Les-TA-Jon

All I would say though is that Enzo has almost completely eradicated any stink of Rodgers. And those players that weren't invested due to their contract/transfer situation (Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes, Castagne, Mendy, Perez etc) have left and any players that are still around are either out of the team/on loan (Ward, Iversen, Praet, Soumare, Souttar, Kristiansen) or were never part of the problem anyhow (Ndidi, Ricardo, Nacho)

We're pretty depleted ourselves aren't we? Daka and Nacho gone, Ndidi out, Fatawu suspended, Vardy and Praet not match fit, KDH a doubt

Not only did we get relegated whilst following the rules, whilst 2 teams stayed up at our expense because they broke the rules, but we're also getting promoted back into the PL among the strictest period for the spending that is required to try and stay up...

Question is, what does 'this team' even mean? We've a lot of players coming to the end of their contracts again, and there's going to be a big turnover of players again this summer. I only count about 12 starter/squad players on this list... £80-90m won't get us far...and we don't have any Fofanas, Maddisons or Barnes's to cash in on either...

I've said it before but we're basically just Everton with silverware. I know that's a huge difference and ultimately what it's all about, but we've horrendously mismanaged a lot of signings and transfers since promotion to the PL in 2014. Some high profile, profitable sales have papered over the cracks.

Is it just me or has he done know where near enough to cause PL interest, let alone clubs bidding £7m to £10m like some of the figures in this thread? Surely no one would be interested!?

Sure. But as I said, that's a separate issue to 'why can't we simply sell some players?' I'd hoped I'd already demonstrated why we can't simply sell some players. Their book values + the new PL PSR rules (nevermind EFL rules we have to abide to in the meantime) make it very difficult. There's simply very little wiggle room on losses. And given that we're specifically in a situation of 'we need to sell before we can buy' it's odd that you're explicitly advocating for us to cut our losses and sell players at a loss...to achieve what exactly? It wouldn't let us sign anyone in this window would it?

Sorry, so you do think it should be easy to sell and make money out of that list of players? I can only really see Souttar and Thomas in that list. I forgot about Soumare to be fair, because I was just looking at our current squad. But even Soumare, how do we do it then? Looks like we might have signed him for £17m on a 5 year deal in 2021. Let's say £40,000 a week or £2m per year. So the amortisation is £5.4m per year. He's currently half way through that deal. So his 'book value' is £13.5m. If we sell him for anything less, it goes in our loss column. So we need a buyer willing to pay £14m+ and match his wages. Who's that then? Or let's look at Souttar. Signed on a 5.5 year deal in Jan 2023. £15m. £40,000 a week, £2m per year. So his 'book value' is something like £21m right now...who should bid that much for him right now, so it doesn't go in our loss column? Hmm? I'm not saying previous mistakes (i.e signing players like Soumare, Souttar, Kristiansen etc who ended up being overpriced, not good enough and not in our current manager's plans!) are to be ignored. And clearly they are a massive cause of our current situation. But it's just that you specifically said 'it should be easy to make some sales' and it's just demonstrably...not...

Which highly sellable assets are we failing to shift then? Iversen - Out on Loan Smithies - who's desperately after a 4th choice keeper? Ward - who's desperately after a terrible keeper? Souttar - International CB, mostly only played at Championship level, we had to over pay as were desperate in Jan window during relegation fight. Who can match our valuation / his wages? Thomas - just about good enough for a Championship, just come back from a bad loan move. Is anyone clamouring for him? (He's probably our 'easiest' sell since he'd be all profit on the books as an academy product. But the player has to want the move too...) Ndidi - injured and out of contract soon. No chance of a move Praet - sicknote, barely played for several years. No real market value. Who would want him? Albrighton - over the hill, no market value Iheanacho - injured and out of contract soon. At AFCON too. No chance of a move Daka - At AFCON making a move hard. With Nacho's problems and Vardy's injuries, we probably need to keep him So where are these players that we should be easily selling but aren't?

