Rob1742

Definitely not for me. He’s just a bit weird for my liking. Great left back, but an odd character. Kept Newport up, but only just. This wasn’t any Brian Little like lower league achievement.

I saw recently that the outer ring road at Oadby still has the land there, that was set aside for it. Basically down the side of Asda. Interesting to see what they were intending to do.

Seen this photo before. Not sure when this area was butchered, but not sure what the planners were thinking when they ruined this area

Our overhead at Seagrave puts us in a worse financial position than any of our competitors in the league. Especially when you add in our huge wage bill. The issue I have is that the lack of noise coming out of the club, which leaves us asking these questions, which isn’t good. I saw today that Aylestone Park FC put out a statement on how the future looks for them. It was a simple statement that left the community knowing the clear direction of the club. They are having a reset, lower spend on players fees, playing younger players and to expect them not competing at the top for a while. Just thought if we had this same communications a few years ago, maybe the fans would have supported or accepted the decline much easier. If I bump into any opposing fans and they question our clubs position, I say I’m worried about the future as our overheads are huge and there isn’t any noise coming out of the club that could allay any fears like what the original poster asked

I’m a bit staggered by this. I would have thought they can open it up to anyone and still struggle to hit 20k. I am shocked the interest must still be high

I was thinking today that the story has changed dramatically. The story was how Leicester City won the Premier League, everybody talked about it. The story has now changed, it will now be the King Power story that people start to talk about. How they came into football, how we got promoted with the controversy of FFP way back then, it was brushed under the carpet. I suppose that was an indication of what would come and bite us one day. That was quickly forgotten as the great escape happened, the trophies, yes the trophies. Leicester City actually winning major trophies, the tragedy of the owner, the demise to league one, the demise of the business in Thailand, the FFP issues. For sure the talk will be wider now than just the Premier League win 10 years ago. For me I have two thoughts, the first is that this story isn’t over yet and I really do have concerns as I don’t think we have bottomed out yet. But I suppose I haven’t taken the demise as bad as others. I said a few years ago that we won the Premier League, the FA Cup, played in Europe and I said back then that if it all came to a sudden crash I’d be fine as my football goals had been met. You could tell when Brendan wasn’t happy that it was all about to unfold, maybe more than I thought it would, but relegations and selling of players didn’t hit me as hard as it used to as I’d got the wins I never dreamt I had. It’s an absolute mess now, carnage, there is more to come, there won’t be any bailout available. The future looks grim, the story continues and it will now become the King Power story that is talked about. But I’m happy they turned up and we had those amazing times that would never have been possible.

We should get a new manager, so we can ruin yet another managers CV. I am of the opinion that we are ruining the managers rather than the managers ruining us. Surely the board can see a pattern, they will see that several managers have now failed and so maybe they need to point the finger elsewhere.

The issue we have here is he’s on a fortune, and only wants to play for a club close to his house. He now comes with baggage, so not sure who would take him on. There is a very good chance he is still here next season, as someone will have to match his wages which isn’t an easy thing to do with the money we band about

I’m worried. I think a lot of our youth has been brought up in the world of them thinking they are much better then they actually are. Our £10/£20k a week young superstars who had aspirations of playing in the PL versus other clubs youngsters who are glad to be where they are fighting for their lives in league one. You also see a lot of the youngsters come through and end up in the National League or lower, so I don’t think we can look at our young squad and think it’s going to work. Look back over the years and a vast number made an appearance or two and disappeared without trace.

Who would get him in? We just don’t have a structure, a vision, a plan, a way forward. it’s broken, we don’t have a model for moving forward, it’s a crazy situation we have got like this

I speak about these situations to my mate who is a baller in the EFL. They do get treated pretty poorly, like if they want you out, they put you in the bomb squad to try and make you leave. They have various ways of trying to get you out the door if you aren’t wanted around. Football is incredibly brutal. However, I say to him that they are paid incredibly well, and you have to balance this brutal way of dealing with people versus someone working full time in a “ normal” job and only given a 20 minute lunch break. You go into it with your eyes open, you are given a contract for a period of time and when it’s up, you are history. You get put in the bomb squad but still get paid for going in from 10.00am until 1.00pm every day and so it’s not a bad way to make a living

I think by making existing holders renew before we know what division we are in, on this occasion is a mistake. The issue they now have is they will have sold tickets at a price that doesn’t match the division we will be in, which initially doesn’t seem a problem. But the problem now comes with selling match tickets to the general public which will need to be in line price wise with those of us that have purchased season tickets. If they want to fill the ground, they can’t offer price reductions on match days as it will piss the season ticket holders off who have paid full price. I get they want you to commit to next season, but in doing so they have created a problem for themselves. It will have been okay in previous seasons, but now we haven’t got a pot to piss in and will be fielding youngsters that could well lead us to mid table mediocrity, we will have people not wanting to go and a price structure that makes it even more likely people will not want to bother. You could get away with it in previous seasons as there was still a large element of energy towards the club. But that energy has disintegrated over the season and there will be a big swathe of fans that disappear with a pricing structure that makes the decision to not go a lot easier. So I think by trying to be clever, they actually will have shot themselves in the foot - again

