Time to start spending

[Guest]

Evening all
 

I am disappointed but proud of our team after that season. Unfortunately it seems that Covid came at the wrong time for us, we looked set for the CL before that. 
 

That said I would like to call something out that has been an issue I think since we won the league. We do not think like a top 4 club. 
 

We need to lose our small town provincial mindset if we really are going to become a regular CL team. I think we can do this in a two main ways:

 

- Start spending. You cannot get net outspent by Brighton and Bournemouth and expect to be in the top 4. This point has surprised me as our excellent owners have failed to make this transition to a buying club since we won the league. We have been great with the championship and lower league buys (not to mention the academy) but this isn’t the approach of other CL clubs. 
 

- Stop selling. This one is obvious, but needs to be said. We routinely sell our best players to top 4 clubs (Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City). This sends the wrong message and further cements our mindset as a smaller club. It means that when Man Utd come in for our top defender, he sees it as a move upwards, even if they are in disarray. We need to change this with some marquee signings and contract extensions. 
 

The figures do not lie. When you see who came on for us today in this vital winner takes all game, you know we are currently not a CL club. I just hope we can remedy this (starting over the summer) before the GOAT finally hangs up his golden boots. 

[shailen]

It's something we have been caught out with for the first time this season. A few injuries and we have no squad depth. I'm sure BR will sign a net of 3/4 quality players to bolster the squad. 

[dylanlegend]

The time to start spending was January!

[jeffschlupp]

1 hour ago, Les Philpot said:

Stop selling. This one is obvious, but needs to be said. We routinely sell our best players to top 4 clubs (Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City). This sends the wrong message and further cements our mindset as a smaller club. It means that when Man Utd come in for our top defender, he sees it as a move upwards, even if they are in disarray. We need to change this with some marquee signings and contract extensions. 

This is not possible.

 

The club operates within its means. King Power do not invest significantly in the club, that's the model. We have a £91m training ground which is financed by a loan which will be repaid to KP.

 

We don't 'routinely' sell players to these big clubs. It's one a season. Kante had a release clause, so the club have only voluntarily sold Drinkwater, Mahrez and Maguire. Drinkwater and Maguire in particular were great value deals for the club and haven't exactly improved those clubs massively either.

 

Contract extensions is hilarious. Does everyone forget the amount of money the club spent tying all of its key players down in the second half of 2018? Vardy, Schmeichel, Chilwell, Ndidi, Maguire, Amartey all got new contracts, along with the signings of Soyuncu, Ricardo, Maddison and Evans. We gave Barnes one last summer. Choudhury had one recently. Maddison is about to sign another, and Soyuncu will surely follow.

 

The club will sell Chilwell for good money if it is available because it gives them an opportunity to spend big in multiple areas. Maguire going bought us Perez and Tielemans who have contributed well this season to our success, and we haven't lost much defensively either.

 

We are a smaller club, until we manage to break the mould year after year, which is a very difficult but not impossible job. Only then will we see commercial revenue rise on a par with clubs like Spurs and even Everton, so we can spend more. It's nonsense to think we can get away with spending big money without selling for now.

[Ric Flair]

@Les Philpot any relation to Mick?

[MickeyMouse]

I have full trust that the club will go for sensible targets without overpaying to the dismay of many fans. And, I for one, am fine with it.

[Leicester_Loyal]

 

[Ian Nacho]

I just have a strange feeling this will be an underwhelming window. 

[st albans fox]

Every summer there is a reason why our nett spend is on the low side.  This summer it’s covid. 

 

so we never get to see how committed the owners are over and behind what the club generates itself.  with FFP suspended for the summer there is an opportunity to build some depth to the squad with some quality.  

[tsintskaro]

just watch first signing is Bennet on 5 years contract 

[Heymister2015]

We spend £80m every year when finishing mid table/top ten! I think we’ll spend £20m on top of that and really sort the squad out! I think we need a cb/dm/two wingers and a striker! I’d go for Demirel £40m/ Diallo £20m/Benrahma £25m/ jovic Loan 

[fox_up_north]

I live close to the north west. I have seen Bury go under, Wigan in administration, Macclesfield skirt winding up.

