Ranieri Has Been Backstabbed.

[Donut]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

Funny as I was thinking how much this is mirroring the Taylor years. Pearson's team still in place, has a great season and things start to get worse when the managers tactics and new players and shoddy team building start to take hold.

This was never meant to be a ranieri v pearson thread. But every thread becomes one.

 

 

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Donut said:

This was never meant to be a ranieri v pearson thread. But every thread becomes one.

 

 

Probably because it's a relevant discussion point to our situation.

[reynard]

I can't accept this argument he's been back stabbed. Just as I can't accept that he has no say whatsoever in transfers. I'm pretty sure he wanted to sign Mendy last season and was eventually persuaded to take Kante instead.

At this moment the whole club stinks from top to bottom. I exclude the owners from this as I don't know their input on a daily basis. We have gone from having a mentality of winning to a mentality of losing. This applies not just to the first team but to the under 23s as well. The whole club is at this moment is unable to win at anything.

From the abject failure in the transfer windows in the summer and  now to recruit the right type of player, to the players who are not performing despite massive wage increases, to the fitness coaches, our players do not look as conditioned and fit as they should be up to the management team.

Where does the lead come from? it comes from the manager and the team around him. Quite clearly at the moment they are failing utterly and completely.

 

Last season has gone. It doesn't matter what we did in it. We need to wake up to the fact that we are a very very poor team lead by a manager at present who is unfortunately proving all his doubters  to be correct, a manager who looks utterly lost, who is falling out with players, whose decision making is dodgy, whose post match press conferences are utterly abject and entirely predictable.

When he was appointed the owners apparently asked him if he would stay if we got relegated. He admitted to be surprised by the question and by their apparent loyalty. I doubt very much they expected to be thinking of relegation after a massive investment in the playing side the like of which our club has never seen. However, we look doomed to relegation. We are bereft of ideas both on and apparently off the pitch. To be where we are now from where we were in May is nothing short of a complete and utter disgrace.

Can anyone honestly see us getting anything other than an abject performance and another defeat in the next match. I can't. I know it always the easy thing to blame the manager but it is his job to manage the resources at his disposal and sadly he is failing utterly and completely to do this.

[Babylon]

2 minutes ago, Donut said:

This was never meant to be a ranieri v pearson thread. But every thread becomes one.

 

 

I'm indebted to both of them for what they've done... but the reality is as things stand it looks like a matter of when we get into the bottom three rather than If. We've lurched back into Sven territory of the club looking terribly run again.

Teams go up and down, I've accepted that a long time ago that we'll have time in the sun and then we won't. But I just want a well run club, and it's becoming more and more likely that it's Pearson who made the club look well run with how he wanted things doing. Rather than those above him having a grand plan.

[Guest Col city fan]

Just now, Babylon said:

I'm indebted to both of them for what they've done... but the reality is as things stand it looks like a matter of when we get into the bottom three rather than If. We've lurched back into Sven territory of the club looking terribly run again.

Teams go up and down, I've accepted that a long time ago that we'll have time in the sun and then we won't. But I just want a well run club, and it's becoming more and more likely that it's Pearson who made the club look well run with how he wanted things doing. Rather than those above him having a grand plan.

Again, I completely agree.

As I've said before (many weeks ago) there are also clear parallels to the Sven era. Success, improvement, general content, followed by dodgy signings, strange tactics, bull shite interviews and general demise. 

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

To me it's all about momentum and management. When the goings good the job looks easy, a tweak here and a tweak there. The real skill comes in turning around a seemingly endless slump with either tactical acumen or motivational wisdom. Claudio hasn't shown a capacity to do this.

 

In fact, having literally just finished his recent biography, I noticed how his managerial career is littered with great runs and also shocking runs. Not much in between. Make of that what you will.

 

P.s. I do like the Taylor comparisons, it does feel very similar.

[easilee]

22 minutes ago, filthyfox said:

CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND.... A ****ING DISGRACE!

A new chant?

[dylanlegend]

The worrying thing for me is not the fact we are playing badly or could get relegated. 

 

Its the the fact that it feels like we have a poor future. We are in decline on and off the field. Pearson wouldn't have kept unhappy people like Ulloa around the club and I just think there is a general bad feeling around the place. We need a manager in that will sort us out and take us back to basics. 

 

It's difficult to gauge what Ranieir is actually thinking as he's always the same in interviews etc. At least with Pearson you knew when he was pissed off, I don't know if Claudio is also like this behind closed doors but if he is you can see why he is struggling to get the best out of the players 

[Guest Foxin_mad]

To be fair to the players

 

Does anyone have a ****ing clue what Claudios football philosophy is meant to be? what is tactics are? how he intends us to play?

 

He doesn't know, we don't know then in fairness how the feck can you expect thick footballers to know??!!

