King Power Out

[Pliskin]

On 19/02/2026 at 07:10, Donwebbio said:

Spot on. You would think that after breathing the rarefied air at the top of the game, all of our fans would have the greed for more, an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Instead, these KP loyalists believe we have no right to be a decent team again and that we should be grateful for whatever is served up and see any mistakes made by Top/Rudkin as all part of the ups and downs of having the best owners in football.

 

After winning the title, the absolute bare minimum achievement 10 years on would be sitting where Fulham are, not in danger of relegation but not currently challenging for honours or Europe. Bare minimum. What we have is catastrophic leadership failure and the biggest demise the game has ever seen.

 

100%

[The Year Of The Fox]

We’re going down.

 

But what’ll only be evident come the end of the season is that we might not have if it hadn’t taken the cnuts in charge 3 weeks to employ an unemployed manager 

 

Just like Dean Smith 3 years ago

[HP1]

1 minute ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

We’re going down.

 

But what’ll only be evident come the end of the season is that we might not have if it hadn’t taken the cnuts in charge 3 weeks to employ an unemployed manager 

 

Just like Dean Smith 3 years ago

Sadly you might be right. Always maintain Rowett was the right man for the position we are in, but to not let him have the Charlton and Southampton home games was criminal.

[Corky]

Thank God for the Premier League stepping in a decade ago. I would imagine the players and manager would not have been impressed.

[Wymsey]

If Susan Whelan and Vichai were still present, would things have been significantly better at the club; or would things may have declined eventually still?

[Claudio Fannieri]

4 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

If Susan Whelan and Vichai were still present, would things have been significantly better at the club; or would things may have declined eventually still?

I don’t think we would have the financial mismanagement we have seen in the last 3 or 4 years and the massive disconnect between the club and the fanbase 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

11 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I don’t think we would have the financial mismanagement we have seen in the last 3 or 4 years and the massive disconnect between the club and the fanbase 

Susan Whelan was at the club for the £90 million loss year (22/23 season).

 

That - and the unthinkable relegation season - has been the issue the club has been trying to rectify ever since.

 

The other thing that seems quite clear now - the signings of Kristensen, Tete and Soutar in that seasons window were clearly a financial punt that was made on a basis of staying in the Premier league, further compounding the clubs PSR issues.

Edited 21 February by DJ Barry Hammond

[The Year Of The Fox]

1 hour ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

Susan Whelan was at the club for the £90 million loss year (22/23 season).

 

That - and the unthinkable relegation season - has been the issue the club has been trying to rectify ever since.

 

The other thing that seems quite clear now - the signings of Kristensen, Tete and Soutar in that seasons window were clearly a financial punt that was made on a basis of staying in the Premier league, further compounding the clubs PSR issues.

Rodgers needed backing!!!

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I don’t think we would have the financial mismanagement we have seen in the last 3 or 4 years and the massive disconnect between the club and the fanbase 

Hmm, apparently Susan Whelan thought 116% wages to turnover was acceptable. And Vichai’s luck would have likely run out. We might not be on the brink of League 1 but I think we’d be struggling. 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

41 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Rodgers needed backing!!!

They tried to make it work with him… which given the success we had in the previous seasons and the rumoured contract release terms; that’s a reasonably understandable position to take.

 

What was equally unfortunate was we’d had a little upturn in form before the World Cup break that year; that bought Rodgers more time than his attitude deserved.

[Ian S]

46 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Rodgers needed backing!!!

Rodger’s needed sacking much sooner!!!

[dmayne7]

2 hours ago, Wymsey said:

If Susan Whelan and Vichai were still present, would things have been significantly better at the club; or would things may have declined eventually still?

Lots of mistakes probably would have happened but no way we'd have sunk this low

[Chrysalis]

6 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Rodgers needed backing!!!

They didnt do that either.

 

Indecisiveness had us stuck in the middle of keeping old transfer window strategies and fully backing him.

 

Backing Rodgers would have been following his suggestion to sign Lookman.

Not selling Fofana at end of a transfer window.

Allowing him to do the rebuild he wanted as he did at least correctly diagnose the squad needed a refresh, football doesnt stand still. (instead he found right at last moment it wasnt happening, was even showing potential signings around training ground).

 

Same indecisiveness led us to getting rid of him too late.

[Ricey]

On 19/02/2026 at 07:10, Donwebbio said:

Spot on. You would think that after breathing the rarefied air at the top of the game, all of our fans would have the greed for more, an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Instead, these KP loyalists believe we have no right to be a decent team again and that we should be grateful for whatever is served up and see any mistakes made by Top/Rudkin as all part of the ups and downs of having the best owners in football.

