A club in crisis

[reynard]

On 17/10/2017 at 15:17, fox in the sox said:

We are hardly in crisis - we have played 8 matches and lost to Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal only. What can't be disputed is a) the club has wasted a lot of money and b) the standard of play this season has been below standard.

Not a crisis? Looking for our third manager in 12 months, players disenchanted with the latest sacking, only 1 win in 8, dreadful standards of play, Mahrez sulking because he couldn't get a move, Silva dispirited by his new club's incompetence to get his transfer done in time, countless millions wasted in the transfer market, Vardy clearly putting the club on notice with his article about wanting to win more trophies, incompetetent recruitment.

no not a crisis but pretty bleak.

[Strokes]

Im not that arsed really, going up and down the league's is the Leicester i know and love. I dont really enjoy all this expectations and what it turns people into. So long as the team works hard and we have a few admirable players, I'm a happy supporter. 

The disrespect some of our supporters show to the likes of Bournemouth, Burnley etc, were the ones that got all upset when Spurs and Arsenal were patronising us, the title has turned you into a bunch of *****. You are as much rotten as those in the club atm. I cant wait for us to go down to get rid of these clingons from 2016.

[Fox1norfolk]

3 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

I am very, very worried about the direction we're heading in. Though maybe that's just my anxiety talking. They need to pull their fingers out and get a top top top class manager in.

Watching the team over the last few games I'm not sure if they knew what directions they were following.

Feel sorry for CS, but think it was a step too far. The players are a talented bunch, but the need a new 'conductor' to organise totally new tactics and approach.  

[Daggers]

On 17/10/2017 at 09:42, HitchinFox said:

Jesus guys. I know it's not been brilliant, but rotten from top to bottom? Relegation is certain?

 

I'm sure most of us didn't choose to be Leicester fans – and ended up here purely by where we, or our family, are from – but I wouldn't have it any other way. The roller coaster experience is far better than, say, feeling constantly angry at "only" finishing fourth (Arsenal), deluding ourselves that "this is our year" (Liverpool), or winning the league and moaning because we "never win it twice in a row" (Man City). Never mind supporting a team from a city you've never visited (ManU). 

Look, we did something amazing as a club – probably the biggest upset in world sport ever, anywhere. Wear that badge proud. The term "doing a Leicester" is now used everywhere. Heard it on an NFL commentary just the other week – even the Yanks know who we are. And they think Canada is in Africa. 

Sure, it's been frustrating since the title, but what did you expect? That we'd somehow become a top four club? I'm not saying that we shouldn't be allowed to worry or criticise the club, team, manager or players – but I really don't see us being a club in crisis, or in need of a "huge clearout". It's merely the way it's always been at this club. 

So lighten up, look forward to the next massive fek up we are heading for (Adrien Silva should definitely wear the number 14 for us, that sh•t was funny), give a wry smile and enjoy it. 

Why? Well because you're a Leicester fan. And you should know how this all works – ie. it doesn't. 

 

4

 

I am pretty certain that it is this mindset that runs through the core of the club - and that is precisely why we are a club in crisis and run by fvckwits.

[benpicko]

On 17/10/2017 at 01:27, lgfualol said:

We do need a clear out. I remember thinking that we were one of the only clubs that seemed to know what they are doing, recruitment was spot-on and we were smoothly run, making teams like West Ham look like a joke. Now I am not really sure what is good about the club at the moment. I'm just waiting for the inevitable scandal. 

Exactly this. I remember when we were in the Championship and being proud of all of our facilities and thinking we were on the cutting edge, and reading articles about us that seemed to confirm it. What the **** happened?

[Gazza M]

On ‎17‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 09:27, lgfualol said:

We do need a clear out. I remember thinking that we were one of the only clubs that seemed to know what they are doing, recruitment was spot-on and we were smoothly run, making teams like West Ham look like a joke. Now I am not really sure what is good about the club at the moment. I'm just waiting for the inevitable scandal. 