 

We setup games not to lose them but we have a shit defence, we have a crap counter attack system of hoofing it to a woefully out of form Vardy. It doesn't work, last season and under Pearson we could play quick concise passing football which was a result of years of development as a team. This is the same group of players? What is wrong? I say the managers philosophy! RANIERI OUT

 

 

[Vocey]

Rudkin out, Ranieri to director of football, bring in a new manager (no idea who, Mancini comes to mind)

[lgfualol]

9 minutes ago, Foxin_mad said:

 

 

That was painfully beautiful to watch. 

[RowlattsFox]

The players are letting the manager down but Ranieri is showing he is unable to stop the rot and re-motivate. He was excellent at keeping momentum and confidence last year but different skills are required this time round.

 

Since lifting the trophy the club has been run appallingly, shite pre-season, shite recruitment and shite performances on the pitch. I'm amazed we've managed to get to 21 points.

[smudgerfox]

Some of it can be laid at the door of CR, some of it can't.

 

Had we not secured Mahrez and Vardy the club would have been accused of not being ambitious enough. Others - Kasper, Drinkwater might have followed out the door. We'd have faced an even more massive overhaul in the close season trying to replace key talent with Champions League humiliation looming. Ranieri could do nothing about the contract negotiations but sit and watch and hope he kept hos stars.

 

Whether or not Walsh was a brilliant finder of new talent - his disappearance could not have come at a worse time. Just when we needed to be astute and ambitious in the transfer market our main man was no longer with us. I'm not sure CR could have stopped Walsh leaving. 

 

The close season preparation was a disaster - but could we have turned down a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play Barcelona and PSG in the space of  a week or so? I don't think we could.

 

As for the players, it's probably fair to say they have lost that hunger and focus which gave them that five per cent edge which last season dredged draws out of defeats and wins out of draws. i'm not sure how spoilt as a group they really are. Vardy, more particularly his wife, has certainly embraced a witless celebrity persona which almost certainly means that improving his finishing is no longer a priority it was in earlier seasons. The academy and accompanying TV show and the movie should both have waited until retirement. Simpson's party was the only other example of obvious distraction I've seen. Ranieri could, arguably should, have been stronger with Vardy but that aside, I'm not sure where else he has fallen short in this regard.  I don't think Fuchs' off field antics or Morgan or Huth are affecting their performances.

 

There are areas where CR has been more culpable.

 

His repetition of the 40 point mantra this season has had the opposite effect to the galvanising kidology  it was last season. It's sent the message to current players, potential players, the footballing world in general,that the club accepts that last season was a fairytale and not s stepping stone to a new era. A valuable legacy has been lost in six months of decline and under-performance. When CR is trying to persuade the stars to stay and live the dream again this summer, that 40 point cut and paste quote will come back to haunt him.

 

Similarly the "anyone who is unhappy can leave" which has him hoist on the petard that is Ulloa. Perhaps he calculated that after the fairytale and under his benign leadership, no-one would wish to leave this happy ship. He was wrong. That mis-judgement would be less damaging but for two things - the car crash that is recruitment and the increasingly feeble performance of the younger teams in the club.

 

To take the second first, Claudio Ranieri inherited a club full of youth internationals in the younger teams competing with, if not always beating, the very best at each age group. In two years, the system that underpinned that healthy set-up seems to have been comprehensively dismantled. There is barely a single player under 20 beyond Chilwell and maybe Barnes that is currently pressing for a first team place.  We signed a "star" Spaniard striker in the summer - where is he? 

 

On 1/25/2017 at 10:25, Merging Cultures said:

But f more genuine and pressing concern is recruitment. What is the policy? To collect as many wingers in one squad as possible? To sign players who are not Premier-ready when the overriding need is for players who are Premier ready? To ignore the crucial importance of replacements for an ageing defence? To have a plethora of non-scoring, defensively minded central midfielders and none with a touch and a pass which can create a goal in the blink of an eye? 

 

In public, Claudio never mentions the youth system and he confessess to having no say in recruitment - though he was instrumental in us signing Inler and Benoulouane (that went well!). Well I'm sorry Claudio that isn't good enough. You are the head of the football playing side of the club and its development and in both areas you must either take control, call out those who are in control or make way for someone who will.

[Manwell Pablo]

10 hours ago, ttfn said:

You can have all the money and all the facilities in the world but if the professionals employed to carry out your instructions don't or won't listen you won't get anywhere.

 

If the professionals employed to carry out your instructed don't or wont listen to you then you're not doing your job properly, you're paid to make them listen and inspire them.

 

That said I'd of thought it'd got to the point where they'd really start to dig in as a matter of professional pride regardless of who's in charge.....clearly not the case.

 

I've no idea who's to blame but something is certainly not right somewhere, that said my view of last night is that it was actually a pretty predictable and we're making quite a lot out of it, given their home record is that of a side going for a European place and our Away form resembles Derby County's famous 07-08 campaign, granted that is a worry in itself but I think Turf Moor on a Tuesday night is one of the last places we were going to turn it round. 

