Coady signed as solution to long-standing problem diagnosed by club hierarchy

[davieG]

 

The centre-back, who could make his debut at Southampton, was brought to the club after the decision-makers identified a lack of leadership as a key issue over a number of years

ByJordan Blackwell
22:30, 14 SEP 2023

Conor Coady is the solution to a long-standing problem at Leicester City, Enzo Maresca has said ahead of the centre-back’s potential debut on Friday night.

Summer signing Coady has made a quicker-than-expected recovery from a foot fracture and is on course to be included in the squad for the clash with Southampton, even if he is not yet 100 per cent fit.

An England international defender, Coady is not short on ability, but it is his qualities as a person that were the biggest factor in his £7.5m transfer from Wolves.

Maresca has said ahead of the trip to St Mary’s that the decision-makers at City had concluded that a lack of leadership within the squad over a number of years was a problem that needed rectifying if the club were to return to the Premier League.

 

“I’ve said since day one with Conor, he was one of the targets for the club,” Maresca said at his press conference on Thursday. “When I joined, the club said to me that one of the problems over the past two or three years was a lack of leaders. I was not here so I cannot judge, one of the main targets was to improve that area, and Conor is one of the guys.

“We played some friendly games here behind closed doors and he was probably the only voice you could hear on the pitch. This is something you have inside you. It doesn’t matter if you are at Wolves, at Everton, or at Leicester, you always have this. He guides the rest. It’s fantastic.”

While Coady has not yet played a competitive game for the club, he has been at every single match home and away, supporting his team-mates from the sidelines. If he comes into the side, he will be at the heart of the defence, replacing Jannik Vestergaard.

“He has the right experience to help us in our targets,” Maresca added. “He has been an important player, even last year at Everton. Now he’s back and he’s worked four or five days with us.

“Even when he was injured, he was very close with us, always travelling for the game away and at home. He has been very close to the team. You can see he’s not only a good player, it’s also a player that loves to be involved, even if he’s injured. He loves to be there. For a club and for a manager, it’s something fantastic.”

 

[davieG]

Nice to know they were on the ball even if they have been slow in dealing with it.

[AKCJ]

There hasn't been any real leadership since Wes left.

 

Kasper is a leader but I think he rubbed a few too many up the wrong way and it backfired.

[Ric Flair]

Leaders won't allow Petty cliques either, not if they're good at it either. Harmonise and galvanise the group, Morgan did this very well. 

[VLC86]

16 minutes ago, davieG said:

Nice to know they were on the ball even if they have been slow in dealing with it.

If they identified we had no leaders for 2/3 years and allowed us to get relegated as a result, I wouldn’t agree that they were on the ball.

[Guest Lako42]

So this is the outcome of the review from Rudkin and Whelan.....

 

 

 

[Guest Lako42]

4 minutes ago, Costock_Fox said:

If they identified we had no leaders for 2/3 years and allowed us to get relegated as a result, I wouldn’t agree that they were on the ball.

They weren't 

 

 

They got us relegated through inaction and then essentially try to pin the blame on this rather than themselves. 

 

 

They gave a manager full clearance to do what the **** he wanted and seeing as he's an egotistical nutter, that meant getting rid of players with leadership qualities and filling the squad with nice little yes men with no bollocks 

Edited 15 September 2023 by Lako42

[joachim1965]

2 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

They weren't 

 

 

They got us relegated through inaction and then essentially try to pin the blame on this rather than themselves. 

 

 

They gave a manager full clearance to do what the **** he wanted and seeing as he's an egotistical nutter, that meant getting rid of players with leadership qualities and filling the squad with nice little yes men with no bollocks 

This, 100%.

[Gamble92]

29 minutes ago, davieG said:

Nice to know they were on the ball even if they have been slow in dealing with it.

Agreed it was a great signing that addresses the issue but waiting to be relegated when we could all see the issues for years is in no way "on the ball"

[Lambert09]

12 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

They weren't 

 

 

They got us relegated through inaction and then essentially try to pin the blame on this rather than themselves. 

 

 

They gave a manager full clearance to do what the **** he wanted and seeing as he's an egotistical nutter, that meant getting rid of players with leadership qualities and filling the squad with nice little yes men with no bollocks 

Not even just the leadership that was lacking, just the usual nasty competitive side to players personality. Our players were too nice across the board. 

 

I genuinely felt seeing winks get at the referee after every call, that it’s something we’ve been missing for years. It’s an annoying part of the game but if you make it easy for refs to make a decision against you, they genuinely do.

 

How often do you see a player up in arms with a ref about a missed foul but then that team get a soft free kick on the next challenge.  Not us, because we wouldn’t have said boo to a ghost 

 

Not just that, but it’s also bloody nice to see a player reacting to bad decisions in the way a fan would. Rather than just being apathetic to it all 

Edited 15 September 2023 by Lambert09

[westernpark]

So it takes a catastrophic relegation for the diagnosis and then medicine. The patient died last season. Fans could tell this was an issue as Morgan, Fuchs and then Kasper were leaving. Club hierarchy probably think this article reflects positively on them, but it compounds the notion that they were slow to act and are needing to be replaced themselves.

