved us is another question.