Logistics - the next few months

[Chelmofox]

Something i can't get my head around is how the next few months will pan out once the inevitable has been confirmed. In fact, i would rather we were relegated weeks ago so the club were mentally prepared for the next steps.  The first Championship game is Friday 4th August (which i bet we will likely get), meaning that there is little over 2 months to get our world in order. 

 

There really is no time for anyone to be spending 3 weeks relaxing in the Algarve.  I don't know about you all, but I am exhausted just witnessing this. God knows how those within in feel right now. I imagine there are lots of people who really don't have the energy or mental capacity to get this all done right and need a break.

 

As i see it, we have to (although not exhaustive list!):

 

• Find new manager, coach, defensive / fitness coach. Identify the next team captain.
• Club to decide what roles throughout the whole business need to be retained, and start redundancies processes where needed
• Deal with contracted player outgoings, ensuring we don't just get fleeced by the big clubs, and that we are not retaining horrible dead wood. Potentially deal with Vardy's situation as i think retaining is ridiculous considering salary requirements
• Deal with a huge number of player incomings (do we need 10-15 new players in the squad?), ensuring we are negotiating well and not getting fleeced by everyone around us
• Deal with the inevitable sh1t storm of having to reduce existing players wages as per their contracts. I am sure there could be legal challenges around this
• Deal with existing loans and work out if these are players who should be retained or shipped out because they are likely dead wood (Hamza, Albrighton etc)
• Deal with everything needed for the U21's, as some players will certainly be promoted to the main team 
• Have a PROPER preseason
• Have this stupid preseason tour (assuming we can't wriggle out of it. I wouldn't put it past our board to have not added a clause in there in the event we were relegated)
• Cry lots
• Start process of rebuilding the club culture and mentality from the ground up

 

All in 2 months!!! Rudkin has about 5 jobs because Director of Football of LCFC is only part time, so out of these 2 months he probably only gets to work 15 days of that 2 months anyway (and i presume he will want a holiday as well). 

 

At this rate i can see us not being able to register a full squad when the season starts, and we begin the year with Sadler in charge.

Edited 18 May 2023 by Chelmofox

[lcfc278]

I for one hope that Rudkin gets all the time he wants to spend on a beach on holiday, hopefully after he's finally sent packing.

[Stadt]

Rudkin is so insidious. Everything he touches is shit, you'd think the academy would at least flourish given his links with it - nope. Villa blokes in on trial for the academy, successive relegations, and a lack of first minutes for our best prospects.

 

Huth has done a sports directorship course, he's already at the club, he'd have a strong contacts book, he's a winner and he has high standards. **** Rudkin off and promote him.

[An Away Move]

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

[lcfc278]

2 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

Prudent with contracts and wage offers? Have you seen half our squad is out of contract this summer? Have you seen that this is probably one of the main reasons half the team has no motivation or fight? 

[Chelmofox]

1 minute ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

My post wasn't about bashing Rudkin, it was highlighting the huge enormity of what awaits us when the inevitable happens. If anyone has hired/fired staff before, you know how long that process can take and this is before you get the huge number of incomings/outgoings from a players point of view. And i imagine that some people might need a break at some point!

[Jack1993]

We've really got one shot at getting this right otherwise it's mediocrity for the foreseeable. With the mass exodus that is guaranteed to occur I just hope whatever manager comes in sees it as a massive opportunity. For one year only we are capable of holding on to some genuine talent and for one year only we are capable of attracting some genuinely decent players that can take us back up. 

[HybridFox]

6 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

He's the director of football and our football is sh***

[SouthStandUpperTier]

6 minutes ago, lcfc278 said:

The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers

£150k per week combined for Bertrand and Vestergaard. So prudent.

[Joe90lcfc]

10 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

Ok Jon 

[lcfc278]

1 minute ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

£150k per week combined for Bertrand and Vestergaard. So prudent.

Not sure why you've quoted me I didn't post that

[Stadt]

“We don’t know what Rudkin does” is a terrible defence  

[CosbehFox]

Just now, Stadt said:

“We don’t know what Rudkin does” is a terrible defence  

Especially given the weekend just gone included a well informed article about him from a major newspaper 

[Tommy G]

17 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

Prsume this is a wind up

[moore_94]

Can't quite literally put everything on Rudkin, there is so many other people throughout the club who will cover things in that list

 

Find new manager, coach, defensive / fitness coach. Identify the next team captain.

