Dan

It went pretty much as feared - but once again I have to stress the responsibility comes from above them. They overlooked his bad track record. They didn't stop them wasting money. They didn't put an end to it when things had clearly gone to pot. Effective recruitment is so vital particularly to a club like ours who don't have the abundance of resources others do yet we cut a corner on it and thought there would be no consequences. Find it truly remarkable how Rodgers can have that first 8 months here, win a trophy, get into Europe twice and still probably come out of it a net negative.

Out of his depth yet under no pressure. Despise what this ownership has allowed to become the norm at this club. ****ing embarrassing.

Too many of the bigger clubs in Germany aren't ambitious enough. I'm all for making money via sales and reinvesting but Dortmund are surely at a point where they have to try and properly challenge Bayern rather than be a feeder club. I think you should sell and reinvest until you're in the Champions League and then start really going for it. Too many German clubs just never quite get to this level. I'll be interested to see what Leverkusen do in the summer.

I think if the entire thing went bust and it started again, then we'd have to go for this kind of model. You get quite good TV money in the Bundesliga now too, so it isn't like the teams are going to be left behind forever. I do think there's a world where the league gets a bit stronger. The problem is the Premier League has been too big a success for it to go down this route. It would have to reform in this state upon it going bang, which I think PSR in its current state would actually do. They will fix that before it actually happens though. Some of the big clubs in Germany have a lot to answer for. Dortmund especially in recent years. Fair play to Leverkusen on this season but you do fear next year will just be a return to a Bayern cakewalk as Leverkusen have been picked to bits and Dortmund continue to trip over themselves.

I just don't really get the tunnel vision we had on this signing. It was obviously tricky but why did we leave it so late and why wasn't there an alternative lined up? And if it's as simple as we have no money, then why was it ever a consideration at all?

England just don't win things. It's just our way and it pretty much is that way until it isn't. This tournament really is shit or bust for Southgate surely - I really do think at this point it should be as black and white as win the trophy or go, and I also think if he wins it there's a case to leave on that too (although I'd understand him staying). You just know though if England lost in the semis or final, hell even the quarters if it was to a decent side that the FA would see that as enough of a reason for him to stay, and this in a nutshell for me is why England don't win. I don't know how 2022 for example was dressed up as being anything other than par or slightly below par.

England really do have a good chance. Just don't trust Southgate to not blow it.

The fact we went and played in his tournament after this was a total embarrassment.

Oh I just meant beat Bristol City and hope that Leeds drop points, therefore it would be time to go Rudkin, I mean time to go Top!

No, but baffling that anybody can support him at this point.

And by a few accounts even he was practically begging for it when he realised it was the least damaging thing for Brand Brendan.

Me after Leicester 2-1 West Ham, May 2023.

Time to go Top.

This rhetoric about taking 6th would've been ridiculous back then. Imagine if we saw Leeds or Southampton fans saying that, we'd piss ourselves

It is genuinely not a hard place to come to. The clubs own making in a way. It's worth a few points over a season and we don't get them as a result. The Leicester Fan TV point. He's copping a lot of stick for it but I think a lot of our fans would agree with him - this is the madness that's gotten to us now that we actually think clappers are the answer. It's laughable that it got to this point, but predictable and why I never wanted them.

The flip side is that'll almost certainly be West Brom. We need to try and come 5th rather than 4th. Leicester v West Brom is the one fixture where home advantage seems to work the opposite way.

Sunday 12:30 for the away game in the play-offs if we finish 3rd. That just convinces me further it's bound to be us.

Just put £50 on them to win 3-0 then

How is the clappers myth still doing the rounds? Remember them coming back a year ago. That went well.

Yeah exactly. I'm pretty certain we're doomed to mediocrity at best with the current regime regardless of manager.

Yeah I'm on the same page really. I think you can hold principles on how to play but not look so one-dimensional in doing it and he increasingly appears to be like that which is a shame. I thought his whole thing about "my time at Juventus is where I learned about winning at all cost" would shine through more but lately with some of the stuff he's been saying it's been more of the idealism and style over substance that I've just never taken to in a manager. I've long held concerns that we're never going to quite be able to sign the players to make his system really work effectively. It's become less for me about some of the principles (playing out etc..) and more that he just seems to religiously stick to this system regardless of the personnel or opposition.

I think this is very true of our situation too. The rules are wrong and whoever implemented them should be out of the game yesterday, but the ineptness of the board / owner are also very clear too. I fear every criticism of one is going to be taken as a defence of the other.

Barkley feels a bit of a pipedream to be honest. After this season on a free I can see him having offers from the likes of Spurs / Villa etc...

I don't even massively mind that he has a way he believes in, if you are willing to just throw everything away at signs of adversity then what do you truly believe in? The issue more for me is is his way right for us? It's been very hard to measure this season because we came down into the league against the odds and even despite sales, the residue is still vastly superior to pretty much all of the league. It's been hard to measure if we're playing above the sum of our parts. I'm not really sure either way.

I'm not quite as sure as you about that bit. It would be negligence to set up like yesterday though so I hope you're right. The defence needs some investment that isn't going to arrive. I think he's going to have to be a bit more pragmatic, but I don't think that's really his style either. Something needs to give.