We’ve been in this position twice in my lifetime, but in both those times there hasn’t been the toxic and completely rudderless feeling. I recall Ipswich away in the Pleat era where we needed to win, but lost. The support and togetherness was massive, but that certainly isn’t the case in this instant. The second real concern is what it will look like when we make the drop. The absolutely huge cost of running the training ground along with our staff costs will mean that other clubs in league one have an advantage over us from the outset

You give staff a nice benefit, you get absolutely caned if you then reverse it one day. They certainly forget the good they were doing in the first place. It’s best not giving the gesture in the first place. If I was to reverse this though, I’d have communicated it months ago so staff knew what they would be facing. This has been their real error which is naughty. I’m not sure paying staff on 19th of any month when they usually get paid at the end of the month is very wise either. It then becomes a case of people spending too much and suffering big time in January. Maybe it was seen as a nice gesture, but not sure it’s really helpful in reality

Wonder how many people can’t be bothered and just leave the seats empty. you used to just pass the tickets on, so simple, but now having to do the transfer means a number of people ( me included) just let them go empty. i know a family who want to go, friends of ours, but got enough going on without trying to work this out. Maybe easy enough for some, but for others I think the chore of it means they don’t get passed on and so seats go empty. The loser is obviously me involved if there is money involved, but also the club as potential new fans don’t get to sample the match.

Not sure Seagrave was a good move for us. Yes an elite facility, but we have always done well at times where we were considered a family club, where there was a togetherness across the club in all departments. Seagrave I understand has made it less of a family style set up where there are more divisions and departments. Great I suppose if you are a top 6 side, but if you need some togetherness to get through, then it may not have that feel. I haven’t been, so can’t comment, but I’ve been to St George’s a number of times and I find it soulless and without doubt a place I would hate to spend my work days in. If I could compare St George’s and Belvior Drive, I have no doubt in where I’d prefer to spend my working day. I understand why we did it, but not sure it was right for a club of our size and the smaller we become the more we’d probably be better in a smaller Belvior Drive type set up.

A crisp company that has refused to cut their plastic outputs for decades versus a betting company that will probably not be about in a year or two. Yeah true, there isn’t much of a comparison

Ali Mauchlen is in with a shout. Short, but Jesus he was hard. The football at that time was pretty poor, but you’d travel to away games just to watch him. i recall a Q&A in the match day programme where Steve Walsh was asked what frightened him. His answer was “ guns and Ali Mauchlen”

Jimmy Willis had a shocker on his debut, so bad in fact he got subbed at half time and sent out on loan. Got to give the guy credit as he came back decent, so think he just struggled to initially get used to a higher league. Didn’t want to put this in writing as he did a good job for us after that initial game

Haven’t a clue who they are or what they do. Haven’t a clue about the previous few sponsors either, so it’s having no affect on me personally or people around me. The UK based betting companies however are a lot more active in the Uk, like I know people signing up and then being bombared by free bets to get them “used” to betting and getting them hooked on something that will lead to financial harm. You could argue also that Walkers Crisps back in the day have impacted massively with regards to long term pollution with the billions of plastic wrappers they continue to pollute the planet with. I’m pretty sure the average fan won’t have heard of them, just like they hadn’t heard of the others and it just passes them by.

Honestly if I was to look around at who is available I’d go for Ruud Van Nistleroy. It’s clear that ONeil is being considered, but who would pick him above RVN? Even if you were to go for ONeil it’s a close call between the two who have failed quite badly in the past. if it’s this level we are going.to, or similar, I’d have preferred to see if RVN would have been any good in the championship for a few months and avoided paying him off.

Got to be staying now. If it wasn’t done on 4th June surely he’s staying and in our usual style we never communicate unless it’s something big like a sacking. Imagine sacking him now. Now that would be an absolute shit show as it would mean they have taken like months after relegation was confirmed to make the decision. I can’t see it happening now.

Incredible years these. I purchased a couple of copies of that photo enlarged from the Leicester Mercury and gave one to Steve Walsh. It was all rolled up in a tube as I couldn’t afford to frame it for him. I’ve spoken to Brian many times about these years, he’s great great company and it’s great talking about those times, although like mine, memories about many of the games have since gone. Probably my favourite time in football as we had been down in Division 2 for so long, the battle to get back up seemed harder. Im of the opinion it was “better” then because of your age. It means so much more in your younger years.

I think he will depart 1st June. So this weekend news will hit. The lack of communication to him tells you everything. Then I would assume contracts will have clauses in them ending 31st May in line with the financial year. Putting the exit after this financial year will be prudent with regards FFP and maybe pay off money.

He now does my 88 year old Mums feet, he’s a chiropodist. Used to watch all the youth team games in that era, the likes of Jason Peake, Warren Haughton, Matt Bedder, Tony Thorpe, Julian Joachim, Ian Thompson. Some good talent that never went far. Jason played a bit for Northampton if I recall. Ian Thompson was the one, a few years before Heskey and looked the part. I recall speaking to someone who coached him at the time who said he was outstanding but couldn’t play in front of a big crowd, that was his issue. Tony Thorpe was a great player, but we released him because he wouldn’t have been able to budge Lee Philpott from the first team. Went onto have a great career at Bristol City and QPR. Ian Baraclough is another. Partnered Paul Kitson, both looked really good, but Kitson got the break. Went to a match with Ian when I was like 9 years old, his brothers were great ballers. Lewis Mogg was a gritty midfielder too, but don’t think he made it. Matt Bedder had a brother at the club but can’t recall his name.