FoxTrott

I think the problem is fans expectations with how good a player is going to be. Alves seems to have okay reviews in a team which failed to stay up this season in the championship. Bear in mind how we’ve played these lower half championship teams and seen the quality, that’s the benchmark. we’ve produced some fantastic youth players who have gone on to be England internationals - Barnes, Chilwell, etc. but for everyone one of those, there are McAteers, Luke Thomases, etc. who fans deem not good enough. Generally people on this board expect way too much of youth players. My point is, let’s not put too much pressure. There’s promise but the expectations need to be realistic. We’ve seen he doesn’t regularly start for Cardiff. Yes it would be amazing if he realises what we all hope and have seen him produce in glimpses, but let’s not put the weight of an entire city on someone where there just isn’t evidence that he’s there yet.

Imagine if we had sold those two in 2021/2022 and then went down the next season (which, given our scattergun success rate of recruitment, who knows who we'd have bought in). Everyone would've been at arms saying that we sold our best players, cashing in, small club mentality, etc. Easy to say it now, but I really don't think the club saw the relegation, it came as a shock and has big consequences.

Why do you think that is? I’m pretty sure we’ve been at the threshold of FFP for many years. We tried to push for the top 4 consistently. It didn’t work out. We handed out huge, expensive contracts. I think to say “lack of investment” is just a gross simplification. Owners can only put in what they’re allowed to.

Maybe it will backfire because it’s a bad idea and maybe just maybe things could be a lot worse?

This will backfire so hard on a PR level. Genuinely intrigued, who do people think will come in to own the club and do things better? Which owners of a current PL football club are better? And I'm talking about owners, not people within the club.

Also looking for 1, can meet at the ground - please and thank you!

Have you seen the hysteria on this forum? Clubs are already aware we don’t have two pennies to rub together, I don’t think our position as a buyer could be any less attractive

Hard disagree there. The lack of honest and clear communication from the club when we are in a dire state of affairs is staggering. We have a manager who has cried out for support in the media. Every fan knows we’ve sold our best player, and are heading into GW1 with one striker in that the manager didn’t even bother trying in pre-season. We are lacking in every aspect of the pitch, and himself our rivals look I to be doing shrewd business. This is nothing short of a crisis and not to acknowledge that is absolutely negligent from the board.

Whenever I've seen Ayew I've always been impressed by his work rate and ball winning at the top of the pitch, and overall he seems like a really handy player to have in a team. I think having number 9 on his shirt really confuses people who don't watch Palace very often than he's a straight forward striker. Has he regressed over the last season? Most people on here have seemingly made up their minds without really having seen him play / purely based on attacking numbers, which is a shame.

I can see you already have an agenda against the player so not really worth discussing. Plenty of players have joined us later in their careers and been successful and motivated beyond compensation. Evans, Huth, Fuchs, to name a few.

Love the podcast! The most recent podcast was the first episode I've listened to that I didn't enjoy. I know Leicester fans enjoy wallowing in misery (and trust me, I can do my fair share of indulging), however, I do feel there is a risk of being toxic before a ball has even been kicked this season. I generally sensed a vibe of "I hope we get relegated, just so I can say I told you so". Sponsorships - honestly, I get it - totally rubbish we have a crypto/gambling/nonsense sponsor. But we have no idea of what the financial details are. It might have been double the nearest "ethical" sponsorship we'd have been offered. And I really wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. No, not popular, but unless we want to face even harsher penalties, what choices do the club have? I get the argument we've sleepwalked into this situation - and it is a travesty things are how they are. But the reality is Leicester have regressed and now we need to suffer to build again. Signings - let's give them a chance. I think it's easy to say "we shouldn't sign X player, we've tried to sign seasoned Premier League players before and it hasn't worked". We've also tried to sign young, international talents that haven't worked out. We've tried to sign stars from other leagues that haven't worked. I don't see a pattern in our successful signings - so let's give the team a chance. Jordan Ayew, while not flashy, is a player who has played 200 times for a (at times) decent Palace side. He's versatile and honestly every time I've watched him I've thought him to be very underrated, as someone who can press and will give his all for 90 minutes, something which Leicester fans have been crying out for. 4 goals, but 7 assists last season, which is 90th percentile. Overall, I get the club is not in a good spot at the moment. But what's not going to help (realistically), is fans turning on the team before a ball has even been kicked this season. Leicester has always been a team which has relished in adversity and performs best when our back is against the wall. Get behind the boys and turn the KP into a place the opposition fears coming to again.

Sad but not gutted to see him go. Football rarely got out of second gear, and there were some really turgid times. Overall fantastic we won the league, but I really struggle to be overly gutted by this. Chelsea are taking a significant downgrade on Pochettino, but maybe Maresca is more willing to sit on his hands. I trust we will get a decent replacement.

I’ve really ballsed up and missed the Ipswich tickets for this game, and I promised my father in law I’d take him to this game for Boxing Day 🤦‍♂️ if anyone could help me out with x3 tickets for this game I can compensate handsomely with love and financial remuneration

Had a new arrival to the LCFC contingency a couple of weeks ago…

There's going to be more Leicester in the home end than the away end at this rate