Ric Flair Live & Direct on BSLB Podcast

[Guest Bilo]

7 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Fascinating interview with Guy Branston in the latest episode. Key talking points: 

*Rudkin is one of the best DoFs in the business and we're very lucky to have him

*RVN was brought in for the long term and should be allowed to carry on next season

*Our fans don't understand the huge gap between the Championship and the PL

*If we try to build the team around academy players next season we'll get battered every week

 

I anticipate a bit of debate on this thread as more people hear it....

A few takeaways from that as I resist the kneejerk reaction by pissing myself laughing.

 

1) If Rudkin really is that good, then how has the club got so much wrong? Is it all Top's fault? Do we need a new scouting team or to invest in a better data analysis setup to ensure we don't keep signing the wrong managers and players? Something is rotten. If it isn't Rudkin, it isn't Whelan and it isn't Top, then what is it? 

 

2) This flies in the face of the evidence we're seeing. The team has no identity, organisation or self-belief. RVN has achieved the impossible and been objectively worse than Cooper, who had been comfortably the worst appointment the club had made since Sousa. It would also be extremely unusual for a manager who had five months to save a club from relegation and failed to try to get them back up again. What makes RVN special and exempt from that? Because none of us have seen it.

 

3) I don't think anyone expected us to get back to our 18-22 levels this season. Everyone knew that survival was the goal and would have been happy with 17th before building a base to improve. What everyone is annoyed by is the poor signings, lack of fight, lack of identity and seeming lack of any intent to improve on the pitch. What precisely would constitute a good understanding of the gap between PL and EFL? 

 

4) Again, this misrepresents what has been said. We want to see the players who we know are good enough for the Championship being brought in. Nobody is advocating for 15-year-old Monga to play every week or for an average age of 18 in the squad. What's being called for is those players like Nelson and Alves, who have done well at teams who (respectfully) will likely be nowhere near us next season, to get their place ahead of players who have lost the right to be considered ahead of them. If it's a choice between Faes and Nelson or a choice between Ayew and Alves, we're going to want the latter in both scenarios because those players are the future and will have resale value that'll be pure profit if we don't go up, or an opportunity for them to come up with us and build a career if we do. Every other season under King Power has seen extensive contributions by academy products who were ready for the step-up, King, KDH, Barnes, Chilwell to name a few, with this season being an outlier in not having any playing most weeks. Is this a coincidence? How many academy products is too many? If none of the academy players are good enough for regular Championship football when we have a much-vaunted Champions League standard setup in Seagrave, what exactly is going wrong? That leads us back to Question 1, by the way.

 

So yes, happy to engage with Branston's analysis, but I fear it asks more questions than it answers.

[Finnaldo]

I, for one, am absolutely shocked a football agent thinks Rudkin is the best thing since sliced bread.

[Guest Bilo]

8 minutes ago, Finnaldo said:

I, for one, am absolutely shocked a football agent thinks Rudkin is the best thing since sliced bread.

It's a bit like when you see kids in school excited that their very strict teacher is off sick and the class is being taught by the cover staff who can't control them. 

Edited 14 April 2025 by Bilo

[filbertway]

17 minutes ago, Finnaldo said:

I, for one, am absolutely shocked a football agent thinks Rudkin is the best thing since sliced bread.

Not only that, but a football agent that's previously been given a job by him

 

[TheGoldenGod]

I simply can't accept that this Guy thinks some of the youngsters we have "aren't at the level". I think it's clear some are and aren't worse than what we have currently.

[ALC Fox]

While the gap between the Championship and Premier League is huge and getting bigger, I don't think it's unreasonable for us to have made a better fist of things this season.

 

Southampton are historically bad and were lucky to be promoted really. Last season they were really streaky and we hammered them twice.

 

Ipswich still have many players who have come up with them from League One. Yes they recruited well but really that was with one eye on having the best side in the Championship next season.