- once we have the new manager in place, the manager will likely have a coaching team he would bring with him anyway, along with what we already have

- next team captain will probably be something decided closer towards the start of the season, maybe only a temporary one until the window closes due to squad changes

 

Club to decide what roles throughout the whole business need to be retained, and start redundancies processes where needed

- plenty of people at the club who will deal staff redundances and the operating side - Whelan, Neville, our Finance and Ops directors etc.

 

Deal with contracted player outgoings, ensuring we don't just get fleeced by the big clubs, and that we are not retaining horrible dead wood. Potentially deal with Vardy's situation as i think retaining is ridiculous considering salary requirement

Deal with a huge number of player incomings (do we need 10-15 new players in the squad?), ensuring we are negotiating well and not getting fleeced by everyone around us

- This is obviously Rudkin's part, but Glover would also be involved

- Vardy's salary was reduced as part of his contract extension, and will go down even further with the relegation clauses

 

Deal with the inevitable sh1t storm of having to reduce existing players wages as per their contracts. I am sure there could be legal challenges around this

- not really something that needs to be negotiated, if it is in their contracts it will happen, and it isn't something they could legally challenge

 

Deal with existing loans and work out if these are players who should be retained or shipped out because they are likely dead wood (Hamza, Albrighton etc)

- we have Huth as loan manager now who will be involved with those coming back, reporting on peformances, those going back out etc.

 

Deal with everything needed for the U21's, as some players will certainly be promoted to the main team 

- like most summers this will be dealt with through youth players being part of the pre-season camps and friendlies

- Manager, academy manager, youth team managers etc. will all have input

Edited 18 May 2023 by moore_94

[SouthStandUpperTier]

5 minutes ago, lcfc278 said:

Not sure why you've quoted me I didn't post that

Apologies. I've no idea how it did that.

[Daggers]

Board’s to-do list:

 

1. Carry on as normal

2. Procrastinate

3. Pretend nothing happened

4. Reorganise a desk drawer somewhere

5. Pop the kettle on

6. Ask comms to do something about hard work and training

7. Speak to The Torygraph about our plans to get in to Europe this season

8. Appoint interim caretaker manager team to see us through to November

9. Go horse racing

10. Play a bit of the old polo

[fazzyfox]

Quite a list, I think the start of the season will be a "false start", we won't be ready, some players may play in those early fixtures who won't be around after the window, it'll be like two starts, the first game after the transfer window will be the proper start as I imagine we'll be doing / leaving a hell of a lot of business until that last day as clubs come in for some of our players last minute.

 

What we should do is scrap that tour, form a pool of players that want to and are likely / going to be here all season, play more local pre season friendlies staggered from Non League then L2, L1, Championship and "glamour" tie against a Premier League club.  Try to get a spine of a team in those friendlies and integrate a couple of the U23's to feel a part of the group. But that's no amount of time to do all of those things, with our club I wouldn't trust them to be capable to amend their catering supplies order in that timescale yet alone bring in 10+ professional footballers, fees, salary, agents fees etc to sort, they made Smithies sound hard work last summer, when you chase players who have others competing for them it's even harder. I'm tempted to blank it all out, rock up on day one, take my seat and wait for the line up reveal....but I won't, I'll be checking here 17 times a day like everyone else!

 

And the club Web site will struggle with that much activity, they are slow at the best of times and what kind of language are they going to use - they have to be positive but it's like a false jolity...."Oh goody we've signed a kid that Fulham have released and have beaten Norwich and Millwall to his signature", everything newly attuned to cutting its cloth accordingly but hyping up what, poorer players arriving than leaving, dire forthcoming fixtures, a kit even more pound shop than the last one, I don't trust this club to get any of it right, it's going to be like ten week long dental surgery.

[An Away Move]

24 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

My post wasn't about bashing Rudkin, it was highlighting the huge enormity of what awaits us when the inevitable happens. If anyone has hired/fired staff before, you know how long that process can take and this is before you get the huge number of incomings/outgoings from a players point of view. And i imagine that some people might need a break at some point!

