kingfox

As underwhelming as they are, there’s a reason why the likes of Russell Martin and Sean Dyche get mentioned, because they’ve earned their stripes to warrant the Leicester job, while the likes of Wellens, Cleverley, Selles, Muslic quite haven’t. I mentioned QPR as a possible destination for Wellens, but at this current time, he isn’t even in the conversation for their job. If reports are correct, they are opting for Julien Stephan who has pedigree in a top five league. Wellens might not even get a move this summer, but if he stayed at Orient and got them into the play-off mix again, realistically I could see him jumping to a lower half Championship club who end up sacking their manager, just like Bloomfield did going to Luton for example. Taking a gamble on someone like Wellens, Selles would be intriguing imo, but realistically despite a possible points deduction, our aspirations will at least be play-offs. Yes, we took a gamble on Maresca, but getting the assistant of the best manager in football, is more enticing than getting someone like Wellens or Selles, who’s best work have both come in League 1. When I advocated for Cleverley the other week, @Lambert09 made a great point to me. View things in a way in terms of our rivals, if Ipswich or Southampton for example appointed Wellens or Cleverley would you be fearful? Probably not. And just look at Southampton for example, they’ve hired an exciting young up-and-coming coach in Will Still who did a solid job in a European top five league. That’s why you have to put managers in certain brackets. The likes of Still and Rohl have done enough to warrant the jump to a job like Leicester City, Southampton, Ipswich. While the likes of Wellens, Cleverley, Selles and Muslic just haven’t quite earned their right yet.

I watched that interview last night, when asked about the Leicester job, he went into detail on how he felt he’s earned the right to step up into Championship management. He also said at this moment in time, that joining a lower Championship club with lesser expectations, would probably be more of a wise step for him. If Leicester came calling, I don’t think he’d hesitate at the prospect of becoming Leicester manager, but maybe somewhere like QPR, Preston teams of that ilk would be a better step for him at this moment in time. You’d put Wellens in the same category as the likes of Muslic, Cleverley, Selles. The potential is there with all four of them, but look at where two of them have ended up, Schalke are now lower half in Bundesliga 2 and Cleverley has ended up at Plymouth in League 1. Even though I’ve advocated for Cleverley and Selles, and completely get why some fans would advocate for Wellens, but have they done enough to warrant a job like Leicester City? Deep down, I’d have to say no.

Our version of Robbie Brady topping the Championship assist chart next season. Bring it on, Finners 😍

Not to worry. Mavididi out, the new version of Robbie Brady in. Dyche ball gonna cook 🔥

The fact of the matter is, not every Premier League and Championship clubs are blessed with good academies. Leicester City might have a bunch of players ready for the first team, but Burnley for example might not. In Dyche’s era, they were a category two academy, their academy before Dyche came in wasn’t great, it’s only until new ownership in 2020 that improvements have been made. Many young players of course go out on loan to League 1 and 2, as it’s seen as the right thing to do for their development. Monga and Evans might be ready for our first team, but a chunk of our academy players will probably get loaned out for this coming season, it’s just the nature of football. There’s teams and leagues across Europe that pride themselves on youth development, I always use Sunderland and them getting Regis Le Bris as the perfect example, it looked a surprising appointment, but the way their club operates, the appointment made perfect sense. If Leicester City appointed Sean Dyche, it’s impossible to say how he’d view some of our academy players, because at Burnley the evidence suggests, that the talent just wasn’t at his disposal to use. There’s about 40 development/academy players listed in their squads during his era, only 3 have made it at Premier League or Championship level. Dwight McNeil, Jimmy Dunne and Bobby Thomas. That tells you everything about the quality of Burnley’s academy.

Would you seriously give youth players minutes just for the sake of it, despite knowing they are not ready for Premier League football? Put it this way, I’ll use one of Burnley’s youth players at the time in Dan Agyei as an example, he is currently with Wellens at Leyton Orient. If he were our player in the 17/18 season, would you have given him minutes with Vardy, Okazaki and even Iheanacho in the team? Of course you wouldn’t. Burnley loaned Agyei out that season to both Walsall and Blackpool, he scored 4 for Walsall, 0 for Blackpool, what does that tell you? And the majority of youth players at Burnley during that time were far worse than Dan Agyei. But Dyche absolutely hates youth right? If you actually looked at their squads during his time, instead of making baseless assumptions, then as I’ve said before, you’ll quickly realise why Dwight McNeil was the only one who came through. As for our style of play, I see you left out Steve Cooper’s name there. What happened with his appointment? Oh yeah, the board showed themselves up as having no continuity plan.