Bulletproof in what sense? Not getting injured? Feel like he's had a decent amount of injuries over the years. He was playing pretty decently at the end of last season and then got injured in the Southampton game and missed most/all of the run-in? Could have kept us up!

Yes but let's not pretend that's an Apples and Apples comparison. Restaurants are 'just' businesses; they come and go and outside of a few globally they have no cultural heritage or importance to the local community. Sport is always a tricky arena because clubs are both businesses and community assets and importance parts of cultural and local heritage. They're also both in direct competition with each other, both in business terms and sporting, but also completely rely on working together to establish and maintain competitions. FFP has a lot of problems but the overall principle of trying to prevent clubs from folding is good and totally different to your restaurant example.

Since when did Maresca get a touchline ban!?

Good luck with that - he's injured and at AFCON

Not sure I follow? Surely the case is that Everton received a punishment this season that should have applied to last season. Forest's transgressions apply to this season, so their current/potential punishment has nothing to do with our relegation?

Surely it’s less about Sensi himself and more about our current room for manoeuvre? If we’re right up to the limit, then we need to sell before we buy, regardless of how much Sensi costs

Yeah this basically. Both players flew in dangerously and were out of control. But the Bristol player goes right through the ball, studs up and high into the standing leg Fatawu was, at least, studs down and low point of contact, mostly through the trailing leg

It was also vitally important to sell them earlier in the summer and actually do our business and have a preseason with the new squad, than hold out for £5-10m more and scupper our whole window

Haven't watched it yet. Nor do I have timestamps or confirmation of those quotes/ideas but it'll be in this video if so

You were talking about the commercialisation of football clubs. I agree with you - in that, the commercialisation of football clubs makes them a lot more soulless, less distinct from one another and of course has bad outcomes for fans. In addition LCFC has particularly been slowly changed from Leicester City Football Club to King Power Football Club. I don't like any of that. But you specifically mentioned Leicester fans from 'elsewhere' - which I presumed you meant you didn't like 'international' or otherwise 'non-genuine' Leicester fans. Which I think is a related but separate issue to the commercialisation one. Maybe I misinterpreted you but I thought you were coming across as a gatekeeper and saying that certain people 'shouldn't' be Leicester fans...

Thought both are reds TBH. Fatawu's arguably an 'orange' but what's obviously frustrating is that 1) the Bristol challenge is very similar but worse and isn't even called as a foul, let alone the red it should be and 2) the Coventry player who conceded the pen should have been off and 3) Palmer for Cov was lucky to avoid a 2nd yellow too

I agree about the commercialistion of football clubs and the King Powerisation of Leicester, for sure. But it's simply a reality of the industry - so 1) we're not outliers and 2) I'm not sure what the alternative is? So you do think fans of LCFC should be 'controlled' then? What's your criteria? Location of birth? Demonstration of a current/past family member being a supporter? Only if you physically attend matches?

Pretty sure this applies to us, with the Thailand connection. It's an interesting debate, but it kinda comes across as 'old men yell at clouds' sort of thing. And incredibly gatekeepery. Reality is, English football has gone global. Say there was a contingent of passionate LCFC fans in the USA, who for whatever reason (maybe historical connection, family connection, used to live near Leicester, randomly picked Leicester as 'their' team when young etc etc) supported the club, what should they do? Not support the club? Should they not be 'allowed' to support? Are they somehow lesser fans than those that live nearer? What about Leicester fans who have always lived in the UK but don't have a season ticket and have little to no hope of ever attending matches?

Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to ignore big results in other matches, just merely talking about perceived 'big games' As I say, it's largely irrelevant because 3 points is 3 points!

As good as we've been this season (obviously) we've actually failed to play like the 'best team in the league' in the few 'big matches' of the season Southampton Away 4-1 Leeds Home 0-1 Ipswich Away 1-1 Coventry Away 1-3 Obviously it doesn't *matter* since we're so consistent against the rest of the league, but it'd be nice to take more points off the big boys in this half of the season.

We've still got Leeds Away