Could be worse. We could be West Ham. They have the recruitment policy of a 14 year old playing Champ Manager!

[Merging Cultures]

Exactly this. I remember when we were in the Championship and being proud of all of our facilities and thinking we were on the cutting edge, and reading articles about us that seemed to confirm it. What the **** happened?

We got rid of NP?

Others adopted our approaches?

Fired and lost key backroom staff? Who knew a sports psychologist was so critical?!

I really hope the club see the issues and go back to a data-led approach, combined with cutting edge science and sports psychology.

I've no idea what we are doing at the moment, but whatever it is, it feels ad hoc and directionless.

After NP built the club up, I felt the manager was just making match day decisions, with the club the long-term ones. And to me that is the correct approach. Managers come and go. The club needs to have it's own agenda and a plan. I think NP understood that. CR probably didn't, and wanted to be the main guy, thus dismantling some of the internal structures.

In his current role, we could use NP as a consultant to build up the backroom again. We need firewalls in place to prevent managers and players getting too much power.

[Matt]

14 minutes ago, Merging Cultures said:

We got rid of NP?

Others adopted our approaches?

Fired and lost key backroom staff? Who knew a sports psychologist was so critical?!

I really hope the club see the issues and go back to a data-led approach, combined with cutting edge science and sports psychology.

I've no idea what we are doing at the moment, but whatever it is, it feels ad hoc and directionless.

After NP built the club up, I felt the manager was just making match day decisions, with the club the long-term ones. And to me that is the correct approach. Managers come and go. The club needs to have it's own agenda and a plan. I think NP understood that. CR probably didn't, and wanted to be the main guy, thus dismantling some of the internal structures.

In his current role, we could use NP as a consultant to build up the backroom again. We need firewalls in place to prevent managers and players getting too much power.

Manager or not we need NP.

 

Regardless of whether people like him or not we need NP.

 

NP did so much for this club and now it's gone, been ripped apart (When we were at our strongest point in history), now we are weak again and it's worrying, seriously worrying.

 

I defy anyone to tell me otherwise, if they do they're ironically just as stubborn and pigheaded as NP himself (Which i'm not using as a put down towards NP by the way).

[Merging Cultures]

Manager or not we need NP.
 
Regardless of whether people like him or not we need NP.
 
NP did so much for this club and now it's gone, been ripped apart (When we were at our strongest point in history).
 
I defy anyone to tell me otherwise.

100%

I definitely see him as a consultant. He'll be advising.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

I think the new man coming in is going to have major issues and in the worst case scenario

he'll be managing a team heading back to the Championship. The mismanagement and sheer incompetence

of the club since winning the title is beyond belief. Some of the reasons :

The Silva fiasco ... enough said.

The new man will be presiding over the worst midfield in the division and he won't be able

to do anything about it until January by then well over half  the season will have been played.

The star player wanting out.

Frustrated fringe players. Have worked out we have spent about £135 million on players that 

are still at the club ( some on loan ) that are not regular starters .... amazing.

 etc etc

[lgfualol]

2 hours ago, Gazza M said:

Could be worse. We could be West Ham. They have the recruitment policy of a 14 year old playing Champ Manager!

And yet they are above us in the league

[yorkie1999]

Personally, i don't think you should judge anything until 10 games into the season and i think the panic button has been pressed to early. Win the next 2 and we could be mid table, then it doesn't look so bad.

[Kitchandro]

13 hours ago, Strokes said:

Im not that arsed really, going up and down the league's is the Leicester i know and love. I dont really enjoy all this expectations and what it turns people into. So long as the team works hard and we have a few admirable players, I'm a happy supporter. 

The disrespect some of our supporters show to the likes of Bournemouth, Burnley etc, were the ones that got all upset when Spurs and Arsenal were patronising us, the title has turned you into a bunch of *****. You are as much rotten as those in the club atm. I cant wait for us to go down to get rid of these clingons from 2016.

I think you're forgetting how shit things were in the lower leagues. By the time we came up I fvcking hated the Championship. It's such a dull place to be.