But you’re just making an assumption with baseless evidence. Dwight McNeil came through because he was rightfully deemed good enough. The majority of the rest ended up in League 1, League 2, Scotland, Ireland and Australia because they simply weren’t Premier League standard. The facts also are that he’s showed willingness to use players under 24, and developed some really decent players in doing so. But as I’ve said, you’ll get both ends of the spectrum with Dyche, a cluster of younger players and a bunch of heavily experienced ones. What is the “certain way” that Leicester City has been set up to play though? Because I don’t see one and neither do most of our fanbase. If we wanted more continuity, then I expect to see us go back to a possession plan. So why weren’t our fans advocating for Russell Martin? Because his possession style is fvcking boring and our fanbase would rather see something different. If we want another possession based manager, then Carrick is a good alternative. But why on earth would we want a manager who got progressively worse at Middlesbrough, couldn’t set up a defence, got criticised for being too “soft” and thought it would be a good idea to replace Emmanuel Latte Lath with Kelechi Iheanacho.

Just look through Burnley’s squads during his era, then you’ll quickly see why only Dwight McNeil was deemed to be of Premier League standard. The majority of their academy products from that era ended up at League 1 level or worse. The only one’s he really missed the boat on were Jimmy Dunne and Bobby Thomas, but were they going to get in ahead of the likes of Tarkowski, Mee, Keane and Collins, no chance. As for the names I mentioned, I just mentioned them to showcase that Dyche has actually showed willingness to use and develop players under 24. But as I’ve also said in other posts, it’s highly likely that he’ll sign a bunch of experienced players if he was appointed, it’s something that has always been in his nature. I’ll happily defend him in certain aspects because I think he gets harsh rep, but in certain other aspects, in particular his style of play, he can get in the bin.

Everton 23/24 season under Dyche - Long Passes attempted per90(1st) Sheff Wed 24/25 season under Rohl - Long Passes attempted per90(21st) In terms of squad profile, both of them have seemed to prefer a big man up front, with players who also possess decent crossing ability. But if Rohl came to Leicester, I’d expect to see a more possession based game, mixed with high energy aggressive pressing. Dyche, you expect old school long ball.

If you want a manager who has a good history of developing youth, it’s why I’ve been advocating for Hasenhuttl recently, he ticks the right boxes, but the negative though is the fact we beat his team 9-0 and so did Man Utd. I also look at Ruben Selles, especially with what he had at Reading, having to rely on many young players, but the negative is, has he done enough to warrant the Leicester job? You’d have to say no. I’d put Wellens and Cleverley who I’ve also advocated for in the same bracket. Martens recently signed a new contract at AZ, but he is of the exact profile that we should be looking at, but Leicester City looking abroad for a foreign manager, I’ve got more chance of stealing Lucy Pinder from Russell Martin.

The fear I have is that we’d see players like Ben Mee and others in that age bracket come through the door. As I’ve just said to @izzymuzzet throughout his career you’ve always had both ends of the spectrum with Dyche. Some good young players, but also a heavy amount of experienced ones. For what we did at the start of the week with the contract extension of a core of younger players, I’ve mentioned the Sunderland model a few times on here, and it’s an ideal route for Leicester City to take imo. Even though Dyche will come with positives, his negatives just outweigh his positives imo.

