ClaphamFox

Apologies. I tried to resist doing it but I'm a weak man.

I suspect GS may make a better DoF than he does a manager, but I'd imagine he has his sights set higher than a basket case Championship club.

*Checks family calendar. Nothing entered for Sunday afternoon. Grabs a pen and hastily writes “Taking kids to soft play, 2-4pm”. Starts googling soft play venues to check availability*

It wasn't - it was Sam Wallace.

Just finished this. Very good indeed.

Kasper's departure had nothing to do with Rodgers.

They went after us because they suspected we might breach last season. But we didn’t.

What are they slamming us with?

Nice summary. You should consider a career in AI…

Whenever I listen to another fan podcast, the main thing I take away is how good the BSLB one is compared to all the others.

What can be done to change the squad outside of a transfer window?

It's impossible to stay up if your players have no interest whatsoever in even attempting to do so. And ours don't, so we're down.

Steve Cooper said he wanted PL experience. BDCR had been offered a one-year deal by Fulham but he wanted the security of a longer-term deal. Nobody else would offer him that, but we offered him a three-year deal, taking him up to the age of 35. Then we sacked Steve Cooper and are now stuck with BDCR for the next two seasons because nobody else will offer him a new contract on similar terms. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you.....Leicester City!

They might be hard-pressed to find a contender for this month given that we only play two games and are unlikely to score in either of them.

It's a very good book and he's a very good novelist. He was born in Leicestershire but his parents moved to London when he was just six weeks old. However, he decided to support us and has written about us numerous times over the years.

I've just read somebody who used to work at the KP describe our communications director as "one of the most arrogant and repulsive human beings you could have the misfortune to meet", which might explain the club's total refusal to engage with fans or the media.

Rodgers was correct in identifying a cultural problem that was developing within the club, and he was also correct in saying we needed a major refresh of the squad to continue being competitive. His frustrations were understandable - he got an early glimpse of the kind of issues that we're all frustrated about now. Unfortunately he dealt with the situation poorly and lost the dressing room by repeatedly moaning about the squad in public. So while he was not responsible for the terrible decisions at board level (eg allowing Schmeichel to leave and not replacing him), he didn't have the character or managerial skills to navigate the situation and ended up making it even worse.

I kept imagining Danny Dyer's voice saying, "I'm outside Seagrave and I'm tryin' to find out who gave the green light to Jannik Vestergaard's new contract. But these guys ain't jokers and I'm feelin' very uneasy..."

Kristiansen is one of the very few players who actually seems to give it his all at the moment. He’s not a PL quality full back, but he might be alright in the Championship.

Just heard it - I thought it was very good, albeit an uncomfortable listen at times. Anybody who remains in any doubt over how deep our problems run, and the enormity of the challenge ahead of us, should give it a listen.

That would end in tears within six months, probably less.

This is an absolutely terrible idea.

What's the point of that? We won't make much of a profit on him at this stage. He's worth far more to us in the squad.

I think that is extremely unlikely.

They both started the first game of the season against Spurs and Ayew continued to be a regular starter after that. And even if they weren’t regular starters, they were still both ageing players who were taking up spaces in the squad that could have been filled by exciting talent that we’d actually scouted (as opposed be being offered to us by their agents). Cooper said he wanted PL experience and Rudkin went out and obediently obtained some, but the signings of Ayew, BDCR and Skipp all suggest that there is no long-term strategy behind our transfer policy, which in turn suggests a lack of a long-term strategy for the club as a whole. Cooper was not responsible for the poor squad he inherited, but he squandered the opportunity to improve it.