 

After winning the title, the absolute bare minimum achievement 10 years on would be sitting where Fulham are, not in danger of relegation but not currently challenging for honours or Europe. Bare minimum. What we have is catastrophic leadership failure and the biggest demise the game has ever seen.

 

Judging everything against the clubs lowest point in our 142 year history and using that as the bare minimum is so strange to me. These people wouldn’t do it with anything else in their lives.

[Stadt]

7 hours ago, Chrysalis said:

They didnt do that either.

 

Indecisiveness had us stuck in the middle of keeping old transfer window strategies and fully backing him.

 

Backing Rodgers would have been following his suggestion to sign Lookman.

Not selling Fofana at end of a transfer window.

Allowing him to do the rebuild he wanted as he did at least correctly diagnose the squad needed a refresh, football doesnt stand still. (instead he found right at last moment it wasnt happening, was even showing potential signings around training ground).

 

Same indecisiveness led us to getting rid of him too late.

He got his mate as HoR, we broke with our model of a big sale every summer for him, he had our highest ever net spend as manager. He was the incumbent for the inauguration of our new £100m trading ground. He wasn’t sacked after 7 winless games at the start of 22/23.

 

He had plenty of backing, more than us reasonable to expect.

[Paninistickers]

On 19/02/2026 at 11:10, Donwebbio said:

Spot on. You would think that after breathing the rarefied air at the top of the game, all of our fans would have the greed for more, an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Instead, these KP loyalists believe we have no right to be a decent team again and that we should be grateful for whatever is served up and see any mistakes made by Top/Rudkin as all part of the ups and downs of having the best owners in football.

 

After winning the title, the absolute bare minimum achievement 10 years on would be sitting where Fulham are, not in danger of relegation but not currently challenging for honours or Europe. Bare minimum. What we have is catastrophic leadership failure and the biggest demise the game has ever seen.

 

Thanks for posting such a well written piece. 

 

The fan base at large was, I felt, always uncomfortable at accepting being a quality team. The bescarfed old dears, Ginetta, Basin, Leicester Fan TV types seemed to be like those type of people who get invited to palace garden parties -  in awe of the minor royals, awkwardly dressed, nervous, small talk marvelling over the strawberries. They just didn't belong. 

 

 

 

 

[Corky]

In the current age, you will have supporters more tuned in to off-pitch issues in addition to the on-field performance. Others will have a greater concern about results- if we are winning then all is ok.

 

Remarkably, we appear to have a third dimension where results and off-pitch issues do not matter.

[Mike Oxlong]

If we had a shit player of the season award it would be really hard to know who to pick such is the plethora of garbage that KP have given us 

[Guesty]

On 21/02/2026 at 17:27, Wymsey said:

If Susan Whelan and Vichai were still present, would things have been significantly better at the club; or would things may have declined eventually still?

I take Whelan out of this, cause she was an employee and we don't really know how stuff worked behind the scenes. But I think we'd be a lot better off if Vichai was still here. And I say that as someone who thinks he gets too much credit for our league win. 

 

What Vichai might not have known about football, he did know about running a business and leadership. He'd have made decisions a lot quicker.

 

He wouldn't have allowed things like Brendan Rodgers' self-serving, buck-passing, snivelling press conferences. Ones where he talked down the club and the players. It's terrible leadership. He might not have sacked him, but I bet he'd have had a word with him; and I bet that weasel Rodgers' would have listened.

 

I still remember when he refused to sit in West Ham's directors box because Karen Brady had written about him buying wine after sacking Ranieri in her paper column - he still wouldn't sell them Slimani even after they'd apologised. He cared about and  knew the importance of things like that.

[Chrysalis]

3 hours ago, Guesty said:

I take Whelan out of this, cause she was an employee and we don't really know how stuff worked behind the scenes. But I think we'd be a lot better off if Vichai was still here. And I say that as someone who thinks he gets too much credit for our league win. 

 

What Vichai might not have known about football, he did know about running a business and leadership. He'd have made decisions a lot quicker.

 

He wouldn't have allowed things like Brendan Rodgers' self-serving, buck-passing, snivelling press conferences. Ones where he talked down the club and the players. It's terrible leadership. He might not have sacked him, but I bet he'd have had a word with him; and I bet that weasel Rodgers' would have listened.