Throughout his career it’s been a similar pattern in all fairness, you can go back to the days where he was getting Burnley out of the Championship, he had a pretty experienced squad. When I went through his squads, there were four season’s at Burnley when he had the oldest squad in the division. Post 2019, look at his Everton spell, he had Jarrad Branthwaite, Vitality Mykolenko, Amadou Onana, James Garner. They were all under the age of 24. But then the other end of the spectrum is of course the likes of Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye. That’s what you’re going to get with Dyche, but it’s still proof that he’s not over reliant on experience. As for your last paragraph, what is the best course of action though? It’s a debate that’s often been questioned on here, but is there a perfect answer? Being possession dominant has shown to be a good formula to get you out of the Championship, but recent history suggests it won’t keep you in the Premier League, therefore you have three options imo. 1) Get in a possession based manager, then sack him if he gets you promoted 2) Get a manager who has shown he can adapt and move away from a possession based style 3) Try and get out of the Championship a different way, that will also give you the best chance of Premier League survival. Imo, option 3 would be the best route to go down nowadays, that’s why I can understand why people would advocate for Dyche. My personal preference though is to go about it, in a way that Thomas Frank did at Brentford and what Iraola is doing at Bournemouth.

I think the pros you get with Dyche are… 1) He’d probably sort our defence out, and being a former centre back himself, he has signed some pretty good one’s throughout his career. 2) He’d probably turn us into a hard working and grafting team. 3) He’ll probably get rid of a bunch of unlikeable t***s that we currently have at Leicester City. 4) He has Championship promotion on his CV and he stabilised Burnley for a decent period of time. The cons 1) Style of play 2) Will probably sign a few experienced players 3) If we want continuity, who on earth would you turn to next if Dyche departed Is that enough to get me excited at the prospect of Dyche as Leicester manager? In some aspects I’d be content, in other aspects I’d be absolutely shitting myself

The denial and perception that fans have though regarding Dyche, is that he’s just a guy who relies on experience and pushes young players to the side. When you look throughout his career, that claim just doesn’t really stack up. Don’t get me wrong, if he became Leicester City manager, I would thoroughly expect a bunch of experienced players walking through the door, but in certain other aspects, I just think Dyche gets treated a little too harshly. Many fans would prefer Danny Rohl, I’d certainly prefer him purely on the basis of his style of football. Very much like Dyche though, albeit a small sample size, he’s relied on a bunch of 30+ year olds at Sheffield Wednesday, and signed the likes of Yan Valery, Stuart Armstrong and Nathaniel Chalobah. Whatever manager you get there’s going to be pros and cons. I’ve advocated for numerous managers who have a good history of youth development, but even those are far from perfect.

You can be in denial all you want mate, look at some of the players he helped develop at Burnley. Trippier was 21/22 when Dyche came into Burnley, Ben Mee(23), Danny Ings(20). Then as I’ve said already, some of the players he signed himself consist of Nick Pope, James Tarkowski, Nathan Collins, Michael Keane. At Watford he had a mixture of experience and players under the age of 25, Troy Deeney at 23 was top scorer under him. I’ve said already that he has a habit of signing experienced players, Burnley always had one of the more experienced squads in the Premier League and Championship during his tenure, Everton the same. But I’m not going to deny the fact, that he’s developed some really decent players throughout his career, who were under the age of 24 when he had them. If he did the same at Leicester, some fans would be relatively happy. But the two big turn off points for me are. 1) His style of play 2) Even though I’ll defend him in terms of younger players, I think it’s a guarantee that he’d also bring a few more experienced players into Leicester City Ideally many fans, myself included, don’t really want to see that after Steve Cooper’s antics. Finding a manager though who prioritises youth is tricky, the most experienced one readily available is Hasenhuttl, but some fans won’t want him because we beat his team 9-0.

Woah, woah, woah. This is a bit rich coming from a guy who constantly mentioned a 60 year old Quique Sanchez Flores

Went to some of these wearing my 00/01 Leicester shirt with Oakes, 17 on the back with pride.

Can we expect another vid like this when Dyche gives Alves, Monga and Evans 1 minute each in our first pre season friendly?