 

Leicester fans have always been *****.

 

I'm also struggling to understand which expectations you think are unfair? We're in the bottom 3 - below clubs like Watford, Swansea, Brighton, West Brom, Burnley, Huddersfield - and who else have I forgot? All these teams have smaller fanbases than us - some significantly, and most have been in the Premier League for less time than us, so we should be expecting to be better than them.

 

We're playing dire football that I wouldn't expect those clubs to be happy with and, since you mention it, we did only win the title 2 seasons ago, so our decline I would say is pretty sharp.

 

So why exactly should we be happy to get relegated? You sound like the press.

[Kitchandro]

13 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Personally, i don't think you should judge anything until 10 games into the season and i think the panic button has been pressed to early. Win the next 2 and we could be mid table, then it doesn't look so bad.

But that's the problem, it might not look so bad, but looking at it that way only papers over the cracks.

 

We're in the bottom 3 because we deserve to be and I'm glad we're making a change now rather than later. It was inevitable because the manager was evidently out of his depth.

 

League position isn't everything, you have to look at the long term direction of the club and we are going backwards.

[bluesbrothers]

On 10/17/2017 at 09:42, HitchinFox said:

Jesus guys. I know it's not been brilliant, but rotten from top to bottom? Relegation is certain?

 

I'm sure most of us didn't choose to be Leicester fans – and ended up here purely by where we, or our family, are from – but I wouldn't have it any other way. The roller coaster experience is far better than, say, feeling constantly angry at "only" finishing fourth (Arsenal), deluding ourselves that "this is our year" (Liverpool), or winning the league and moaning because we "never win it twice in a row" (Man City). Never mind supporting a team from a city you've never visited (ManU). 

Look, we did something amazing as a club – probably the biggest upset in world sport ever, anywhere. Wear that badge proud. The term "doing a Leicester" is now used everywhere. Heard it on an NFL commentary just the other week – even the Yanks know who we are. And they think Canada is in Africa. 

Sure, it's been frustrating since the title, but what did you expect? That we'd somehow become a top four club? I'm not saying that we shouldn't be allowed to worry or criticise the club, team, manager or players – but I really don't see us being a club in crisis, or in need of a "huge clearout". It's merely the way it's always been at this club. 

So lighten up, look forward to the next massive fek up we are heading for (Adrien Silva should definitely wear the number 14 for us, that sh•t was funny), give a wry smile and enjoy it. 

Why? Well because you're a Leicester fan. And you should know how this all works – ie. it doesn't. 

 

While I agree with the sentiment overall, meanings can soon change, and "doing a Leicester" could mean something very different if we find ourselves relegated and in freefall. We'll be "that team" that had their year then disappeared off the face of the earth. Which, given our bloated wage and backroom structure, could be more serious than you think in the result of relegation - we'll be running at a massive loss and unless results turn around quickly, I could see the owners selling up and then we'll be at risk of collapsing both on and off the pitch.

 

I hate being negative about Leicester. I lost my voice yelling at my fellow fans for slating Okazaki away at Bournemouth when he was the only one putting a shift in. I was one of the ones in that away end willing Musa to score at Sheffield United because, as doggo as he is, he was putting a shift in. I've been up and down the country and seen some absolute rubbish - away defeats at Barnsley at Pearson's low ebb and a tuesday night implosion at Bristol City have to rank up there. But this season, everything at the club is so anaemic. It's a feeling I've not actually had watching the Foxes before - not so much frustration as being resigned to a decline, unless something happens at the heart of a club set-up built under Pearson and progressively dismantled and over-expanded in equal measure ever since. I'm just... flat right now, and it's not so much knowing we peaked in such a big way a couple of years ago as knowing the club needs a change of direction fast, but being unsure whether or not it will get it.

 

The optimist in me knows we should stay up if we work out how to win again. But there's a niggling doubt in the back of my mind that fears us becoming another shadow of a club feeding on past glories - and we know there are plenty of those in the lower leagues.