 

Things are gonna get worse before they get better as well, Jose is in town Sunday  could be bottom before kick off. 

[CosbehFox]

12 minutes ago, Vocey said:

Rudkin out, Ranieri to director of football, bring in a new manager (no idea who, Mancini comes to mind)

Based on Ranieri's choosing of players ala Benny, Inler and Mendy...no thank you. 

 

Theres a combination of factors at play but ultimately I can sadly only see one action what changes it all. 

[Vocey]

5 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Based on Ranieri's choosing of players ala Benny, Inler and Mendy...no thank you. 

 

Theres a combination of factors at play but ultimately I can sadly only see one action what changes it all. 

True, I meant more that manager has control of transfers, dof gets them over the line, I can imagine Claudio being able to charm a few players into the club. Will never happen though.

[Vestan Pance]

I don't know whether the rumours of splits are true, but clearly something is very wrong, I can only hope that Top and Co are stepping in today to sort this mess out, because it's something more deep than simply being good enough. The investments this season have been huge by Leicester standards, but we don't see any improvement or even any stability on the pitch. If it was my club I'd be landing the Helicopter at Belvoir Drive this morning to demand answers.

[MC Prussian]

The manager is partly to blame and he doesn't make a great figure to the media and the fans with his constant ramblings about "we played good", "we were unlucky", "good performance", "lot of energy". I can understand why he does it, but when you do it too often, it becomes stale and the argumentation loses its desired impact and comes across as shallow excuses.

Other high-profile managers like Mourinho, Van Gaal or Guardiola are more often furious and dish out (at their team) because they're genuinely frustrated, they just don't take shit. Ranieri's different, I get that. But I wonder whether swallowing all that (deserved) criticism and trying to make it look all rosy isn't effectively counterproductive.

 

In the end, the bucks stops with the manager. As much as I like Ranieri and admire him for his cool approach and his likeable persona (when things are going well), ultimately it's him who's held responsible for the mess we're finding ourselves in. Try sacking most of our key players from last season at once. Or our recruitment team. Or our scouting department. It won't happen, getting rid of the manager is usually the only viable option. Because it's the cheapest and less stressful.

 

But there are underlying currents and the manager is only the tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of our players, the heroes from last season, have become lacklustre, prone to simple errors, show too many instances of lack of concentration, seem sloppy, slow, disinterested, playing with the handbrake on.

The influx of new signings hasn't improved the side one bit, in fact it's made things worse because none of them (bar Gray maybe) has fully integrated. Appears like a rift between the "Establishment" and the "newbies" insofar, as the individuals that won us the league as a team now think they're world beaters, unwelcoming to competition.

It's a dangerous mix and our transfer policy has been equally confusing. It seems we just bought players last summer for the sake of it. Focusing mainly on attackers, when we should have strengthened our back four and introduced fresh blood to challenge Simpson, Huth, Morgan and Fuchs. Chilwell alone won't make the difference and the constant omission of Hernandez and Benalouane is/was mind-boggling.

 

All in all, I'm very disappointed by how the club, the manager and the players have approached this current season so far and they collectively bear the consequences - shame on all of you (with a few exceptions, such as Gray or Chilwell - James being able to play football again also gives me some hope).

Do they seriously want to have "relegation" featured on their CV? Do they realize what a burden the contract situation would be in the Championship? Madness.

[Wdywd]

The whole team is being held hostage by the defence imo. Who are either out of shape or don't give a shit. All of them got new contracts in the summer, they're all 30+ and there's absolutely no options there beyond Chilwell. They are repeatedly costing the team games, every time anyone crosses it or gets a set piece it's chaos. They can't pass so we can't keep the ball, last night Gray, Vardy and Mahrez are going up for headers against centre backs the whole game. We've spent millions on midfielders who get to watch the ball sail over their heads.

 

In the Derby game Ranieri was screaming at them to stop the hoofing but they won't. Drinkwater and Gray have been too in both the last games. I just don't see what the manager can do with them. He probably should've given Hernandez more games but he was hardly a world beater when he did play. He's been completely killed by us deciding we didn't need any defenders in the summer (leaving ourselves with literally one right back in the squad!). I don't blame him for that.

 

It's absolutely baffling that we've not done anything this window until like 10 minutes before the deadline. That's not his fault either. What can he do there? He's gonna have to try to use Amartey, Chilwell and the new guy to fix it. One's a midfielder, one's played about 5 games and one has never played in the country before. It's SO bad from the recruitment lot. I don't even hate the attacking signings particularly but you can't just sack off one area of the team. And to still do it this month when it's obviously what's destroying the side is mental.

