How long are you going to give Ranieri?

[Ted Maul]

I'll give him as much time as he needs to turn this around. I would like to think that we're quite level-headed as a club, and wouldn't sack him unless things were really bad. As it stands, there are worse teams than us in this league and we're playing well below our capabilities.

 

It is strange though. Last season he was a tactical genius, I had never seen anything like it. Literally every substitution he made changed the game in our favour until he brought De Laet on at RM at Villa. This season, he is getting more wrong than right.

 

I'm sure we'll be fine and he'll find a solution. Let's win tonight, unite and give it everything in the league for a few months until we can buy in some reinforcements. You don't win the league and get relegated after losing 1 player, we're far too good for that (even if we're not showing it at the moment).

[Bayfox]

7 hours ago, CKB said:

Of course he's not unsackable! 

 

If we are still struggling around late Jan/early Feb he may seriously be in risk of losing his job and there will be a shed load more supporters looking for a change

 

I want PL sustainability, UCL matches are great and doing what we did was amazing. But it was a one off and we must plan right for our PL sustainability and I'm not sure we have so far

Problem for me is, with modern day football, ie the Jan transfer window, if you intend to sack someone, I would be looking to do it around now, (i'm not suggesting we do) but it's the logically time, give the new man 1 month to look at squad, he then gets a month to try and alter things in jan with ins and outs.

 

This sacking in feb and march seems to save a lot of clubs, but they then just struggle the next season anyway. Sunderland, palace etc just seem to go through this time and time again.

[Countryfox]

Jeez I hope we beat Boro or there may be lynch mobs sighted outside the KP.   

[bald reynard]

9 minutes ago, bald reynard said:

20 December 2016 (if we lose to Stoke) - see the Chelsea 2015-16 / Leicester 2016-17 thread !

Of course, that depends on us beating Middlesbrough on Saturday (see the other thread again) !

[foxy boxing]

HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING!

[Guest Lako42]

This one is for all of the generic modern day 'I want it now' football fans who think talk of sacking Ranieri is acceptable.

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

Chelsea sacked Di Matteo 6 months after winning the Champions League. 

They brought in Benitez who was roundly hated by the fans for his entire tenure, he won them the Europa League and finished 3rd but they didn't want to renew his contract.

Then they sacked Mourinho 6 months after winning the Premier League.

Man City sacked Mancini a season after winning the Premier League for the first time in 50 years, and finishing 2nd plus were runners up in the FA Cup that season.

Then only 18 months after winning them the Premier League again they announced with 3 months of the season left that they'd be replacing Pellegrini with Guardiola in the summer. After his last game he took to a microphone to thank the fans, half of whom couldn't even be bothered to stay to listen.

Even Man Utd, who gave Ferguson 8 years to build a team to start winning things, fired Moyes after only 8 months; the two managers that followed have both hilariously fared even worse despite spending half a billion quid.

 

My point is, we're better than these bastards. Their ambitions have turned into arrogance and they can't afford to be patient for a manager to sort things out.

 

We're LEICESTER CITY. Last season we all would have been thrilled with 14th again - Claudio's objective was to keep us up and reach 40 points. Everyone else thought he'd be fired by October and we'd be going down. And then he won us the Premier League. Us. Leicester. Little old Leicester City. For that matter if we ever fired him, we'd be worse than the Chelseas, Man Citys, Man Utds, Liverpools. We can afford to be patient. None of us thought we'd ever win the league in our lifetime.

 

SO we're in a slump? Welcome to Leicester.

 

Never fire Claudio.

[psychonaut]

Another 5 years until he retires.

[Guest Col city fan]

9 minutes ago, psychonaut said:

Another 5 years until he retires.

Even if we got relegated?

Comments like 'until he retires' are cheap and easy. There's no thought behind them. 

Personally, I like him, I respect him, we have achieved the impossible under him. But this season, our league form is shocking. On current form I'm struggling to think of a worse side than us in terms of the football being played. I believe our midfield is amongst the worst in the division.

No manager is invincible or unsackable imo. I'm not bothered about tonight. Bruges are rubbish. But if we don't win on Saturday, then I'm worried. 

[ozvaldo]

13 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Agreed, absolutely no need for it and has for his assertions over transfers or lack of them or back ups for them here are a few facts:

1. He as a supporter hasn't got a clue whatsoever who Ranieri and the club really wanted and how hard they tried to get them.

2. You can only buy who is made available and who would like to come.

3. We may have won the Premiership and have a great story but some of our better targets may want just a bit more than that and I don't mean money  (ie see Kante).

4. Many foreign players like the Italian side of my family, until Ranieri came and did what we did, plus to a lesser extent the great escape,  they hadn't got the faintest idea where Leicester was! Wasn't it Marhez who was confused as he thought we were a rugby team?