 

As much as I would love to see Top spend and have Coutinho wearing our shirt, I also want to see the chairman stay here for a long time and eventually hand the club over to a trusted hand. I can even genuinely see him selling a part to the fans. 

 

There are only 4 UCL spots and there's now 8 teams trying to challenge for them. I'm not saying I have a small club mentality but I think to challenge that establishment is a long, process. Maybe up to 10 years. 

[VLC86]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

@Les Philpot any relation to Mick?

Heard they aren’t related but get on like a house on fire.

[dooflip]

Would love us to go balls to the wall and bring in loads of quality, but it won’t happen. I’d put money on us all being massively underwhelmed and frustrated come September. I really hope

im wrong.

[davieG]

I suspect the strategy is to carry on as we are re player recruitment/ selling whilst we set the infrastructure up with the Training Centre and the Stadium Expansion. 
 

Keep as close as we can to the top 6 until that is complete and then drive on to a higher level. 
 

Even then a big part of our progress will be player development and that’s where the bigger challenge is we’re only now coming out a phase when our academy was stocked  with Championship potential we now and hopefully are managing to bring in potential PL talent players that at the least have a 1st touch and a good passing ability on which to build.

[foxfanazer]

9 minutes ago, dooflip said:

Would love us to go balls to the wall and bring in loads of quality, but it won’t happen. I’d put money on us all being massively underwhelmed and frustrated come September. I really hope

im wrong.

Well at least the football has acclimatised us to those emotions

[StriderHiryu]

7 minutes ago, davieG said:

I suspect the strategy is to carry on as we are re player recruitment/ selling whilst we set the infrastructure up with the Training Centre and the Stadium Expansion. 
 

Keep as close as we can to the top 6 until that is complete and then drive on to a higher level. 
 

Even then a big part of our progress will be player development and that’s where the bigger challenge is we’re only now coming out a phase when our academy was stocked  with Championship potential we now and hopefully are managing to bring in potential PL talent players that at the least have a 1st touch and a good passing ability on which to build.

That is definitely the strategy.

 

I think a big reason why people are so upset is that this season it looked like just like in 15/16 we were going to take a shortcut and move several years ahead of the current plan. But the long term strategy is just as you say and it's going to take a while to see fruition. Teams like Everton and Spurs who we finished above have much better commercial revenues, yet alone the 4 teams that finished above us!

[Koke]

We spent the Maguire money fairly wisely (Justin, Perez & Tielemans). All 3 have contributed positively  

 

I'd gladly sell Chilwell if we can buy 2 high quality players, a,winger and a defender.

[MPH]

there’s not many teams outside of ‘the established‘ who can spend MILLIONS on a new training ground, MILLIONS on a stadium expansion and 100 million on new players after no gate income for half a season.

 

 

If we pull off anything close to that figure i want a statue of every person in Thailand outside the stadium.

[jeffschlupp]

Here's what I expect to happen:

CB - younger guy, at least under the age of 27, tall, decent on the ball, maybe a bit rough around the edges. Club will spend no more than £20m here. Will be helped by the promise to start the season alongside Söyüncü in the absence of Evans through suspension.

 

AM - Cover for Maddison. Rodgers wants more creativity, so expect someone with decent key chance/assist numbers. Not sure on age but don't expect it to be a big fee, could look for a free (Lusamba at Nice?) or a player from a smaller league like Holland. Needs to be capable of playing as an attacking no.8 more than a traditional no.10. Perhaps a bit quicker than our current options.

 

RW - Someone to take the responsibility for take-ons/dribbles away from Ricardo. Quick, ideally has power in terms of upper body strength too. Decent finisher. I'm talking the Zaha mould. If they're reasonably secure financially, we could see £30-40m spent here if the right player is available.

 

CF - Something different to Vardy and Iheanacho. Mobile with decent link-up play, perhaps a more Kramaric type player. Strikers are a premium but I'd be surprised to see the club spend more than £30m here.

