ClaphamFox

I tend to agree, but not because we very likely won’t get Matt O’Riley…

Lately I’ve been wondering whether Maresca’s departure has damaged the club behind the scenes to a much greater extent than we perhaps realise. Whatever you think of his preferred style (personally I was a fan, but others clearly weren’t), I got the impression he brought an incredible sense of focus and clarity that the whole club, including the playing squad, bought into. It seems Cooper may be stuck between trying to not to change a winning formula and imposing his own ideas. Our pre-season performances certainly suggest that the ‘identity’ we had under Maresca has all but disintegrated. We’d better hope that Cooper somehow finds a way to create a new identity - and do it soon.

Unless of course Tanner is wrong.

Rob Tanner published a new article this morning that included this worrying paragraph: “Those who have watched Leicester’s pre-season know what areas need urgent strengthening. The problem is a large portion of their £40million-£50m budget (depending on player sales) is already gone.”

If Ndidi plays that DM role in the manner he did in our last two seasons in the PL, we’re in deep trouble.

I think you’re answered your own question there, buddy.

Don’t apologise - it’s a good idea. If we’re after 2-3 attacking midfielders/wingers I’d really like us to go for Hamer. All the other attacking midfielders we’re being linked with are very young, and we already have a few of those in Alves,,Golding and Fatawu. It would be nice to have at least one creative player with experience of the PL, and I’d much prefer that to be Hamer than Jordan Ayew…

I was just listening to the radio in the car. They were discussing the prospects of the clubs outside the big six for the coming season. Palace, Bournemouth, West Ham and even Southampton were spoken of in positive terms. We were basically dismissed in one sentence as near-certs for relegation, not worthy of further discussion. If that is also the consensus view among players and agents, it’s little wonder we’re struggling to recruit.

The player has his heart set on Walsall’s sporting project.

I’m becoming less confident that we’ll get the players we need in before Spurs. You only need to listen to the growing desperation in Cooper’s post-match comments to understand that the club is struggling to get deals over the line. This means we’ll probably be heavily reliant on last-minute purchases of players who didn’t get their preferred moves and the loan market. This in turn will ultimately mean our squad includes more wildcards, and fewer original targets, than we hoped for.

You often hear former players talk about teammates who hated training and never put a shift in but were brilliant on match day. I think it’s pretty common.

You may well be onto something with your theory about relegation clauses making it difficult to sign quality players. I’ve also been wondering the same. But surely you don’t genuinely ‘expect’ the club to admit this publicly? That would sound like an admission of defeat and would sound a warning signal to other players not to join us. Yes, it might rally some fans to the cause, but in other respects it would be disastrous. And besides, it simply never happens - can you think of a single example of a club issuing a statement on the eve of the season explaining that they’re struggling to sign players because they’re planning for relegation? I can’t recall one.

Probably. I was just making a daft joke.

‘Porto sporting project’ rolls off the tongue more easily than ‘Leicester sporting project’, so unfortunately we probably have to forget about this one.

The independent commission appointed to review our case. No - no date set for hearing because we keep legally challenging the right of the PL to even charge us.

Asprilla is a smokescreen for Ryan Fraser, who is himself a smokescreen for Cameron Archer.

RIP Craig. All Leicester fans owe you an incalculable debt for your contribution to the greatest season in our history. And in the following season, that home win against Seville will always rank as one of my best ever nights as a Leicester fan. You’re a true legend - thank you.

Wow. That statement is pretty damning.

Are you quite sure about that?

Last season’s transfer embargo was placed on us before we received around £40m for Maresca and KDH. We won’t know for certain until the accounts for 2023/24 are published, but the widely-accepted view in the media is that the money we received from Chelsea meant we avoided a PSR breach last season. This view likely came from off-the-record briefings from the club, so we can assume the club believes it complied with PSR for last year. This BBC article covers it. At the very least, even if didn’t quite stay within PSR limits last season, the breach will have been marginal. The EFL would struggle to justify a transfer ban on a marginal breach, no matter how vindictive they might feel. Either way, I’d say the chances of us being slapped with a transfer ban next season if we get relegated hover just above zero. We have plenty of other things to worry about, but that isn’t one of them.

But it looks very much like we didn’t breach any EFL rules last season. They can’t punish us just because they don’t like us.

Why wouldn’t we be able to sign anybody next season if we went down?