5. Therefore even with money, it's hard to attract a top class established player to what is quite honestly a boil on the arse city. Even Posh Spice turned us down in favour of Milan (had the Highcross been built then possibly it may have sweetened the deal)

 

We still are essentially who we always were to the outside world yet, but now with a trophy that can't be taken back! We can afford to shop in a different market but still can't compete with the more famous names. We have to hope for the Vardy's and Marhez's of this world. For the future,  Kapustka,  Armartey and a couple of the other signings were good business but I don't think Ranieri bagained on having to play the latter yet. Who knows who they were after? They are not blind or stupid and would be well aware of our weaknesses. Certainly Ranieri has more pulling power than NP and the longer we're in Europe the better for me for the exposure.

 

Keep faith,  it will come good!

The scouting team's job is to find talent and sell LCFC to them.

 

Totally irrelevant.  Your family knowing who LCFC are and where Leicester sits on a map has nothing to do with our league position.  

 

No one is asking for famous names.  I'd expect our scouting system to be fishing out the future talent (i.e. how we acquired the likes of Kante & Mahrez when they were 'nobodies').  Letting Walsh leave wasn't a great idea (not that it was Claudio's fault).  However, the club knew for a while that Kante wanted to leave (and that we would be playing Champions League football this season) and to best prepare ourselves, there should have been a thorough recruitment plan in place, enabling us to go after 'A' targets and then have sufficient back ups.  For example, missing out on Silva but then having no Plan B.   Obviously I don't know who they targeted and went about their business, but to leave it up until deadline day, after pissing about on that pre-season tournament, doesn't strike me like they had a clear, structured plan.  Our current league table position reflects that.  And for anyone who says "If we had beaten West Brom or Watford we'd be in the top half and wouldn't be having this debate" - the facts are, we didn't win, we didn't ever look like winning, nor did we put up any sort of fight.  The team is stagnant with no ideas and Claudio needs to work some magic to freshen things up, asap.

[foxy boxing]

1 minute ago, ozvaldo said:

The scouting team's job is to find talent and sell LCFC to them.

 

Totally irrelevant.  Your family knowing who LCFC are and where Leicester sits on a map has nothing to do with our league position.  

 

No one is asking for famous names.  I'd expect our scouting system to be fishing out the future talent (i.e. how we acquired the likes of Kante & Mahrez when they were 'nobodies').  Letting Walsh leave wasn't a great idea (not that it was Claudio's fault).  However, the club knew for a while that Kante wanted to leave (and that we would be playing Champions League football this season) and to best prepare ourselves, there should have been a thorough recruitment plan in place, enabling us to go after 'A' targets and then have sufficient back ups.  For example, missing out on Silva but then having no Plan B.   Obviously I don't know who they targeted and went about their business, but to leave it up until deadline day, after pissing about on that pre-season tournament, doesn't strike me like they had a clear, structured plan.  Our current league table position reflects that.  And for anyone who says "If we had beaten West Brom or Watford we'd be in the top half and wouldn't be having this debate" - the facts are, we didn't win, we didn't ever look like winning, nor did we put up any sort of fight.  The team is stagnant with no ideas and Claudio needs to work some magic to freshen things up, asap.

love the different colours of writing, really makes it stand out!

[Bayfox]

3 minutes ago, ozvaldo said:

The scouting team's job is to find talent and sell LCFC to them.

 

Totally irrelevant.  Your family knowing who LCFC are and where Leicester sits on a map has nothing to do with our league position.  

 

No one is asking for famous names.  I'd expect our scouting system to be fishing out the future talent (i.e. how we acquired the likes of Kante & Mahrez when they were 'nobodies').  Letting Walsh leave wasn't a great idea (not that it was Claudio's fault).  However, the club knew for a while that Kante wanted to leave (and that we would be playing Champions League football this season) and to best prepare ourselves, there should have been a thorough recruitment plan in place, enabling us to go after 'A' targets and then have sufficient back ups.  For example, missing out on Silva but then having no Plan B.   Obviously I don't know who they targeted and went about their business, but to leave it up until deadline day, after pissing about on that pre-season tournament, doesn't strike me like they had a clear, structured plan.  Our current league table position reflects that.  And for anyone who says "If we had beaten West Brom or Watford we'd be in the top half and wouldn't be having this debate" - the facts are, we didn't win, we didn't ever look like winning, nor did we put up any sort of fight.  The team is stagnant with no ideas and Claudio needs to work some magic to freshen things up, asap.

I think the fact we went in for silva so late probably shows he was plan B or maybe C or D, 

 

We made so many mistakes this summer, including pre season, bad recruitment, allowing key personnel to leave and no they can't all be pinned on CR but he has to shoulder some of the blame.

