kingfox

Who knew the key ingredient for PSG was to sell Mbappe

Wasn’t expecting such a dismantling, quality performance from Draper.

Another Ndidi/Soumare replacement candidate

Hopefully Dorsett is right so I can change my display pic 🙏🏻

Draper vs Monfils was great Thursday night entertainment. Fonseca up next for Draper, another tasty matchup.

This was from a BBC Sheffield journalist yesterday, seems the release clause keeps being a stumbling block. If other reports are led to believe, Rohl has done a few interviews regarding his desire to move, supposedly classed managing in the Bundesliga as a “top choice”. Just feels like the Leicester job wouldn’t be his top priority. He’d still be in my top five candidates, but he’d certainly come with a few red flags.

Reading up on his situation, it looks very messy. Desperately wants out at Sheffield Wednesday, a job in the Bundesliga seems to be his top priority, nobody wants to pay the rumoured £5 million release clause, Rohl is getting pissy that Chansiri won’t drop his release clause, despite the fact he signed a new contract at Sheffield Wednesday around this time last year. More this drags on, it feels like Leicester City or nowhere for him, unless a Bundesliga team change their minds. If he got the Leicester job, would his heart even be in it? Does he even want another Championship job? He comes across as the type of guy who’d jump at the first opportunity, if a Bundesliga team especially came in for him.

Good article on the Sunderland model here Strider https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/how-transfers-work-at-sunderland-regis-le-bris-role-and-summer-plans-explained-4676990 It has its positives and negatives, but it sure paid off this season. Feels a bit similar to when we had the Pearson & Walsh combo…those were the days 😢

Watched your stream last night Strider, an intriguing and much needed discussion. Regarding long term vision and recruitment in your upcoming video, hopefully you delve a bit into Sunderland’s model, with the talents we have coming through, going down a Sunderland type route is exactly what Leicester City need right now imo.

As you mentioned him earlier, this is exactly why I’ve been very keen on John Mousinho. Got Pompey promoted using a possession based style, realised he needed to change things, opted for a more direct style this season and of course kept them up. If we want to actually have a longer term outlook, we need someone who can be versatile, or as I’ve mentioned many times, we actually follow the right trends and move away from trying to be possession heavy. Martin just believes in his style too much, he basically said on Lineker’s podcast that changing things would undermine the players abilities. But surely you want to give your team the best chance of surviving? Mousinho did it and it worked. Martin didn’t do it and it led to disaster.

If Russell ends up getting appointed, then I think you can easily pinpoint to four positions that need strengthening. New goalkeeper and striker is inevitable. Then central midfield and left back sit third and fourth on the priority list. I hope Stolarczyk gets a fair shot, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if we bring in a new number one. At full-back we’re pretty well stacked, just depends what Martin wants to do with them. I expect us to go back to the inverted system, will just depend if he inverts both full-backs into midfield instead of one. We know Ricardo can do this, I actually think Coulibaly could be adept at doing this, his passing stats at Parma were solid, Martin may use Choudhury in this way too. Thomas would concern me a bit, and imo we’d definitely need a LB, regardless of how Martin would invert them, whether as a CB or CM. Centre back I expect some shuffling. Harry Darling seems inevitable if Martin comes in. I’ve said before in this thread, that I’d like for us to explore the Premier League loan market for a CB, some highly rated youngsters could well be available this summer. The midfield situation is simple, Ndidi and Soumare out, two new faces in. I’d expect Winks to stay and he or Skipp to play the role that Flynn Downes played under Russell Martin. Then it’s just a case of finding two 8’s/10’s. Of course Maresca used Ndidi in this way, but I was never really a fan of it, I wouldn’t want to see Skipp play in that type of role either. We need two players who will be more adept at box-to-box. If El-Khannouss goes then we’d need a new number 10. Wingers, we’re pretty well covered. Only potential change I could see is a back-up for Mavididi, or a striker capable of moving out to the wing, a bit like how Martin employed Adam Armstrong at times. Finally striker, as history suggests, Martin seems to like a particular profile. Like Piroe at Swansea and Adams at Southampton, I expect he would want a striker capable of dropping, linking play and operating like a false 9/number 10, I won’t mention names as I don’t want to upset Finners

Surely everyone’s realised this for months? But in true Eastenders fashion, I’m willing to wait until Christmas Day for the big reveal

