smudgerfox

Agree with this. That was a stupendously pathetic Cup exit when we were defending the trophy. His response? To turn on the squad and to say roughly a third were either not good enough or committed enough, or both. A fair few of them players he’d signed! They needed to go and be replaced. But he never had the means to make them go - you can’t force a contracted player to leave - and selling them is all the more difficult when you’ve told the world how useless they are. Without sales there’s no room for the new blood he so craved - so the refresh became a non starter. So he went into this season with a demotivated squad - Soyuncu sidelined , Praet and Vestergaard missing out on a World Cup, captain and keeper plus the key defender sold on in the last knockings of the transfer window. After being trashed so comprehensively by Forest and his reaction to it there really was no point in carrying on with him. We will pay a heavy price for doing so.

I do think his inability to provide a secure defence is his biggest weakness of all. The best teams are built on a strong defence and as you say, whoever he plays, whatever the system, no matter the opponent, whichever club he’s at, defending seems to be the last of his priorities…he simply cannot do defence - as his answer to the set piece fiasco - “we don’t have the right profile of player..” proved. A problem only fixed by the arrival of an independent coach (ie not a BR crony)…

So you deserve a gold medal in missing the point for that post. An OBE for services to missing the point. No-one thinks Vestergaard deserves a place in our squad NOW! But Brendan reached that judgement within six weeks of him signing. And here’s the point - that was despite us being desperate for centre back reinforcements at the time and despite Brendan pursuing him for 18 months to sign. We spent the best part of two thirds of a season - haemorrhaging points through bad defending and the whole football world blaming our injuries. Sat on the bench throughout this dismal period - a newly signed, EPL experienced and international centre half. It’s a catastrophic signing for the club and for the player. And who initiated the move? Brendan. Who was head of recruitment? Congerton.

not really Vestergaard’s fault we signed him and put him on such a good contract is it? What was he supposed to do? Say sorry I’m not good enough for Leicester - I’ll stay where I am? And where was Kasper in all this?

This is the manager we are relying on to get us enough points to stay up.. From the Independent May 6 2014 Liverpool 3 Crystal Palace 3 It will at least go to the last day of the season on Sunday, but a glance back over their shoulder will tell Liverpool that Selhurst Park was where the dream died and it will be no consolation that their Premier League title ambitions hit the wall in such a brilliant game. They might still win it - there is even an unlikely scenario where Chelsea could - but the reality is that Manchester City need only a win and a draw in their final two games to finish as champions, starting with the game against Aston Villa on Wednesday. Could Manuel Pellegrini’s team lose their nerve? Perhaps, but it felt like the season’s spectacular choke was this one, when Liverpool blew a 3-0 lead. It was a ten minute spell in the closing stages of the game when Brendan Rodgers’ team conceded three goals

I agree with this except for the Deeney Day bit. I think if that team had gone up we’d have had a demoralising relegation the following season. We were much better prepared the following season - obviously I was gutted at the time though! If you look at some of the results in our fifth place finish seasons - there were absolutely farcical games in which the team just seemed to collapse. Leads sacrificed in injury time, and the set piece problem. We shouldn’t have needed to beat Spurs that day - we should have been over the line. We would have been under a more ruthless manager imposing a more ruthless ethic in his team. Getting Champions League two seasons on the trot - and I said this at the time - would have transformed our clubs finances and our playing squad. The door was briefly open but we didn’t walk through it. The FA Cup win let him off the hook (and a curious willingness of many in the fanbase to accept fifth when we so obviously should have finished top 4). In the summer that followed, the non-sale of any prized asset and recruitment of five players gave the illusion of a club still moving forwards. That would have been the case but the Congerton-led recruitment turned out to be a joke. The failure to identify our vulnerability at centre back after the Fofana injury and to make a signing which addressed this absence, was the final nail in the coffin. Since that time, we have been going backwards as a club. We now have a situation in which not one part of the club is functioning well. Not the academy and development teams, not the women’s team, not the injury and medicine management, not the young players out on loan. Not the game management. We’ve fixed (ish) the set piece defensive problem - by bringing in another coach. That’s all that needs to be said.