 

Wolves and West Ham have always had better squads than us this season and it wouldn't have been a catastrophic failure to be relegated in 18th having scored more goals and defended A LOT better throughout the season.

 

Cooper had us fighting but we were still giving up far too many chances. He was the wrong appointment at the wrong time and Ruud has been magnitudes worse.

 

We could be taking this fight towards the last couple of games of the season but in reality we've been gone for a while. And that really isn't good enough.

Edited 14 April 2025 by ALC Fox

[Guest Bilo]

46 minutes ago, TheGoldenGod said:

I simply can't accept that this Guy thinks some of the youngsters we have "aren't at the level". I think it's clear some are and aren't worse than what we have currently.

They quite clearly are.

 

Evans and Monga are ready on a sparing basis in the cups and getting odd minutes to start with next season, while I don't see much reason why Nelson and Alves can't at least be in regular matchday squads. Nelson has been class for Oxford and I'm looking forward to seeing him next season. 

[Suzie the Fox]

Steve Walsh & Matt Piper.. WOW! Two absolute crackers there. 

[Staff]

I wouldn't take anything Guy says too seriously. He was part of the set up under Rudkin when he was in the youth team and has then had jobs under him too. So the fact he's well and truly up Teflon Jon's arse doesn't surprise me 

[samlcfc1]

Stopped taking much notice of Guy when he said Kasey was 6ft4

[BrummieFOX]

So called Guy Branston. 

[VLC86]

 

12 minutes ago, samlcfc1 said:

Stopped taking much notice of Guy when he said Kasey was 6ft4

 

3 minutes ago, BrummieFOX said:

So called Guy Branston. 

Got himself in a pickle there didn’t he.

[Libertine]

5 minutes ago, VLC86 said:

 

 

Got himself in a pickle there didn’t he.

Even I decided against that one, and I have low standards. 

[VLC86]

Just now, Libertine said:

Even I decided against that one, and I have low standards. 

Lower them.

[dbtcity]

As much as I enjoyed the pod as per usual Guy seems to fall into the happy clapper bracket that feels we should be grateful for any past achievements over looking how badly run we’ve been since whilst happily accepting us as a yo-yo club as we were in league one 17 years ago! 

Praising someone like Rudkin as one of the best dof’s around yet he’s somehow managed not to be poached like any other member of staff that excelled in their position… Rudkin of course has done some good here but over the last 5+ years the bad almost fully eclipses any good!

 

Either way it was good to hear certain bits of what he had to say but I felt when it reverted back to us it almost seemed like an ex employee still in the industry not wanting to burn any bridges for future dealings/job opportunities 

Edited 14 April 2025 by dbtcity

[Iwebema]

Youth - I took it as, yes they are talented, they aren't at premier league levels, which I think arguably is fair, but we aren't asking them to keep us up, we are trying to "bed them in" as he says.
My takeaway was players like alves/nelson yes bring them in. The likes of evans and aluko it's going to be a huge jump to just throw them in day 1 in the championship, just be careful you don't break them.
Monga I think is a possible unicorn here.

Id also say hes not been here for 2 years so I don't think hes as close to the current levels. So he's just cautioning not to break them.

He did also say Kasey Mcateer is 6ft4? Not sure if he just got confused with him and Ben Nelsen.

Rudkin - The cynic in me would suggest he's probably close to him and given the business he's working in, it would make sense he's giving him a glowing reference.

I don't think, and I may be wrong, people have suggested Rudkin doesn't work hard, it's been quite well reported that he does too much, and is reluctant to relinquish power and get help to his own detriment.

I'm also led to believe the players and agents like him, but why would you not when he's been signing off the big contracts left and right?

Again important to remember he also left in 2022, and I'd say the last 3 years have really put a spotlight on the ownership/board.

A red flag for me was his "Little old leicester" reference, get back in your box and don't you dare question anyone. Which is where my cynicism on his views here come from, it seems like he conveniently missed out the worst relegation in history. It was the successful period and then just instantly into this season, didn't really delve into the decline.