 

I still remember when he refused to sit in West Ham's directors box because Karen Brady had written about him buying wine after sacking Ranieri in her paper column - he still wouldn't sell them Slimani even after they'd apologised. He cared about and  knew the importance of things like that.

Remember he sacked Pearson for non result reasons without a second thought.  To me he would have been far more decisive.

We wouldnt have had the half in half out not sure what to do summer, we either would have ignored PSR and dealt with consequences later, or not allowed things to get so bad that we had no margins at all on spending limits.  Rodgers I think would have been gone at the latest by Christmas, but I expect much earlier in October.

Notice how no other club has had the same type of issues as us for so long, we are quite unique, as most are run by experienced business men.

Edited 22 February by Chrysalis

[dmayne7]

On 19/02/2026 at 07:10, Donwebbio said:

Spot on. You would think that after breathing the rarefied air at the top of the game, all of our fans would have the greed for more, an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Instead, these KP loyalists believe we have no right to be a decent team again and that we should be grateful for whatever is served up and see any mistakes made by Top/Rudkin as all part of the ups and downs of having the best owners in football.

 

After winning the title, the absolute bare minimum achievement 10 years on would be sitting where Fulham are, not in danger of relegation but not currently challenging for honours or Europe. Bare minimum. What we have is catastrophic leadership failure and the biggest demise the game has ever seen.

 

This is what I, and many others, say constantly. We'd done all the hard yards and put the club into a position where even underperformance would have been safety in the PL, but success would have been CL football or at least a lot of EL/challenging for cups. Yes, we'd likely have dropped back to the championship at some point, but shouldn't have happened in this time frame, let alone twice and on the cusp of worse.

 

Probably more depressing is that we actually opened the door for Villa and Newcastle to go on challenge (and secure) the CL places.

[Claudio Fannieri]

If nothing else our model should have given us long term sustainability and stability, even in the event of relegation we should have been well placed to go again.
 

The club had its warning about grossly overspending and not having a coherent plan or strategy after Sven and had seemed to have learnt our lessons, the recruitment under Macia and Puel was top drawer and had laid such solid foundations. 
 

The fact that here we are now standing on the brink of relegation to league 1 & financial meltdown after a points deduction for PSR breaches and yet we have barely any saleable assets that will raise big money says all we need to know about the leadership of the club and the lack of both business & football acumen. 

[Sly]

I’m am not sure if we would be any better under Vichai. 

 

King Power got lucky that they landed on Pearson, Walsh and Shakespeare. 
 

They put together a team of individuals that achieved something truly incredible.

 

However let’s not forget the following seasons when Vichai was still with us as well. We weren’t exactly pulling up trees the following season when Kante left. Walsh left as well. We finished 12th. 
 

Our recruitment was horrible that summer and the following year we had the Adrien Silva debacle. We will never truly know whose fault that actually was. 

 

It was a lot better in the following two seasons though before he sadly passed away.
 

When you consider we signed Iheanacho, Evans, Maguire, Maddison, Tielemans and Soyuncu. How much of that was Macia and how much gets attributed to Puel is debatable.

 

Macia left in March 2019, the month after Rodgers had joined. Congerton replaced him and it’s been downhill ever since. 

 

 

 

Edited 23 February by Sly

[DJ Barry Hammond]

4 hours ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

If nothing else our model should have given us long term sustainability and stability, even in the event of relegation we should have been well placed to go again.

This is nonsense.

 

The ‘player trading’ model is rife with clubs having dramatic peaks and troughs in overall team performance - and has no grounding in “guaranteeing success.”

 

Southampton were doing ‘player trading’ long before we started it - and look at their history of promotions / relegations etc.

 

Also pay attention to what’s happening at Palace, Brighton and Wolves at the moment - all clubs that have regularly cashed in on prominent players assets and are showing signs of going through the growing pains of that process.

 

[Claudio Fannieri]

14 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

This is nonsense.

 

The ‘player trading’ model is rife with clubs having dramatic peaks and troughs in overall team performance - and has no grounding in “guaranteeing success.”

 

Southampton were doing ‘player trading’ long before we started it - and look at their history of promotions / relegations etc.

 

Also pay attention to what’s happening at Palace, Brighton and Wolves at the moment - all clubs that have regularly cashed in on prominent players assets and are showing signs of going through the growing pains of that process.

 

Read my post again, I never said we wouldn’t have had a downturn, I said if we had would have been better placed to go again. 
 

We massive overspent on wages and stopped selling players at profit to reinvest which has financially crippled us.