Circumstantial evidence admittedly but when complaining about the non transfer transfer window - Brendan told the world he spent hours during the summer talking to potential recruits …I wouldn’t have thought it unusual at all…

Interesting logic there - its the player’s fault that Brendan pestered him, it’s the player’s fault that he came, It’s the player’s fault he was offered more money TO come, it’s the player’s fault he turned out to be rubbish - even though he’d been playing in plain sight in the Premier League and alongside our club captain internationally. Absolutely nothing to see, except an unexplained “other side of the story.” I do love the podcast by the way..

It’s a funny story to invent …and I don’t think it is “woe is me” …he’s basically saying he was persuaded to come over a longer period than it took to sideline him once he got here …it’s a very significant transfer - we needed a Brendan-style centre back - the fact we didn’t get one seems to be down to errrrrr….Brendan. It’s the reason last season was a write off, he’s one of the reasons there was no sumner refresh…and as Amartey struggles, Evans is injured, Souttar rested, he still doesn’t play …

Guys @ BBLP - have you seen the recent Vestergaard interview.? He says Brendan started ringing him 18 months before he actually signed trying to persuade him to join Leicester. The story is pitched from the JV pov - after such an energetic pursuit, the Dane can’t understand why he was sidelined so quickly and so comprehensively. I think this is highly relevant. At the time , Evans missed the start of the season (after limping off after 30 or so in the Cup Final), Soyuncu had had a torrid Euros and Fofana picked up a serious injury preseason. Justin was injured. We needed a sure fire starting centre back. So to spend £15-m on a defender who wasn’t good enough/didn’t suit our style, was a catastrophic error. And remember every time our calamitous defending was raised, it was attributed to our injuries. All that time a £15m, PL experienced, international centre back sat out virtually the whole season on the bench. My point is not to advocate for Vestergaard, but that the calamitous decision to sigh him and not someone else, seems to rest with the manager. So much for his not being supported.

I’m not saying Vestergaard is a victim who we should all weep buckets for. I don t think anyone else is. The fact is we played a whole season and practically wrote it off because of defensive injuries which allegedly led to defensive ineptitude. But all the time our manager was encouraging that narrative, a new defensive signing he wanted, sat on the bench doing nothing. He behaved as though the signing had nothing to do with him and had been forced upon him. When he called for reinforcements- there was a fit reinforcement he refused to utilise. Had that player been a credible first team starter we might even had made Europe last season.

Players signed since Brendan arrived: Perez Praet Soumare Daka Vestergaard Bertrand Bennett Fofana Castagne Justin Tete Faes Souttar Kristiansen Under Lookman less than half of them have proven themselves up to standard - Castagne, Justin, Fofana, and three of the four latest arrivals (not Tete). None have improved markedly in their time here and some have been rushed towards the door asap ..we’ve also written off the contracts of Benkovic, Ghezzal and Silva. I don’t want to get into arguments about individual players but that’s an awful lot of players for not a lot of end product - with a manager who is supposedly brilliant at developing talent.

His best 11 - after 4 years - would still only have a handful of his signings... Ward Pereira Faes Souttar Christiansen Tielemans Maddison KDH Barnes Ihenacho Tete

I don’t blame Vestergaard by the way and I won’t slag him off as a player. He signed in good faith for a manager who wanted him , only to be told within a matter of weeks that his “style” didn’t suit the BR way of playing. It cost him his place in the Danish WC squad - a similar thing happened to Praet. As someone has said - it really does give a lie to the “I haven’t been supported in the transfer market” defence.

I see Vestergaard has given an interview about his exile - saying Brendan pursued him for a season and a half - having several phone conversations with him. It has the ring of truth and it would be an odd one to make up.This really is a remarkable revelation. As I’ve said before the signing of JV was disastrous. The only way BR can come out if it with any credit is if the club forced Vestergaard on him. That clearly is not the case, if anything, the opposite is true. Just to remind ourselves - we played virtually a whole season with a makeshift defence - sometimes with midfielders played out of position, with Amartey first choice at CB and with the whole footballing world, encouraged by Brendan, blaming our inept defending on our injury list. Throughout that whole sorry episode - sat on the bench watching on, was the manager’s £15m signing - a first team centre back, a Danish international, but consigned to the dustbin after a handful of games .