[the_tank]

47 minutes ago, Foxin_mad said:

 This is the same group of players? What is wrong? I say the managers philosophy! RANIERI OUT

 

 

Et tu @Foxin_mad?

[The Fox Covert]

Like a lot of the folks on here I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is time for Ranieri to go.

However I think that if Top & Co were going to get rid of him they would have done it at the beginning of December. Give the new man a few weeks to assess the players and decide on the new ones to bring in before the transfer window.

From what I manage to see of him on TV north of the border he does look bothered by the performance of the players. Generally at the edge of the technical area shouting and gesticulating at the players to show a bit more commitment, stay in formation, and play a bit higher up the pitch (especially the hand gestures for the last one).

From last season all of this seems to be unchanged. 

I am thinking that there are other things off the pitch that are affecting the players.

Shakey is still there but what about the rest of the coaching team?

Many posters have written about the physical fitness of the players. Last season they ran everyone else off the pitch. They had the legs on Derby but too many times this season this hasn't been the case.

IMO things are probably going wrong at Belvoir Drive. 

I say that whoever is coaching the players, if they aren't doing the basics right, get them in on time every day and if they aren't getting what they are told to do, keep them there all afternoon and make them do some more until they get it.

Maybe if Claudio was taking the training sessions himself (perhaps he already does?) the players would get the message and realise the dire straits the club is in before it is too late.

The players might actually show him a bit of respect and we might get a bit more commitment during matches.

Who knows?

 

[Ricey]

6 minutes ago, Wdywd said:

The whole team is being held hostage by the defence imo. Who are either out of shape or don't give a shit. All of them got new contracts in the summer, they're all 30+ and there's absolutely no options there beyond Chilwell. They are repeatedly costing the team games, every time anyone crosses it or gets a set piece it's chaos. They can't pass so we can't keep the ball, last night Gray, Vardy and Mahrez are going up for headers against centre backs the whole game. We've spent millions on midfielders who get to watch the ball sail over their heads.

 

In the Derby game Ranieri was screaming at them to stop the hoofing but they won't. Drinkwater and Gray have been too in both the last games. I just don't see what the manager can do with them. He probably should've given Hernandez more games but he was hardly a world beater when he did play. He's been completely killed by us deciding we didn't need any defenders in the summer (leaving ourselves with literally one right back in the squad!). I don't blame him for that.

 

It's absolutely baffling that we've not done anything this window until like 10 minutes before the deadline. That's not his fault either. What can he do there? He's gonna have to try to use Amartey, Chilwell and the new guy to fix it. One's a midfielder, one's played about 5 games and one has never played in the country before. It's SO bad from the recruitment lot. I don't even hate the attacking signings particularly but you can't just sack off one area of the team. And to still do it this month when it's obviously what's destroying the side is mental.

The lack of long-term thinking is proven by the defence. We've know for years that Morgan, Huth and to some degree Simpson aren't getting any younger nor any quicker. We've known that there will be a time that they will need replacing. Yet who have we signed? 27 year old Hernandez and a loan player. We've had an opportunity in the summer to add an extra string to our bow and build for the future, but we've totally passed up the chance.

[TJB-fox]

Must admit, I feel the same way as the original poster. The players are trying (I think) but it just ain't happening, Ranieri has tried different formations and different tactics but it just ain't working. Be interesting to see if our fortune changes when Slimani is back.

[stretch1965]

Talk sport currently discussing whether time should be called on CR.

all saying it should

 

[Chester Dontlie]

Maybe they've backstabbed him, maybe not - but you don't know that. Nobody knows what's going on in the locker room, except the players themselves. What we have are just some rumors about Schmeichel supposedly voicing disconcert. 

 

It's like a failing relationship. Once it was all sweet and rosy, now it's getting increasingly sad and bitter. One side seems to be cheating, while the other is in total denial. The players are clearly not giving their best, they might've turned from fearless foxes to droopy donkeys in a matter of months, but can we get rid of them? You know the answer. Do you honestly still believe that Ranieri can change their mentality and turn them back to winners? 

 

 

I believe in miracles, but can't see this one happening. We could foresee last season's miracle around January/February, December even, as the form was that high and the team could turn games around and grab points. Home and away, it didn't matter.

 

This season you can argue that the writing's been on the wall since the beginning. Five wins, twelve losses, 21 points on February 1st. Steady form this. We struggle for points, our players forgot to play football and our miracle maker looks clueless and resigned at the touchline. Yes, it's heartbreaking indeed.

 

Nothing's been changing for months in the way we play. I believe the owners should act now, this month. Better sooner than later, when it's too late. That's the only thing they can do in this situation. No point in waiting till their/players/fans relationship with Claudio deteriorates even further and reaches truly "vitriolic" level in May as Champions of England get relegated to Championship. Sometimes there's just no other option than to move on. No one will take your last season's memories away but don't let them cloud your judgement.