The thing is, many fans have been advocating and would prefer Danny Rohl, with Rohl you also expect a change in style. Is our squad more suited to a particular style of football? With the changes we expect and are hoping to see this summer, as I said in a post earlier, it’s the perfect opportunity to change course. You’re more than likely going to get a change of course with Danny Rohl, and you’d definitely get one with Dyche. If they want to stick with the possession route, then even though I see him as a very underwhelming option, I instantly think Michael Carrick. When it comes to youth, I get the fear when it comes to Dyche, but I had a good debate on that topic a month or so a go. Personally I think he gets unwanted stick when it comes to youth development, it’s a very difficult topic to judge him on. Just scan through the Burnley squads during his era, then you’ll quickly realise why Dwight McNeil was the only one to come through, the talent wasn’t at his disposal, that’s not an excuse, the evidence is there, you’re not going to give a bunch of youth players game time in the Premier League when the majority of them were clearly of League 1 or League 2 standard, some have even ended up in Scotland, Ireland and Australia. At Everton, I’ve alluded to Harrison Armstrong numerous times. 17 years old and Dyche gave him a chance in the first team because he viewed him as being ready. I get the fear, because Dyche’s record with younger players isn’t as substantial as other potential candidates, but the facts also are, that he’s developed plenty of players that were under the age of 24 when he had them.

Fans are fearful because we always associate Dyche with certain type of players, when it comes to wingers it’s very easy to think of Dwight McNeil, Robbie Brady, Michael Kightly. When it comes to strikers, it’s very easy to think of target men like Sam Vokes and Ashley Barnes. Depending on finances, I could see some managers favouring Ayew as more of a striker option, not just Dyche. It’s very difficult to say how he’d view our wingers. People are just fearful because we don’t associate Dyche that much with pacy players. We’ve seen though with Fatawu especially, he has excellent crossing ability. Regardless who the manager is we expect changes. Dyche imo already has a solid nucleus in terms of defenders. While a few changes in midfield and the striker positions will inevitably happen, whether it’s Dyche, Rohl or someone else. Could it work? I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. But the main concern for me is if Dyche did stabilise us, then where on earth would we turn to next. If we moved him on, having a continuity plan of a manager with a similar style, it just doesn’t get the juices flowing.

Joe Hart loves to exaggerate his commentary doesn’t he, painful listen.

The fact is though, the English game has changed since the days of having Nigel Pearson in charge of us. Guardiola’s style has taken off and been replicated, but as I’ve alluded to numerous times on here, if this season is anything to go by, being more fast & direct, while having the tools to do damage on fast breaks and counter attacks is the route to go down nowadays. I think Dyche’s style still has it’s place, and I think for a newly promoted team, I’d favour his style to lead you to survival over a possession heavy one. But I think the main tweak Dyche would need to make is utilise pace more, if he became manager, I’d hope he’d see Mavididi and Fatawu like he did Maxwel Cornet, and not prioritise Ayew and Reid or sign someone who’s main attribute is crossing but lacks pace. With Dyche, you expect him to improve our defence and turn us into a hard working and grafting team. The negative though is of course his old school style, they’ll be fans advocating for it, but my personal preference is the style of high energy counter-pressing. I’d rather see that long term over a Dyche style continuity plan.

This is where fans get incredibly harsh on Dyche. People talk as if he’s addicted to only signing journeyman, yes he has a habit of doing so, but throughout his career he has also signed numerous players under 24 and improved them. Look at some of the defenders he’s signed throughout his career, Tarkowski, Collins, Keane. While he’s also had Ben Mee and Jarrad Branthwaite when they were 23 and 20 respectively. Burnley made some real good profit on players while he was there. Will he promote youth? It’s difficult to say, but he did so at Everton this season with Harrison Armstrong. Who’s to say he wouldn’t view the likes of Monga and Evans in a similar manner. But for a fact, there’s managers available who you can guarantee would prioritise our youth, with Dyche they’d be uncertainty. Ideally I don’t want him because of his style of football, but I’m not going to deny the fact, that this would be the perfect opportunity to change course/style. I personally think Dyche’s style would give us a better opportunity of staying in the Premier League if he got us that far, recent history suggests the possession route isn’t the way to go. I think we already have some players that suit his style, especially some of our defenders. While let’s be honest, our midfield and forward positions will more than likely be getting a revamp, regardless if it’s Dyche or someone else.

Ian Woan and Steve Stone will do a better job than this chump next season.

He peaked last season, then turned shit because he didn’t get his dream move to Leicester City.