[StanSP]

Better late than never. 

[Tommy G]

Given our horiffic record with injuries I wouldnt be chucking him in against Southampton away but in Enzo we trust.  

[Xen]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

Nice to know they were on the ball even if they have been slow in dealing with it.

Isn't that the opposite of being on the ball?

[davieG]

27 minutes ago, Xen said:

Isn't that the opposite of being on the ball?

Not really they might have been aware of it very early but couldn't resolve it for valid reasons such as no budget, not available, no agreement possible with Rodgers etc.

 

Anyway they're just throw away words to stimulate views which is the main aim of the forum.

[HankMarvin]

Yet Maddison went straight into Spurs leadership group on arrival and was made one of the vice captains.

[Gazza M]

I think it just highlights the fact it was harder to get that squad relegated than stay up. Even Smith went at a point per game.

 

Just poor leadership throughout from Top to the players with Brendan in charge. 

[BrummieFOX]

7 minutes ago, Gazza M said:

I think it just highlights the fact it was harder to get that squad relegated than stay up. Even Smith went at a point per game.

 

Just poor leadership throughout from Top to the players with Brendan in charge. 

Yep, I think its far more a club thing than a playing staff thing. 

 

We had Vardy, Evans, Maddison, Youri last season. All who should have but didn't step up. The bigger issue was the lack of leadership top/Top down. 

[Chelmofox]

15 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Yet Maddison went straight into Spurs leadership group on arrival and was made one of the vice captains.

Doesn't really mean a lot.  Just because you have assigned someone a leader doesn't mean they are a leader.  Spurs have started well and fair play to Madders for slotting in well and getting results. Its easy to look like a good leader when everything is going well. Its matters most when it gets tough, and you have to make difficult / affirmative / constructive team decisions, and think a little more long term. We know Maddison wasn't able to do this, and largely took much of the burden on himself. We also know that when it gets difficult he becomes trigger happy on socials, and ends up looking a bit of a pr1ck. 

 

Maybe Maddison has learnt from last season and was ready to move forward and become a good leader. Judge him at the end of the season on that.

[Stadt]

Shame he's not that good.

[Guest TamworthFoxes]

3 hours ago, Lako42 said:

They weren't 

 

 

They got us relegated through inaction and then essentially try to pin the blame on this rather than themselves. 

 

 

They gave a manager full clearance to do what the **** he wanted and seeing as he's an egotistical nutter, that meant getting rid of players with leadership qualities and filling the squad with nice little yes men with no bollocks 

Excellently put.

The only thing I would add was that behind this shit show is a fanbase who happily sat by happy clapping as the ship sank.

In fact the sane few who tried to point this out were abused and ridiculed.

[Guest Lako42]

22 minutes ago, TamworthFoxes said:

 

The only thing I would add was that behind this shit show is a fanbase who happily sat by happy clapping as the ship sank.

In fact the sane few who tried to point this out were abused and ridiculed.

Yep, spot on.

[Sly]

1 hour ago, HankMarvin said:

Yet Maddison went straight into Spurs leadership group on arrival and was made one of the vice captains.

When things start to unravel, I tried to do to much himself with us. He wanted to be the man and it backfired on him to a degree. 

 

When he was good for us, he was great. 
 

When the team took a downturn, he further contributed to the issues. 
 

He speaks well, however, I’m not sure he’s a leader to be honest. 
 

 

[foxile5]

41 minutes ago, TamworthFoxes said:

Excellently put.

The only thing I would add was that behind this shit show is a fanbase who happily sat by happy clapping as the ship sank.

In fact the sane few who tried to point this out were abused and ridiculed.

Some people absolutely love the club to be in a position of hardship and strife. It chimes with the image that people like; the underdogs. 

 

 

[sacreblueits442]

50 minutes ago, BrummieFOX said:

Yep, I think its far more a club thing than a playing staff thing. 

 

We had Vardy, Evans, Maddison, Youri last season. All who should have but didn't step up. The bigger issue was the lack of leadership top/Top down. 

...from that list, Vardy when played was trying to lead by example,  cajoling players to close down from the front, on field  leadership on behalf of the team, is something that would not come easy to him!!!

 Evans, well we saw that he was backing Rodgers, so he felt that any role he had in this squad was safe, so why put himself out.

 Maddison,  Rodgers golden boy, very much a Rodgers lieutenant and a selfish attitude, who did not work to embrace a team spirit.  In the end believed he was the only player that could do anything of worth on the pitch.

Tielemans, he led this club a merry dance and we paid for the fidler as he went through his endless repertoire. He did not have anything in him to lead, having him in the centre of the team, gave us a weak player mentally,  with a weak body, who was responsible for the lack of anything resembling a spine in our midfield. 

  Those were never the players we should have been looking to for leadership.