 

God forbid "doing a Leicester" becomes "doing a Sunderland" or even "doing a Coventry", just with a shiny replica trophy to pawn off when the going gets tough.

[Gazza M]

24 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

And yet they are above us in the league

Not for long. They looked awful last night.

[Strokes]

11 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

I think you're forgetting how shit things were in the lower leagues. By the time we came up I fvcking hated the Championship. It's such a dull place to be.

 

Leicester fans have always been *****.

 

I'm also struggling to understand which expectations you think are unfair? We're in the bottom 3 - below clubs like Watford, Swansea, Brighton, West Brom, Burnley, Huddersfield - and who else have I forgot? All these teams have smaller fanbases than us - some significantly, and most have been in the Premier League for less time than us, so we should be expecting to be better than them.

 

We're playing dire football that I wouldn't expect those clubs to be happy with and, since you mention it, we did only win the title 2 seasons ago, so our decline I would say is pretty sharp.

 

So why exactly should we be happy to get relegated? You sound like the press.

Any expectations in this league after 8 games are unfair, in the great escape season we finished 14th after spending over half the season in the bottom three. Last year we finished the same but only spent a few weeks in the drop zone. I'm not saying we shouldnt move managers on or be happy to be relegated but we should remember who we are, that is our greatest strength. That is why the title sucess was awe inspiring and i dont want us to be whiny little bitches that we seem to be turning into. You wont enjoy the success half as much if you see it as a disappointment everytime you dont get it.

[yorkie1999]

13 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

But that's the problem, it might not look so bad, but looking at it that way only papers over the cracks.

 

We're in the bottom 3 because we deserve to be and I'm glad we're making a change now rather than later. It was inevitable because the manager was evidently out of his depth.

 

League position isn't everything, you have to look at the long term direction of the club and we are going backwards.

We're in the bottom 3 because we've played Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool and then 2 other games away from home against teams that will be going for it early in the season plus another one on a monday night, which we've never beaten at home for 23 years (24 now).

[Col city fan]

17 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

But that's the problem, it might not look so bad, but looking at it that way only papers over the cracks.

 

We're in the bottom 3 because we deserve to be and I'm glad we're making a change now rather than later. It was inevitable because the manager was evidently out of his depth.

 

League position isn't everything, you have to look at the long term direction of the club and we are going backwards.

Liking your posts at the moment. They seem very honest.

We are where we are due to nobody's fault other than our own. Lose today and we are looking very dodgy already. There are so many ostriches on here, it's unreal

 

 

[Kitchandro]

3 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Any expectations in this league after 8 games are unfair, in the great escape season we finished 14th after spending over half the season in the bottom three. Last year we finished the same but only spent a few weeks in the drop zone. I'm not saying we shouldnt move managers on or be happy to be relegated but we should remember who we are, that is our greatest strength. That is why the title sucess was awe inspiring and i dont want us to be whiny little bitches that we seem to be turning into. You wont enjoy the success half as much if you see it as a disappointment everytime you dont get it.

No, not true. We should expect to see some positive signs, and there were none. And it wasn't 8 games, Shakespeare has had since February to implement what he wanted into this Leicester team, and we are as bad as when he took over.

 

It might surprise you but I don't want to spend 6 months of the year bottom again, not when we know this squad is quite a bit better than that. Ok, it's not going to get into the top 6 anymore, but the top half should still be achievable, and we weren't going to that under Shakespeare, clearly. I think it's fairly obvious we underachieved when we finished 14, and last season as well, so I'm not sure why you're using those finishing positions as arguments in defence of the managers. We wasted huge opportunities in those seasons.

 

And I'm fed up of reading things like the last sentence - can't you see that being in the bottom 3 is the POLAR OPPOSITE of winning the league? We're not talking about winning the league here, we're talking about expecting a top half finish only 2 seasons after being that good. Why is that unreasonable? Why is it unfair to say we've been shambolically managed to drop down to this level so quickly?

