ClaphamFox

The only sensible thing for us to do is recruit the best available candidate for the job. If that candidate happens to be in a job and we have to pay compensation to obtain him, so be it. The last thing we need is to recruit a second or third choice candidate just because he happens to be out of work. We made that mistake last summer and paid a heavy price.

[adopts best Sean Connery voice]: So you think we’ll Rohl the Dyche on someone else?

Yes, that’s very plausible. And if it IS 4), you’d have to assume the preferred choice is Rohl (why bother even pursuing him if our number one target is Dyche, who is a free agent and could start tomorrow?). In which case we’re once again in the position of having a preferred choice who we’d have to pay compensation for and a back-up option who is available for free. It makes you wonder whether they’ve learned a lesson from last summer….

So we currently have three potential scenarios, depending on who you choose to believe: 1) It’s all been agreed with Dyche, he’s bringing Michael Keane with him, and it will be announced soon; 2) We’ve reached an agreement with Danny Rohl and are trying to find a way of getting him out of his contract; or 3) Neither of the above are true and we haven’t actually begun serious negotiations with anyone yet. Of these, I very much prefer 2) but I suspect it’s 3).

No need at all. Tanner is cautious - he wouldn’t say that unless he was confident it’s true.

He doesn’t get scoops because he’s a cautious journalist & the Athletic is more about analysis than breaking stories anyway. However when he does say something about the the way the club is thinking/moving in, he doesn’t often get it wrong.

“Oh Ruud - you didn’t actually believe we’d let you manage us next season, did you? Ha ha ha - your face!!” 😁

I remain sceptical. If Dyche has been appointed and it’s being openly discussed between players and their agents, it would have reached some of the media outlets by now, yet there are absolutely no reports about this anywhere. It would also have very likely have influenced betting patterns enough to affect the odds, yet you can still get 13/8 on Dyche (Rohl is still 4/6). Of course it might be that it’s true and that it’s being widely discussed among agents yet has somehow completely evaded the attention of journalists and punters, but it doesn’t seem very likely to me.

I doubt the club will regard next season as a ‘rebuilding year’. I think they’ll want promotion as soon as possible. Whoever comes in will be expected to deliver that.

His book value means we're unlikely to get enough for him that really benefits us - hence the £40m valuation. He's worth far more to us if he stays and helps us get out of the Championship next season. I've been saying for ages that BEK will probably stay with us next season and I've heard nothing that's changed my mind.

Dean Smith was a stop gap manager appointed when very few other candidates were available. I don't think we can read anything into that appointment. Re: Steve Cooper, I get the sense that he probably told the board that he would carry on playing the same way that Enzo did. He probably pointed to his time in the Championship with Swansea and Forest, when he favoured a possession-oriented style, and argued that he could play the same way with us. So I don't think the club appointed him expecting him to take us too far away from the style that won us the division in 23/24. Besides, we had the threat of PSR hanging over us and were probably limited in terms of the quality of candidate we could attract. Cooper was very likely a compromise candidate that got the job because he was free and said all the right things in his interview. I can't imagine Dyche making false promises about his playing style, so if the club appointed him it would be with a clear understanding that we're heading in a different direction, style-wise. I also can't imagine Dyche taking kindly to be being told what kind of players he'd be able to target. This is why I remain sceptical of the Dyche rumours - it just feels like too much of a departure for the club and I'm just not convinced it's going to happen.

I think that is overstating it. Tanner is a professional journalist whose brief at the Athletic is to cover Leicester. He has been covering us for a decade and will have built up a lot of contacts within the club during that time. Obviously he will be privy to information that the rest of us don't have access to. He's also a cautious journalist who tends not to say things unless he's pretty confident in them. It's because of this that he rarely gets scoops - journalists who break stories tend to be those who take risks. This doesn't mean we should treat everything he says as gospel, but I think dismissing him as having no more credibility than a random forum poster is over the top.

I can't recall a single instance of us sacking a manager and announcing a permanent replacement on the same day. I don't think we've ever done it.

That sounds far more plausible than the Dyche rumours.

We have a position vacant for a striker....

You can still get 13/8 on Dyche. Anybody who believes that it's a done deal has the opportunity to fill their boots.

Yep. Nine sex bots, one crypto 'influencer' and what appear to be three actual followers. Maybe I'm just too jaded and cynical, but I'm not entirely convinced...

Wake up and smell the 13 followers...

Those four appointments were completely different from each other, so I'm still not sure what kind of pattern you're observing there. As for our current finances, that picture will change considerably from 1 July. After that, we will be in a position to pay compensation to obtain a manager if necessary.

You seem to imply that King Power routinely recruits unsuccessful journeymen managers, but how many of those have we actually seen? You could make a case for Claudio and Sven matching that description, but both their prior records were mixed rather than bad. I’m struggling to think of another one. If anything, I’d say there’s been no clear pattern in our owners’ managerial appointments. Of course it’s possible that we may end up with an unimaginative choice like Dyche or O’Neil or Wilder, but I don’t think that would be s ‘typical’ King Power appointment.

Well if it’s the name you’ve previously hinted at, then let’s hope you’re wrong for everybody’s benefit! 😁

Chinese tourism has not recovered since Covid

If we were on the verge of selling somebody, we'd have heard about it by now. And even if we have sold somebody today, it wouldn't take until next week to sack RVN and announce the new manager. This rumour just smacks of the usual smoke and mirrors nonsense that we went through with the Russell Martin stories...

If there's going to be an 'announcement', it suggests a managerial change. But the timing doesn't make sense. If PSR isn't an issue and we can afford to sack RVN now, why delay the announcement until next week? If PSR is an issue and we can't sack RVN until July, the announcement clearly won't be next week. Neither scenario is plausible.

Of?