Does Leicester City have a Leadership/culture problem?

[foxinsocks]

There's leadership at the club: Top and Susan - of the playing side:  Rodgers - and on field: ?

 

The biggest problem is Rodgers - has he has shown himself to be a despicable character... just  in it for himself.  He lacks the moral imperative of leadership - so the player and the fans can't follow him.  At leadership school you are taught to be tough yet fair - and to inculcate respect and trust of those you are in charge of.  They must be in no doubt of you motives.  Rodgers must have been away that day.

 

But this fact must be obvious to Top and Susan and thery are doing nothing - so they lose the trust of the fan base too.  They are tainted byt their passive support of Rodgers.

 

The on pitch situation has been undermined by our recruitment.  NB: no one thinks ad 23 year old dane will make any difference to the leadership available.

 

 

[Sharpe's Fox]

The past 10 years of Leicester City Football Club has been loomed over by a giant figure in Nigel Pearson. Nige created the bedrock of success we have been enjoying not with groundbaking coaching or big brain tactical masterclasses but by a simple ethos that if you want a winning culture then you bring in good people and manage them to get the best from themselves, rather than tell them that he and he alone has all the answers.

 

I love listening to Nigel Pearson and his views on life. He seems a genuine and introspective person who allows his charges alot of agency in how they get the best from themselves. Schmeichel especially has always talked the world of him. I think Pearson is what Rodgers thinks he is but is too self-centred to realise.

[sylofox]

If we have it's not from the very top.

 

To many comments about how Vaichi and Top great people and staff. Honor and respect is part of the culture.

 

Look at middle management and our manager for the answer.

[whoareyaaa]

4 hours ago, The mullet of Phil Gee said:

I fear that things have become a little too comfortable since we moved into Seagrave, and as such we have lost much of our edge and hunger.

I think of it like 2 boxers. One who trains with the very best equipment in a perfect air conditioned gym, and the other who is out pounding the streets in the rain at 5am with very basic equipment. When things get really tough, who is best able to cope?

 

It just all feels very fragmented. Players wanting to go, contracts being allowed to run down, others never getting a game, Brendan blaming everything but himself, question marks over the training regime with the high number of injuries, the whole issue of signing players and silence from the owners. 

It used to feel like everyone was pulling in the same direction, but not so much at the minute.

 

 

 

 

 

Pearson would not let it get to this, that's why the manager has to go and the blames lies at his door imo but the club has let this drag on way to long so now we should be looking at the club.

 

 

Edited 19 January 2023 by whoareyaaa

[fuchsntf]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I agree with everything you've said, but personally I'd say we should as a fanbase always be looking for answers if we are to hold the club to account. 
Regarding the point I've highlighted, do you feel that the dissolving of the excellent backroom staff is the safety net that stops us falling off a cliff when these mitigating circumstances occur?

Again not to compare us to United, but during Fergusons reign, there were constant stories of unhappy players, public arguments and breakdowns, but the culture and professionalism that was instilled into the dressing room and staff ultimately kept the core of the team in check, even when individuals were not at their best. So players like Rooney or Beckham, Keane or Ronaldo could openly have issues with the club, but the team would continue to deliver because as a unit, there was an entire squad of professionals who stayed in line whilst these things inevitably happened.

Whereas when Fergie left, and Moyes came in and tried to shake things up with some new staff, and old staff being let go, things took a turn, and have continued throughout the last decade.
So that's where I think a comparison could be made towards us, we had such a solid club from top to bottom, board to scouting, to coaching and players, everyone kept eachother in check, and even if a specific department had a period where they missed, for example poor transfers, overall the squad was strong enough to make it work. 
Whereas right now, it feels like we are desperately relying on 1 individual to make something happen, because as a fanbase we can't really rely on the other 10 delivering. 

I reckon since Busby Manutd had that intern mandate…Players could express their worries….but they must keep professional & keep close company..

Let the media have their say, but ‚YOU‘ are a United player…step over the club line, discipline issues will step in…Manager,B.R.Staff, player..!!

But wont. Effect the club despite media conspiracy stories.. The glazers management cronies changed that…

[fuchsntf]

17 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

There's leadership at the club: Top and Susan - of the playing side:  Rodgers - and on field: ?

 

The biggest problem is Rodgers - has he has shown himself to be a despicable character... just  in it for himself.  He lacks the moral imperative of leadership - so the player and the fans can't follow him.  At leadership school you are taught to be tough yet fair - and to inculcate respect and trust of those you are in charge of.  They must be in no doubt of you motives.  Rodgers must have been away that day.