 

You make some decent points tho, anyone who can find us on a map, will have forgotten in 3 years time if we are mid table in the championship.

 

The more I start to read this thread the more I think unless performances, effort and results change, the title doesn't carry much weight in the general scheme of things right now.

[Countryfox]

35 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

I'm not bothered about tonight.

Can I have your ticket ...   

[Dan]

23 hours ago, Royston. said:

put an extra midfielder in?

To make any proper commitment to playing a 4-3-3 in my eyes you've got to have at least five central midfielders. King, Amartey & Drinkwater could be a decent option in the short term but there's little variety.

 

It benefits every midfielder to play in a 3 rather than a 2. Amartey in-particular I think it would really help.

[Nod.E]

He deserves as long as he needs, and that isn't just because of last year either.

Mendy getting injured and not getting Silva couldn't be helped and for me it's that King/Amartey role which has exposed us more than anything else, as well as the bad momentum coming from continuous difficult away fixtures.

For the first time since the run which kept us up, I don't feel confident going into games. Regardless of what manager we have in place now, that situation isn't going to change and could only have a detrimental impact. 

We need to somehow find some form between now and January and rebuild with a fit Mendy and/or equivalent signing. That's just the situation we find ourselves in. Last year everything conspired to work in our favour. Right now it isn't going our way.

 

Rough with the smooth.

[Countryfox]

1 minute ago, Nod.E said:

He deserves as long as he needs, and that isn't just because of last year either.

Mendy getting injured and not getting Silva couldn't be helped and for me it's that King/Amartey role which has exposed us more than anything else, as well as the bad momentum coming from continuous difficult away fixtures.

For the first time since the run which kept us up, I don't feel confident going into games. Regardless of what manager we have in place now, that situation isn't going to change and could only have a detrimental impact. 

We need to somehow find some form between now and January and rebuild with a fit Mendy and/or equivalent signing. That's just the situation we find ourselves in. Last year everything conspired to work in our favour. Right now it isn't going our way.

 

Rough with the smooth.

 

Good post Noddy.   At this moment in time I couldn't think of a better man for the job.

[urban.spaceman]

32 minutes ago, foxy boxing said:

love the different colours of writing, really makes it stand out!

I vote for that being the new norm.

[Livid]

For me as long as he wants.

 

This isn't entirely his fault. The club have made a number of decisions which have come back to bite us.

 

The club got ahead of itself and  went on a glorified PR trip to show the trophy off and play in some glamour friendlies. A nice jolly for some but I would have preferred us to have stayed at home and played the likes of Mansfield etc. We simply weren't ready for the start of this season and have been on the back foot ever since.

 

For financial reasons we've obviously targeted getting beyond the group stages of the Champions League. The majority of PL prize money comes from TV appearance money and the basic £85 million per team. It's £2 million a place after that which in the scheme of things isn't massive. Man City the top earners pocketed €83 million Euro's from being losing Semi Finalists in last year's CL,. We got £95 Million for winning the league.

 

Mendy was bought to start, its bad luck he's only managed 50 minutes. Slimani IMO is still an upgrade on Ulloa. Yes we haven't got cover in midfield. Zieler is a good keeper but doesn't have the presence in our back four that Schmeicel has. We don't have the cover in CM but I don't think we're the kind of club where we can stockpile £15-30 Million international players.

 

It's not gone well but I don't blame the Don.

 

 

 

 

[Wymsey]

Ranieri is bright enough to know what the situation is, been at it for about 30 years.

He knows he's under pressure but he acts sensibly in crucial situations like post-match interviews - unlike, you know, Pearson.

 

I fully trust him based on how he is and he needs a bit more time to change it around.

[Karljohn]

What is the expectation this season? We've lost arguably our best player from last season, our chief scout, and have settled for 2 centre backs who's only competition is a 36 year old. Owners won't fire him even if he did take us down. 

[inckley fox]

15 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Agreed, absolutely no need for it and has for his assertions over transfers or lack of them or back ups for them here are a few facts:

1. He as a supporter hasn't got a clue whatsoever who Ranieri and the club really wanted and how hard they tried to get them.

2. You can only buy who is made available and who would like to come.

3. We may have won the Premiership and have a great story but some of our better targets may want just a bit more than that and I don't mean money  (ie see Kante).

4. Many foreign players like the Italian side of my family, until Ranieri came and did what we did, plus to a lesser extent the great escape,  they hadn't got the faintest idea where Leicester was! Wasn't it Marhez who was confused as he thought we were a rugby team?

