ClaphamFox

"Lots of posts" does not mean that "nobody" was pointing out how weak our squad was, which is what you previously implied. Some people may have believed the squad was stronger than it was, but there were plenty who understood how weak it was.

That’s not true though, is it? Plenty of us were warning last summer that our defence would get us relegated unless it was significantly improved. Cooper had a crap squad to work with but it was partly of his own making. Would we have signed Ayew, BDCR and Skipp if Enzo hadn’t left? It seems very unlikely. Cooper may not have been responsible for the likes of Faes and Vestergaard, but he must have had a say in our poor recruitment last summer.

Smith significantly improved our points-per-game ratio and likely would have kept us up if appointed straight after Rodgers was sacked.

This is true. We wouldn’t have sacked one of our youth players if they’d done the same.

It’s Monday morning and the squad is being put through its paces at Seagrave…

In ordinary circumstances you would definitely expect to be sacked with Ruud’a record so far. I can think of two reasons why it hasn’t happened: 1) The club has recognised that the problems at the club are not down to RVN but more of a deep-seated cultural issue within the squad (much like Amorin at Man Utd). Maybe they’re impressed with what he’s trying to do behind the scenes and see him as the man to oversee the clear-out and rebuild in the summer. If this is the case, they’ll be desperately hoping that we get some decent results soon because if things carry on as they are it will be very difficult to justify keeping RVN on no matter what he’s doing behind the scenes. 2) They have decided he’s probably not the man to take us forward but don’t see any point in sacking him now because of the lack of available replacements. Or maybe they have an agreement in place that enables them to sack him for less compensation once relegation is mathematically certain. Either way, they’re in no rush and probably won’t do anything until the end of the season. I’m leaning towards the first one: I get the feeling the club privately acknowledges that RVN has been dealt a terrible hand and wants to give him more time to shape his own squad. Their problem is that we still have 11 games for the mood among the fanbase to become even more toxic than it is now and the pressure on them to act will intensify.

This seems to get overlooked sometimes. We conceded a lot of goals for a team that won the division. By Championship standards our defence was ok, not great, and was considerably poorer than the one we’d been relegated with the previous season. Our failure to improve the defence last summer is the main reason we’re going down.

He won’t get sacked after the Chelsea game whatever the outcome is.

We probably wouldn’t make a profit on Bilal, so there’s no real financial incentive to sell him.

Smith’s points-per-game ratio would have comfortably kept us up if sustained over a whole season. And he achieved that with a demoralised squad he inherited from somebody else and without a preseason. He didn’t do a bad job at all.

Yep. Cunha is a massively important player for them and in ordinary circumstances this would be good news for us. But given how completely disinterested our squad is, you just know that Cunha could get a five-game ban and Wolves could lose the lot but we still wouldn’t gain a millimetre on them.

We have a rotten squad with far too many bad apples. There’s a cultural problem that runs so deep it will only be solved by a major clear-out. I get the impression (and it’s just a personal impression) that RVN might be good at handling that side of things. The problem is, I’m not sure that he’s actually a good enough manager to deliver on the pitch.

I think you may be right. For what it’s worth I sense that RVN might have the right kind of personality to oversee the kind of changes we need - he seems to set high standards and I don’t think he’s a pushover. But that will only work if he’s actually a good manager too - and so far we haven’t seen much evidence of that. But yes, maybe the club is seeing enough behind the scenes to suggest he will succeed once we’ve cleared out all the bad apples and he’s had the chance to build his own squad.

Probably because the club still wants him to oversee the summer clear out and rebuild. This might be a plausible plan if we were actually seeing any progress on the pitch, but instead we’re getting worse. I suspect the club is desperately hoping that we get a few decent results before the end of the season to justify allowing RVN to stay on. I can’t see that happening, but I think that’s probably why he’s still here.

You clearly haven’t watched the first team train lately! Amirite lads?!

Maresca succeeded in changing the culture for a while, but we can’t rely on the manager to do it. It has to run right through the club. I don’t think Top or Rudkin are capable of instilling it on their own, so the only way we are going get serious change at our club will be if Top is willing to recruit new people to make the decisions. A new director of football should be top of the list - that’s even more important than any managerial change.

His management style doesn’t work in the modern game - he always loses the dressing room. That’s why he hasn’t managed in 14 years.

Enzo requested it and the club were desperate to keep Enzo, so they agreed. Then Enzo buggered off.

RVN has said he took the job after consulting Enzo, so he must have said something positive about us. But I agree with your general point - we desperately need stronger and more competent figures making the decisions at the club. Hopefully this season’s total shit show has convinced Top that major changes are needed of the kind Maresca was demanding. Because if we head into the summer transfer window with the same people making the decisions, the future will look very bleak.

This is utter nonsense. Enzo had demanded structural changes at the club at the decision-making level - and the club were planning on giving him everything he wanted. They were desperate for him to stay but as soon as Chelsea came in his mind was made up - there was nothing anybody could do to talk him out of it. The tragedy for us is that the changes Enzo wanted were exactly what we’re calling for now, but when he left the impetus behind making those changes left the building with him and the club just reverted to type. For what it’s worth I don’t think RVN is a ‘puppet’, either. He quit PSG because he wasn’t given what he wanted. I imagine he’s pretty vocal with the owners behind the scenes.

What difference would this make? It’s not like an ordinary job where being sacked might lead to an awkward conversation in a future job interview when you have to explain what happened. Any future club Ruud wants to work for will know exactly what happened at Leicester - every single result during his time here is available at the click of a button. Quitting won’t enable him to control that narrative any better than being sacked. That’s why managers rarely resign unless it’s because they’ve had a better offer.

Allowed Schmeichel to leave in the summer of 2022 and did not replace him, basically relegating us that season.

The EFL cannot impose punishments on a whim. If they try to take action against us outside of their rules, our lawyers will slap them down again.

Why jeopardise his development as a coach by saddling him with a job he’s not qualified for and may end up destroying his confidence?