My overall opinion was it's just a guy (excuse the pun) starting out in the football agent world and he's trying not to burn bridges. The only thing I took of note were his comments on youth and being careful not to break them. Otherwise I don't think he really got into the mess that we are in, was very much when I was there it was good times, so don't criticise now and remember you are little old leicester. Appreciate him coming on and you getting him on though always interested to hear balance even if I'm being a cynical nob ha. 

[KFS]

Turned it off. Clearly has a problem articulating himself and came on with hot takes to appear different and unique. 

 

As for the comments about our ‘so called’ Director of Football. I think Guy’s previous roles at the club and respect of Jon says everything. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

He's obviously got a number of angles here, trying to keep the door open to media/agency work with the club, didn't break through via the academy himself so maybe more cynical of others being able to do it. 

 

Not the best guest that's been on. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Yeah off after he spoke about Alves and Braybrooke. 

[SemperEadem]

BSLB team at the tourno, whats the latest chaps?

[Soar Fox]

Interesting that he thinks Sammy Braybrooke is a league one/league two player. 
 

A lot of people on here highly rate him. 

[ClaphamFox]

18 minutes ago, Soar Fox said:

Interesting that he thinks Sammy Braybrooke is a league one/league two player. 
 

A lot of people on here highly rate him. 

I noticed that, but my impression was that he was talking about where Braybrooke could get a loan move to now rather than his ceiling in the future. 

[niyaminski]

Anticipate this being an unpopular opinion.
 

Reading through some of the comments, I find it a bit odd that people turn a podcast off simply because they hear an opinion they don’t like.

 

Whoever this Guy is, he’s come through our academy, played professional football, and has worked for the club in developing young players. More knowledge of the industry than most on here I’d assume. 
 

Also has Louis Page in his agency I think, so clearly still has an eye on us. 
 

If someone who’s spent their whole career bringing through young players says playing 6 boys straight from the academy in a game won’t work (not only for the club, but for the development of the players), he’s probably right. As supposed to some FT poster who’s probably never been involved in professional football suggesting we should shove 6 of them straight into the starting 11 for the remaining games.

 

Even if you think he’s saying some of what he’s saying for personal PR reasons (which probably is true) there would still be elements of truth/genuine opinion in what he’s saying. Not worth turning it off imo.

[KFS]

11 minutes ago, niyaminski said:

Anticipate this being an unpopular opinion.
 

Reading through some of the comments, I find it a bit odd that people turn a podcast off simply because they hear an opinion they don’t like.

 

Whoever this Guy is, he’s come through our academy, played professional football, and has worked for the club in developing young players. More knowledge of the industry than most on here I’d assume. 
 

Also has Louis Page in his agency I think, so clearly still has an eye on us. 
 

If someone who’s spent their whole career bringing through young players says playing 6 boys straight from the academy in a game won’t work (not only for the club, but for the development of the players), he’s probably right. As supposed to some FT poster who’s probably never been involved in professional football suggesting we should shove 6 of them straight into the starting 11 for the remaining games.

 

Even if you think he’s saying some of what he’s saying for personal PR reasons (which probably is true) there would still be elements of truth/genuine opinion in what he’s saying. Not worth turning it off imo.

Because an already disillusioned fan base listening to someone who’s been around during the club’s demise waxing lyrical about the DoF who’s about to relegate us for the second time in as many years isn’t really worth my time.

 

This isn’t someone offering an alternative view of Israel/Palestine, it’s a guy who can’t organise his thoughts towing the party line for a club in the absolute shit. 

[Noahfence]

Did I just mishear him or did he say unfortunately we might see more academy players playing in the championship next season? Surely I’ve misheard that?! 
 

Or did he just mean unfortunately we’d be in the championship 

Edited 14 April 2025 by Noahfence