5. Therefore even with money, it's hard to attract a top class established player to what is quite honestly a boil on the arse city. Even Posh Spice turned us down in favour of Milan (had the Highcross been built then possibly it may have sweetened the deal)

 

We still are essentially who we always were to the outside world yet, but now with a trophy that can't be taken back! We can afford to shop in a different market but still can't compete with the more famous names. We have to hope for the Vardy's and Marhez's of this world. For the future,  Kapustka,  Armartey and a couple of the other signings were good business but I don't think Ranieri bagained on having to play the latter yet. Who knows who they were after? They are not blind or stupid and would be well aware of our weaknesses. Certainly Ranieri has more pulling power than NP and the longer we're in Europe the better for me for the exposure.

 

Keep faith,  it will come good!

 

I heard 'keep the faith' used a lot round here under Adams, back when we went down with Bassett, nearly went out of business and then - after a brief respite - imploded all over again and went on a half-decade-long decline which ended in the third tier. As a Leicester fan (or, even, as a follower of Claudio Ranieri's career) blind faith that things will work out is rarely advisable!

 

We may have to decide to what extent we're willing to bask in the glory of May, 2016. As fans, it's understandable if we do, but we still want there to be some sort of bright future ahead, as well as behind. If we deprive ourselves of that because we've failed to make a break with the past, then it'd be a shame, and I doubt the owners are drowning in a sea of sentimentality for their part. So if it becomes clear that having Ranieri in charge is a problem - because he's a poorer team-builder than he is a man-manager, or because he's lost the drive that he had in the past, or the dynamics have changed and his methods no longer work - then the right thing for the board to do might not be the nice thing for them to do. Obviously.

 

The point is that we're a long, long way off that point. We could go on a terrible run of form for five or six games and still be in a perfectly good position to turn things around and challenge for mid-table. I'd like to see the board make internal changes, as they did with Pearson, before thinking of pulling the trigger. We brought in Robinson back then to help with financial management and if we have concerns about how well money is being spent now, we could easily tweak things. Equally, if (as some rumours claims) we've turned our backs the Sports Science side of things, the board could insist on a change without sacking anyone.

 

That said, there's not much substance to your points. I like people knowing who we are but I'd prefer us to stay up and everyone forget us, than to go down and continue being football's great freak show. Your argument hinges on us not having been able to buy anybody better than the squad players we spent £65,000,000 on, which seems to me a shaky point when we forged our league-winning eleven for just £28,000,000, back when nobody knew who we were. Even if we thought that it was time to change our policy and stop looking for players in the lower reaches of football, then there were lots of transfers which took place in the summer concerning players in our range. And transfers which have, in some cases, worked out nicely. Excusing any manager for mis-spending on these grounds (and it may yet turn out that he spent fairly well, of course) is daft. Like saying Peter Taylor or Sven Goran Eriksson mis-spent money because literally nobody else was willing to join us, as opposed to because they simply bought a lot of poor players.

 

Thankfully, there's time for it all to work out yet. We - meaning both Ranieri and the board - can change things, even quite drastically, without further depleting our management team. This is where I'd like to see tweaks being made - for the foreseeable future at least.

[The whole world smiles]

Claudio could get us relegated this year, then get us relegated to league 1 the year after and I would still be sad to see him go.

[goose2010]

2 hours ago, Livid said:

For me as long as he wants.

 

This isn't entirely his fault. The club have made a number of decisions which have come back to bite us.

 

The club got ahead of itself and  went on a glorified PR trip to show the trophy off and play in some glamour friendlies. A nice jolly for some but I would have preferred us to have stayed at home and played the likes of Mansfield etc. We simply weren't ready for the start of this season and have been on the back foot ever since.

 

For financial reasons we've obviously targeted getting beyond the group stages of the Champions League. The majority of PL prize money comes from TV appearance money and the basic £85 million per team. It's £2 million a place after that which in the scheme of things isn't massive. Man City the top earners pocketed €83 million Euro's from being losing Semi Finalists in last year's CL,. We got £95 Million for winning the league.

 

Mendy was bought to start, its bad luck he's only managed 50 minutes. Slimani IMO is still an upgrade on Ulloa. Yes we haven't got cover in midfield. Zieler is a good keeper but doesn't have the presence in our back four that Schmeicel has. We don't have the cover in CM but I don't think we're the kind of club where we can stockpile £15-30 Million international players.

 

It's not gone well but I don't blame the Don.

 

 

 

 

 you really think this was the clubs choice?!

[Livid]

5 minutes ago, goose2010 said:

 you really think this was the clubs choice?!

Go on then enlighten me?

[goose2010]

1 minute ago, Livid said:

Go on then enlighten me?

 

They went as a representative of the premier league! Do you think the people that keep lining the pockets of the clubs would just let LCFC off with playing around the world against the worlds best? Last season was absolutely huge for the premier league and showing off the worlds biggest ever underdogs would of been one of their major PR stories of the last decade. Tounements like the summer are at the cost of success, yes it was different preperation compared to our low cost norm but there is no way it would of been LCFC choice wether to enter or not.