 

But this fact must be obvious to Top and Susan and thery are doing nothing - so they lose the trust of the fan base too.  They are tainted byt their passive support of Rodgers.

 

The on pitch situation has been undermined by our recruitment.  NB: no one thinks ad 23 year old dane will make any difference to the leadership available.

 

 

Depend what restrictions & promises he his working to….& they are hidden treasures not being made open to the outside world…

But agree onfield character is his domain,and his presentation no matter how good or crap the squad is….He said himself 18,14,12,8,4 months ago,it’s his responsibility,so he stays in the fans mind , quite rightly , the fall guy…

His wages are irrelevant,given just before the impact of Corona and forced lack of investment…So he’s being payed for carrying the whole can….and making other statements that’s not in his competence…because management positions are playing the silent partners…In Italy even Germany,there are media platforms where

they would „have to „ face media questions…

 

[MalletFox]

@cityfanlee23 great post 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

 

I’ve commented around this kind of topic in the past few months, I genuinely believe that this season we’ve set ourselves for the “perfect storm”…

 

Culture is absolutely key and has a fundamental influence on the performance of an organisation, however, I see our current plight a little more simplistically.

 

(1) over the past 3 or so seasons in particular we have lost some true “leaders of men”, Big Wes, Huth, Kasper, Fuchs to name a few, truly experience, influential and respected people within the club. We simply haven’t replaced any of that leadership base, or certainly not to the commanding level of those years gone by. It’s evident in our performances, we see it week in week out. To that extent, our recruitment to refill these gaps has been diabolical tbh. Rodgers spoke of wanting “winners”, now you can interpret that a few ways, my initial would be similar to a “leader”, whereas our recruitment policy appeared to literally be players that had won something, Daka (Austrian title), Soumaré (French title), Bertrand (Prem a decade ago), not one true “leader” amongst them. I’m not sure whether the blame lands at Rodgers feet for that, or our Recruitment team, but it’s glaringly obvious that none of those are going to fill the leadership boots of Big Wes, Fuchs, Kasper etc.

 

(2) Couple the above with a sizeable chunk of the squad being out of contract in 6 months … with all the best will in the world, and regardless of how “professional” you may think you are, you simply will not perform at the same level compared to if you are fully committed to the club/project you are supporting. An easy comparison is to think of a group of self-employed contractors, who have done 4/5ths of the project time duration on a FTC, in the last fifth of the project you’re expecting half to disappear onto new works

for other clients as they’re looking after their own interests, and rightly so. I don’t see it any different with footballers, they will have one (or both) eyes on their next move. 

(3) Manager’s demeanour, if your one true leader, the manager, is sulking and pointing fingers, then from a culture perspective it’s hardly leading by example, and this is where I have lost a lot of respect for Rodgers. He’s continuously, and almost systematically complained, moaned, blamed external factors when in reality, his sole job is to get the best out of the players he has (who btw; aren’t the most horrendous group of players). And I genuinely think his attitude and lack of accountability has and is flowing through our players. Whenever you hear him speak, you can’t help but think or imagine the atmosphere must be flat as a pancake, it’s depressing and it’s also repetitive. He looks and sounds stuck in a rut and the players are going through the motions in-kind.

 

Wow, that’s a long post, well done me!

 

Fundamentally we just need to get through this season, the rebuild is in the summer. Get half a new squad in, get pumping this ground extension and then the additional infrastructure and let’s re-build the NEW LCFC ready for a fresh assault on the Premier League! POW POW!

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

I don't intend to cut off this discussion at source - it's one that has merit - but I do think the simple reality is that we do not know, nor can we know much of what goes on inside the club. 

 

People often conflate media silence with internal inaction. 

 

Under this ownership the club has always been incredibly tight lipped. I think they're largely correct to be so, because otherwise you just give the media ammunition and let them control the narrative of things. 

 

How much we hear from the club directly on things like leadership, culture, signings and managerial appointments doesn't actually affect how those things are managed within the club. 

...I think the question being asked is not about the operations of the business, just the underpinning intangible elements that previously we saw and could relate to, as opposed to the generic feel of every club supporter up and down the country!!!

 The one player who I would say epitomizes what it is to the player for Leicester is Albrighton. He brings the mindset that every game matters, and we do not have that anywhere else in this squad, let alone in the first team. There are no leaders and KDH should sometime down the line take up that baton, but he is a junior despite his age, in a team with big personalities some touching untouchable status.