I took my cousin and her bloke to the Newcastle game. They run a shop which does its best business at the weekend so just can never go to the match. They were really looking forward to a Boxing Day treat. The game was over after ten minutes and we just watched eleven players do nothing of note thereafter. It was torture ..nothing less. You watch Fulham, Brentford, clubs with a fraction of our resources and talent and you think how can we be this bad?

PROS fa cup win (really not counting Community Shield which is a pre season friendly which happens to be played at Wembley) great, memorable performances: 9-0 Southampton, beating Man City, Spurs, United, PSV, Rennes. some good signings Fofana especially clever introduction of youngsters KDH and Thomas (which tbf worked for a while) CONS miserable no-show performances - Roma (a), Forest cup, Man City, Arsenal Saturday, Newcastle Carabao cup capitulations - Bournemouth, Newcastle (several) Spurs 2-3 poor player development poor squad management decline of development squad injuries and injury management lamentable recruitment - Vestergaard, Bertrand, Soumare,

I suspect the set piece fiasco did little to endear Kasper to his colleagues. Time and time again I saw pundits analyse our marking match ups and question the commitment of our outfield players in defending corners. I don’t recall them ever questioning why the goalkeeper wasn’t catching crosses landing in and around our six yard box. They got slaughtered and Kasper got off Scot free.

The keeper debate is the best example of yet another way in which the club is currently poorly run. We had two goalkeepers behind Kasper who have been nurtured and invested in. We have a keeper on loan at Hartlepool. I’m not sure what’s happened to Brad Young. So four keepers as well as a first choice keeper yet when that first choice leaves, not one of them is apparently ready to step up to first team football. We went through a defensive crisis and the only young player from the development squad ready to help was Luke Thomas. There’s a case for saying he wasn’t fully ready either. Calvin Bassey left. And there’s no striker who could be called upon if all our three strikers lose form or get injured. It begs the question, what has happened to our development squad under Brendan? It used to compete with the best in the land - it’s going to be relegated this season.

Close? They could have hit double figures if they kept finishing their moves instead of trying to get certain teammates a goslzz

live close to the ground surrounded by brentford sths - would love to go if anyone has a single spare please?

There was a time when players like him and Kasper - real club heroes - would have been given a proper goodbye by the club. Hate to see players as important as Albrighton - f****d off in the last knockings of the transfer window - the club has lost all its class…good luck MA - thanks for everything…

You only have to ask how many Premier League sides would consistently omit a player with Kelechi’s scoring record. It is nothing short of insane. Rodgers is constantly reminding us what he can’t do - just get him to do more of what he can do! It’s a simple game…

I think they are different from Vestergaard though for sure there are similarities. Perez did play a part in the early Rodgers revival post Puel. Though his forward play left a lot to be desired his willingness to chase, harry and press was part and parcel of the first season success. And it was he who intercepted the pass that led to Youris cup winner. The thing is he never was a right winger and he’s never played for any length of time for us, in the role he played at Newcastle. So I’m loathe to be too critical of his signing. I’m pretty sure the club was tracking Praet prior to BRs appointment. So I can believe BR might have been overruled on this one. I think his arrival predates Lee Congerton as well. But yes, the trajectory is the same as with Vestergaard and Soumare. Initial enthusiasm, early criticism, eventual sidelining. Any second chances have been limited to the odd game - usually as a substitute or replaced on the hour when started. I suspect he’s never played for us in his best position though I couldn’t be sure what that is. With the positions Praet and Perez play there’s a certain advantage in having players who offer something different from what we already have. Maybe a player was expected to move on and these seemed like versatile replacements. The reason I focus on Vestergaard is because our need at CB could not have been clearer. And the shambles of halting our undoubted progress due to an inadequate defence for virtually a whole season and now being unable to move JV on and bring in someone more suitable - dates back to the day he signed for a club that quickly decided that a £15million player actually had no value at all.

Not heard much lately for some inexplicable reason we’re proud of you, we’re proud of you, we’re proud