 

With those four there you're looking at probably £100m of signings. Can the club afford that? I would think no.

 

So you then sell Chilwell for £60-70m, and perhaps get lucky and take in £10-15m for one or several of Gray, Amartey, James, Slimani, Silva, Ghezzal or Diabate (the rest go on loan). You're then at £15-30m net spend, which is a typical summer for us.

 

The difference then will be if EL qualification can afford for us to spend another £20-30m to replace Chilwell with an external buy. Nobody really knows whether COVID has hit the club's plans that badly - matchday profits for five home games are not that significant, and the TV rebates aren't due until next season. I'd still expect the club to dip into the market to take the pressure off Thomas if he starts the season shakily.

 

That would be a good summer for us. In a fully fit team with 9 subs, you've got a bench of Ward, Justin, CB, Mendy, Praet, AM, Pérez, CF, Iheanacho. And that's a matchday squad that leaves out solid pros like Morgan, Albrighton, Fuchs, and then good young players like Choudhury and Thomas.

[Fightforever]

Our squad is spread out far to thin if we dont get at least 5 players this window we are in trouble. Even without europe squad depth was an issue imagine with europe. 

[dylanlegend]

I can see us selling Chilwell for 55million and using that money to sign a fee half decent players. Other than that we have just a splashed on a New training ground, airports have closed so KP profits will be down, we won’t be spending big, especially not now we haven’t qualified for the UCL

[Rigga]

I would expect 8/9’to leave...

Mendy, Hamza, Gray, James , Albrighton And Morgan are not good enough..

I doubt Perez also.
then we have the dregs of Slimani, Silva Diabate still on our books.

europa league will take an awful lot out of a small squad.. Potentially 50/60 games with a decent run.

we need 7/8 in and have to be good enough for the first team not just to make up the squad..

[jeffschlupp]

14 minutes ago, Rigga said:

I would expect 8/9’to leave...

Mendy, Hamza, Gray, James , Albrighton And Morgan are not good enough..

I doubt Perez also.
then we have the dregs of Slimani, Silva Diabate still on our books.

europa league will take an awful lot out of a small squad.. Potentially 50/60 games with a decent run.

we need 7/8 in and have to be good enough for the first team not just to make up the squad..

Morgan has signed a new contract, and of course he is good enough.

 

Albrighton and Perez will not be going anywhere.

 

Choudhury is a good player, as is Mendy. 

 

Replacing any of those five is going to cost you upwards of £10-15m at least, and then you have to integrate those players with no guarantee they are as good as those tried and tested decent PL standard players.

 

It's not a small squad. At least 20 of the current 25 man PL squad will still be here next season, I can assure you of that. Add four or five more and that is as many as you can name in either competition.

 

How the flying f*** do you want us to sign 8 first team players? You want to sign 8 players as good as Vardy, Tielemans, Maddison, Evans, Soyuncu, Ricardo, Chilwell, Schmeichel, Barnes, Ndidi and Perez? Can I have a pint of what you've had?

 

We're a f***ing Europa League club, in Europe for the second time in 20 years having not finished in the top 8 for the last three years. We have a pandemic. We are chucking big money at infrastructure projects. Where do you think the money is coming from to sign 8 players?

 

I am going to keep replying to these utterly stupid posts every time they crop up, because our fans are apparently so entitled and unable to grasp the reality of where we are. Look at the depth at clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United, two of the three biggest clubs in the country. It's no better than ours. Look at how Wolves have done with the Europa League, and playing twice a week after the restart. Look at how dozens of European clubs cope with 8+ European games every year plus cup runs and league games.

 

Jesus Christ. I have seen some posts on here but this is up there as one of the worst.

[Rigga]

The above players have had plenty opportunities this season to help arrest the slide but have contributed very little.

 

you can not surely think Wes is still good enough ?

Albrighton offers work rare but no creativity.
Gray, what does he do except the odd cameo ?

 

we need players good enough to start regular or at least challenge the starting 11....