  At present Maddison is not far from becoming the leader out on the pitch he has matured and voices his opinions to the referee and stands his ground. We do not have the culture of them versus us as under O'Neil, us upsetting the big boys was what we wanted to see and they did not like it but as a fanbase, we revelled in it. Pearson maintained that little team, big heart persona, but it has slowly been eroded the more successful that we became. It is not easy to retain that little team punching above their weight persona when the media and football supporters up and down the country are slapping you on the back and saying well done.

  This is the moment we felt we had to move forward with our thinking and fish in a more expensive pool in order to move forward. In a sense, we were trying to emulate the people that we had spent decades trying to prove ourselves as less inferior to but now sought to be them.

  The genie is out of the bottle, it may never be that way again, we are just so disconnected as a team and fanbase, and we will need something extraordinary to bring that kind of culture that we had, perhaps it has already gone forever.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

I feel like the question in the title of this thread might as well be ‘is the Pope a catholic?’ or ‘is your gooch between your balls and butthole?’

 

The answer is resounding yes, how else can you account for the immense (on occasion) runs of form followed by being utter dross. We are very fragile.

Since being promoted we’ve either been winning or on epic losing streaks - it feels like there’s been very few runs of ‘middling’ form.

[Shane]

We’ve stopped trying to sign leaders like Morgan and Huth. 

[drofmor55]

5 hours ago, cruzFOX said:

Don’t forget the players we had in the dressing room during those hey days. In order for the rest of the group to raise their game they need inspiration and players to look upto. our changing room had big Wes, big huth, kasper and a younger energetic Vardy and a mercurial Mahrez. If your in that company how can you not want to go out play and do all you can?

 

I know we can’t go back to the past but the foundation is still there and our identity no one can take from us. We just have to rebuild on top of it and go again. The template is there. just ask young Viktor why he wants to come here? 2 answers I bet;

to play in the best league in the world and because of what the club has achieved since 2015/16. The whole world knows Leicester city now.

 

We need to rebuild - the revolution starts now!

we need some "big characters"on the pitch to support the "quieter" players...i think Luke  Thomas for one would be a better player if he had the likes of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth alongside, geeing him up. These characters dont need to be loud .Wes was never a shouter but led by example ie throwing himself in front of and blocking shots.

[honeybradger]

As a club, including the fans l, we've transitioned from the "every game matters" mentality to the "we should be grateful we're even here, have some perspective" mentality.

 

In the early Rodgers seasons we saw a club wide weakness of accepting poor results and performances because we had already performed above our stations earlier in the season.

 

We need to get back to a point where no matter how we've performed in our previous games, whether that's relegation form or top 6 form, we make sure we put a performance in that the players and fans can be proud of whether we win or lose.

 

At the moment we seem to be lacking that and are overly prideful in our success and too easily beat down in our defeat and that approach is coming back to bite us after a few seasons of success.

[PAPA LAZAROU]

It's very clear something has gone wrong behind the scenes. we have gone from a team frieghtened of no one to a team freightened of it's own shadow.The fall from grace has been staggering in terms of how long it took. But I belive it is a shared negligence from the top to the bottom.A perfect storm of ineptitude from the backroom staff and the egomania of a manager so out of depth it's embarrassing.

 

We can never know what vichai would have done under the present situation but it's a good indecation of the way he did not hesitate to get rid of Ranieri when it was obvious where we were heading. Unfortunately I don't see that same ruthlessness in Top.What is the answer? the obvious one is Rodgers has to go, the buck stops with him. Sadly I see us being further in the relegation sh*t before Top the board wake up to reality and by then it will be too late.

Edited 19 January 2023 by PAPA LAZAROU

[coolhandfox]

It not just Leicester but a general football problem, the landscape of football has changed, development of players have changed.

 

Less and less characters in football.

[blueharmie]

Were shite 

[Guest Col city fan]

Yes

Next…

[cityfanlee23]

19 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Yes

Next…

Out of curiosity as I don't remember seeing you talk about specific names, maybe I have but i've slept since then, do you have anyone you think you'd like to see takeover as manager with all of this stuff in mind? The obvious man when it comes to building culture and never say die squads would probably polarise the forum I'd expect.... 

[FT Goober]

We have a Manager problem.