Sadly it’s always about style when Russell Martin is concerned. He said on Lineker’s podcast, “Sometimes it will take twenty passes, sometimes it will take one”. But as we thoroughly well know, it’s more about the twenty passes, over one pass, and that shows in their 10+ pass sequence statistics, which as I’ve posted before, makes for hilarious reading. In my personal opinion, it doesn’t matter who the manager is, I think we have to be extremely patient where Monga and Evans are concerned, I just don’t see them getting consistent minutes, just because the likes of Mavididi and Fatawu are ahead of them, but in Nelson’s case if Chelsea don’t snatch him, and in Alves’s case, Russell Martin best utilise them on a regular basis next season, or fans will be on his back very quickly. I see some Southampton fans saying we’ll be in for a shock if we expect Martin to play our youngsters. But when delving into managers weeks ago, Russell Martin’s time at Swansea did come with some positives in terms of ages of their squad. I posted this months ago, but I might as well post it again, if he brings a shred of this to Leicester City, then I think he’ll get a few more fans on his side.

And that of course is why we need changes at board level. How many profitable assets have we signed recently? Hermansen, Fatawu and El Khannouss. Brighton for example, we don’t have enough fingers to count how many profitable assets they’ve signed for their football club, it’s double figures worth. The one thing I’m clinging on to, is how Swansea City’s squad looked when Russell Martin was there. In his first season at Swansea, they had the 4th youngest squad in the Championship. In his second season, they had the 2nd youngest squad in the Championship. If he can bring the average age of our squad down, then he’ll get a pat on the back from me.

1st in the Swiss League for save percentage. 2nd for prevented goals per90.

If it is to be Russell which is looking highly likely, the thing that pisses me off the most is this boards continuation to cripple themselves. To be so reluctant to actually pay a release clause for a manager is lazy. They are just making their net even smaller, and we can bang on about the more hipster names all we want, but when you break it down and see who’s realistically available, it’s as if they’ve constrained themselves to a predictable, uninspiring list. They’ve probably just concentrated on names like Martin, Dyche, Hasenhuttl, O’Neil and plucked for Martin just because he aligns more with our previous style. You look at teams like Brighton and even Sunderland last summer, you can tell just how thorough their managerial processes were. They want a specific manager that aligns with their continued philosophies. But what on earth is our philosophy? It’s as if they are just trying to amend the appointments they made this season, we fvcked up on Cooper and RVN, let’s just go back to a heavy possession style, it served us well last time and Russell Martin is free. I’m currently 60/40 in the feeling that Russell may actually do a decent job for us in the Championship, but I seriously worry about the long term ramifications of this football club, especially if he continues to be stubborn and doesn’t evolve. There’s absolutely nothing thorough and long term about our managerial processes, it’s fvcking infuriating.

Just you wait until we activate Jan Bednarek’s £6 million release clause.

I’ve never seen Wout Weghorst score 25 goals in the Championship like Neal Maupay once did

Maupay was a big part of a possession based Brighton team. De Zerbi now has him at Marseille. You can cry all you want mate, I’ve aligned the stars and it’s gonna happen 🔮 Thought you’d be happy anyway, it means we won’t be getting a big fvcking target man

If Mvogo doesn’t sign a new contract at Lorient, then he and Gunn are the two best free agents that have ability to play out from the back. But if we can afford them, I’d personally go for Rushworth or Keller 👍🏻

Loan Option Mike Penders - Chelsea Permanent Options Carl Rushworth - Brighton Marvin Keller - Young Boys Tobias Lawal - LASK Slawomir Abramowicz - Jagiellonia Bialystok Free Agents Yvon Mvogo Angus Gunn

But the thing is, trying to play a brand of possession football hasn’t kept teams in the Premier League. The likes of Bournemouth, Forest, Brentford and Palace are not playing a brand of possession based football, and they are having solid success in the Premier League, all because they are following the right trends. I’m not disputing Russell Martin’s style of football entirely, it’s proven to be a successful formula in the Championship, but that’s just it, it works in the Championship, but doesn’t really work in the Premier League. If the Premier League continues to evolve like it is, then Russell Martin must evolve with it.

As much as we don’t want Russell, this is one positive that he will probably bring tbf. Southampton were the most aggressive pressers in the Championship under him. He also referred to it on Lineker’s podcast just how important pressing is to his philosophy. Out of possession, Russell Martin may actually come with some actual positives. It’s just a bloody shame his in possession philosophy is so pedestrian.

Very much looking forward to the 10+ pass sequences