Your post was great 👍🏻 

[adejo92]

This is Leicester,  you've definitely over complicated that.

 

In reality it will be easy.

 

Go to the bargain bucket for a new manager and some new players. Probably out of contract ones because we're skint.

 

Spend any money gained from selling players to fund a new horse for King Power.

 

Crack a beer, sit back, and watch us sink.

 

Aint no way this club is having a complete refresh so best learn to like Rudkin.

[Chelmofox]

9 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Can't quite literally put everything on Rudkin, there is so many other people throughout the club who will cover things in that list

 

Find new manager, coach, defensive / fitness coach. Identify the next team captain.

- once we have the new manager in place, the manager will likely have a coaching team he would bring with him anyway, along with what we already have

- next team captain will probably be something decided closer towards the start of the season, maybe only a temporary one until the window closes due to squad changes

 

Club to decide what roles throughout the whole business need to be retained, and start redundancies processes where needed

- plenty of people at the club who will deal staff redundances and the operating side - Whelan, Neville, our Finance and Ops directors etc.

 

Deal with contracted player outgoings, ensuring we don't just get fleeced by the big clubs, and that we are not retaining horrible dead wood. Potentially deal with Vardy's situation as i think retaining is ridiculous considering salary requirement

Deal with a huge number of player incomings (do we need 10-15 new players in the squad?), ensuring we are negotiating well and not getting fleeced by everyone around us

- This is obviously Rudkin's part, but Glover would also be involved

- Vardy's salary was reduced as part of his contract extension, and will go down even further with the relegation clauses

 

Deal with the inevitable sh1t storm of having to reduce existing players wages as per their contracts. I am sure there could be legal challenges around this

- not really something that needs to be negotiated, if it is in their contracts it will happen, and it isn't something they could legally challenge

 

Deal with existing loans and work out if these are players who should be retained or shipped out because they are likely dead wood (Hamza, Albrighton etc)

- we have Huth as loan manager now who will be involved with those coming back, reporting on peformances, those going back out etc.

 

Deal with everything needed for the U21's, as some players will certainly be promoted to the main team 

- like most summers this will be dealt with through youth players being part of the pre-season camps and friendlies

- Manager, academy manager, youth team managers etc. will all have input

Sure - get it. My concern is largely the timing. Even with people in place to deal with some of the nasty work, it can take weeks to decide, plan and execute. I don't ever feel we've been a club to make decisions quickly. We have 8 weeks to get everything ready before our 1st Match. Its scary. 

[mozartfox]

58 minutes ago, lcfc278 said:

I for one hope that Rudkin gets all the time he wants to spend on a beach on holiday, hopefully after he's finally sent packing.

Agree. This would be one positive along with a complete revamp of the coaching staff at all levels. Refresh needed pointless giving any of those here throughout this season´´ debacle another chance of screwing things up again.

[mozartfox]

53 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

This has cheered me up.  Thank you!

[Rusko187]

53 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I am struggling to understand why Rudkin gets so much shit on this forum. Most of it is irrational conjecture. Hardly any of us know what he actually does, or what he is like. The only thing I’ve heard about him which is actually from a concrete source is that he is prudent with contracts and wage offers, which is interesting in itself as I imagine most people consider him as a profligate spendthrift. 

Don't talk nonsense  if he was prudent with contracts and wage offers, we would not find ourselves in a position with about 14 players expiring in the space of 13 months and everybody on astronomical wages. He deserves all the criticism he gets, he has not ran the footballing side well at all.

 

The owners sentimentality to him and some of the board/players will be one of the reasons why we won't instantly bounce back. He was too sentimental with Rodgers and look where it got us.

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, lcfc278 said:

I for one hope that Rudkin gets all the time he wants to spend on a beach on holiday, hopefully after he's finally sent packing.

...with all his other roles, it could be made to look like it is a way to take some of the weight off his shoulders and the LCFC first team requires full-time management without other distractions!!!

  We could sell that to Rudkin and the press, the club gets to broaden its horizon and Rudkin does not lose face.