[foxinsocks]

17 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

Depend what restrictions & promises he his working to….& they are hidden treasures not being made open to the outside world…

But agree onfield character is his domain,and his presentation no matter how good or crap the squad is….He said himself 18,14,12,8,4 months ago,it’s his responsibility,so he stays in the fans mind , quite rightly , the fall guy…

His wages are irrelevant,given just before the impact of Corona and forced lack of investment…So he’s being payed for carrying the whole can….and making other statements that’s not in his competence…because management positions are playing the silent partners…In Italy even Germany,there are media platforms where

they would „have to „ face media questions…

 

I am sure Rodger is working to all kinds of restrictions - My criticism of him in the way he does not take any responsibility and blames others - I would not be inspire to work for such a "leader".  I once went to a talk by strormin' norman Schwarzkopf - he made is clear that when he sent troops in to danger thay had to beleive that we was making decisions to minimise the possibility of harm -0 thery had to trust him and believe he was not in it for himself and his own career

[fuchsntf]

2 hours ago, foxinsocks said:

I am sure Rodger is working to all kinds of restrictions - My criticism of him in the way he does not take any responsibility and blames others - I would not be inspire to work for such a "leader".  I once went to a talk by strormin' norman Schwarzkopf - he made is clear that when he sent troops in to danger thay had to beleive that we was making decisions to minimise the possibility of harm -0 thery had to trust him and believe he was not in it for himself and his own career

But he says at least every 3rd week ,all problems tactic,selection results onfield is his responsibility….

He like ALL managers will use ,abuse,praise,scorn players..

owner-management like ALL coaches,will have the odd pop…

This wild criticism of him not taking responsibility and hanging on every single word he says is poor analyse,judgement of any manager…The fans can also build up total garbage…And yes I do believe it’s absolute nonsense…

Any manager will look for blame,but he has been more balanced than most..

Many forget Ferguson,PEp, Klopp,Spurs-managers outrages,( Rodgers doesn’t do outrages) over players,management,injury-crisis, refs,weather,time of year,too many games..etc..

 

I want Rodgers to be replaced,because of the players endeavours & performances

and not fogged by personal-untrue-bullshit, forced into his corner…

 

This crap continuous thoughts on his character,is watering down his squad failures in guiding his charges into presenting some idea near decent performances…

Making up agendas isnt the right to a POV..his/any managers words are not worth bothering about…Chasing phantoms denies the football side of our problems..

 

[foxinsocks]

48 minutes ago, fuchsntf said:

But he says at least every 3rd week ,all problems tactic,selection results onfield is his responsibility….

He like ALL managers will use ,abuse,praise,scorn players..

owner-management like ALL coaches,will have the odd pop…

This wild criticism of him not taking responsibility and hanging on every single word he says is poor analyse,judgement of any manager…The fans can also build up total garbage…And yes I do believe it’s absolute nonsense…

Any manager will look for blame,but he has been more balanced than most..

Many forget Ferguson,PEp, Klopp,Spurs-managers outrages,( Rodgers doesn’t do outrages) over players,management,injury-crisis, refs,weather,time of year,too many games..etc..

 

I want Rodgers to be replaced,because of the players endeavours & performances

and not fogged by personal-untrue-bullshit, forced into his corner…

 

This crap continuous thoughts on his character,is watering down his squad failures in guiding his charges into presenting some idea near decent performances…

Making up agendas isnt the right to a POV..his/any managers words are not worth bothering about…Chasing phantoms denies the football side of our problems..

 

I respect your POV - I guess we will have to differ.  I would not retain the services of someone who behaves like Rodgers however many games he wins.  I can see our issues are now deeper than rodgers' personality - but I trust my judgement when it comes to people... and I have come to a conclusion about Rodgers.  You don't have to share my views.

[Daggers]

We have a Brendan problem, and a Top down problem.

[Vestan Pance]

There's lots of talk here about bringing in strong characters, Rodgers will resist that and if they're brought in against his will he'll isolate them as he's done before.

[BrummieFOX]

On 19/01/2023 at 14:49, StanSP said:

Leadership has been lacking since Kasper left. At least when Wes left, Kasper was still here and be the commanding figure off the pitch. 

 

It's quite clear we lack that level of professionalism and example-setting both on the pitch and off it. 

 

Vardy and Albrighton may be part of the leadership group (does that still exist?) but it has lost some big characters over the last few seasons.

 

 

Yeh and to add to that, I believe Maddison and Tielemans are part of that "leadership" group and both want out. So I can't imagine they command any sort of respect that would be needed. 

[Aus Fox]

7 minutes ago, Vestan Pance said:

There's lots of talk here about bringing in strong characters, Rodgers will resist that and if they're brought in against his will he'll isolate them as he's done before.

Which strong characters has he isolated before?