 

Most importantly, how can you be ok with the quality of football we are witnessing? Do you even like football?

[Hammo]

It's not great right now but all we need is a win and a decent new manager and hey presto, we'll all be smiling again.

 

In any case, what this club gave us over the last two seasons - the Premier League title and a quarter-final place in the Champions League ffs - I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

Console yourselves with the fact that lots of fans of other clubs - big and small - now hate us because essentially they are uber-jealous of what we achieved and wish they were in our shoes.

 

The good times will return. And they will be all the more enjoyable for what we're going through now. As they say, 'that's football'!

[Strokes]

Just now, Kitchandro said:

No, not true. We should expect to see some positive signs, and there were none. And it wasn't 8 games, Shakespeare has had since February to implement what he wanted into this Leicester team, and we are as bad as when he took over.

 

It might surprise you but I don't want to spend 6 months of the year bottom again, not when we know this squad is quite a bit better than that. Ok, it's not going to get into the top 6 anymore, but the top half should still be achievable, and we weren't going to that under Shakespeare, clearly. I think it's fairly obvious we underachieved when we finished 14, and last season as well, so I'm not sure why you're using those finishing positions as arguments in defence of the managers. We wasted huge opportunities in those seasons.

 

And I'm fed up of reading things like the last sentence - can't you see that being in the bottom 3 is the POLAR OPPOSITE of winning the league? We're not talking about winning the league here, we're talking about expecting a top half finish only 2 seasons after being that good. Why is that unreasonable? Why is it unfair to say we've been shambolically managed to drop down to this level so quickly?

 

Most importantly, how can you be ok with the quality of football we are witnessing? Do you even like football?

Im talking about shakespere, he was out of his depth and deserved to go. He really shouldnt have been given the gig in the first place in hindsight.

The rest of your post is exactly my point, you're the type of fan i hate and if your miserable whinging is what regular success brings then, you can keep it thanks.

[Kitchandro]

1 minute ago, yorkie1999 said:

We're in the bottom 3 because we've played Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool and then 2 other games away from home against teams that will be going for it early in the season plus another one on a monday night, which we've never beaten at home for 23 years (24 now).

No, we're in the bottom 3 because we haven't played well enough to be anywhere else.

 

None of those teams are unbeatable, even when we were crap last season we beat Liverpool and drew with Arsenal. But we've barely competed in some of them, at least we haven't until the game has already gone.

 

You're excuses for the other games are unbelievable - they 'will be going for it early'

 

Why aren't we going for it early? That's the problem, we have been massively off the pace and teams with less resources than us and less experience in this league are outplaying us.

 

And we can't expect to play well against West Brom because we have a bad record against them? You actually think that counts for something? You sound like a 10 year old.

 

What those games proved is the opposition doesn't matter, we are approaching matches terribly and being punished for it, and we only seem to wake up once we're behind, sometimes by 2 goals.

[Bunyip]

37 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Personally, i don't think you should judge anything until 10 games into the season and i think the panic button has been pressed to early. Win the next 2 and we could be mid table, then it doesn't look so bad.

It's not the losing it's the manner of losing.After watching that god awful display last Monday I'm not surprised in the least that the owners pressed the panic button. Lose the next two and we could be rock bottom, now tell me that wouldn't look so bad?

[Kitchandro]

5 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Im talking about shakespere, he was out of his depth and deserved to go. He really shouldnt have been given the gig in the first place in hindsight.

The rest of your post is exactly my point, you're the type of fan i hate and if your miserable whinging is what regular success brings then, you can keep it thanks.

No, again you're wrong, and not reading. This has nothing to do with success, nothing to do with league titles.

 

This is about the basic level and quality of football this club should expect. No club should be subjected to some of the awful football we've watched in the last 12 months, let alone one with 30,000 fans a match and a great following away.

 

I couldn't care less if you hate me, you haven't come up with one reasonable answer to my questions or remotely intelligent reasoning as to why we should be happy with what we've witnessed since we won the title.