A Call for Change: A Footballing Reset at Leicester City Football Club

[Free Falling Foxes]

You can bet that there has been far more discussion at the KP on how to minimise the protest, than on how we minimise the threat from Arsenal.

[cruzFOX]

News of the protest won’t make good PR back in Thailand. Sorry Top it has to be done.

[GiantDave]

On 03/02/2025 at 15:52, BlueApple said:

I don't want to see Top gone but Rudkin has got to go, I realise that Top has control over Rudkins job, so I see the irony. 

There's no evidence of Top not giving us money etc. as it seems we're constantly in a PSR battle and we're giving little to no information on why it seems so much worse than other teams. The mismanagement of funds has got to be looked at and explained to the fans immediately, I get we were spending too much and we've gone down but it's getting to the point of the unexplainable.

In just 3 season's we've moved on the following players: Fofana, Schmeichel, Maddison, Barnes, Castagne, Soyuncu, Evans, Perez, Tielemans, Praet, Iheanacho and KDH. That's 12 players that were either sold for a lot of money or were on big wages, they're off the books now but we're still be unable to make a signing, what's going on?

It's not like we've replaced them with expensive replacements on big wages. 

2023/4 Championship Wage Bill Table

Stats + Data

 

1. Leicester City – £60,190,000

2. Southampton – £40,014,000

3. Leeds United – £39,513,000

4. Norwich City – £24,196,000

5. West Bromwich Albion – £23,060,000

6. Cardiff City – £19,444,000

7. Stoke City – £18,340,000

8. Watford – £14,952,000

9. Sheffield Wednesday – £14,584,000

10. Middlesbrough – £13,582,000

11. Birmingham City – £13,228,000

12. Bristol City – £12,894,000

13. Hull City – £12,333,200

14. Swansea City – £12,276,000

15. Queens Park Rangers – £12,020,000

16. Ipswich Town – £11,378,000

17. Preston North End – £10,942,200

18. Coventry City – £10,008,000

19. Millwall – £9,856,000

20. Huddersfield Town – £9,258,000

21. Sunderland – £9,150,000

22. Blackburn Rovers – £7,678,000

23. Rotherham United – £6,674,000

24. Plymouth Argyle – £6,060,000

 

Look how much higher we were than anyone last season.

This season 

 

1. Manchester City – £224,640,000
2. Manchester United – £190,320,000
3. Chelsea – £174,070,000
4. Arsenal – £172,146,000
5. Liverpool – £128,804,000
6. Aston Villa – £108,836,000
7. Newcastle United – £105,352,000
8. Tottenham – £104,806,000
9. West Ham United – £92,560,000
10. Everton – £71,422,000
11. Fulham – £68,406,000
12. Crystal Palace – £67,314,000
13. Nottingham Forest – £66,456,000
14. Leicester City – £65,416,000
15. Brighton – £59,202,000
16. Wolves – £55,562,000
17. Bournemouth – £50,544,000
18. Southampton – £50,206,000
19. Brentford – £42,250,000
20. Ipswich Town – £34,996,000

 

Forest a similar sized club were in trouble with the same wages too, Everton the same, Brighton have to sell masses of players to keep going, Wolves are struggling and had to get rid of some of their top talent. With PSR many clubs are operating at unsustainable levels and with last year in the Championship and our loss of status this year income is probably much lower than previous seasons in the premier league.

The only way to start building again is to get rid of the mass of average and  chronically injured (sorry Ricardo)  players on massive wages and start again.

 

 

[MattFox]

3 hours ago, FLAN said:

I think changing the ending to reflect the later demise would work

”Rudkin and Whelan, you’ve killed all of that” 

Should be “Top you killed all of that”

 

We don’t have the balls to do it though 

[apollo4joe]

We supposedly spend £65MILLION on wages. On fackin what? The way we play it should be about £3million. So depressing

[FLAN]

I still think the easiest thing to get people involved in is a white flag protest. On a defined trigger people wave white flags/hanky’s or whatever and stand in silence for one minute 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

There should be performance and results related wages so the lower in the league we are the less the spineless bankers get paid

 

disgusting wages

 

disgusting 

[davieG]

[The Year Of The Fox]

23 hours ago, Bob Weasel Fox said:

There should be performance and results related wages so the lower in the league we are the less the spineless bankers get paid

 

disgusting wages

 

disgusting 

Whereas we’re borrowing more money based on future PL Sky TV games 😎 

[Lionator]

12 hours ago, davieG said:

It’s almost like it’s normal for a club not to actively hate its core fanbase.

[Daggers]

13 hours ago, davieG said:

Cobblers started phoning fans during Covid to check they were ok. That’s been kept up for at risk groups and they operate a drop-in warm centre. I’m sure they aren’t unique. Some clubs get the whole community vibe, some - like Leicester - only care about customers.

[davieG]

1 hour ago, Daggers said:

Cobblers started phoning fans during Covid to check they were ok. That’s been kept up for at risk groups and they operate a drop-in warm centre. I’m sure they aren’t unique. Some clubs get the whole community vibe, some - like Leicester - only care about customers.

They do but their focus seems to be on local people and communities that have no connection or personal affiliation to the club.

[foxfan92]

This is depressing reading ...

 

[JonnyBoy]

4 hours ago, foxfan92 said:

This is depressing reading ...

 

can someone get this on a big banner for the protest?

 

then at the bottom: "entitled" 

Edited 6 February by JonnyBoy

[NotTheMarketLeader]

And there for all to see the root cause of our demise. 

[Analysethis]

When we were throwing millions of pounds around buying all these players, I cant remember seeing too many people complaining! When we were challenging for Cups and Leagues, Champions League and Europe and still asking for tens of millions to be spent again (whilst the club was spending a fortune on the training ground), no one was complaining. To me its astonishing how some of our fans are turning on the owner after all his family has done for us.

 

We have gone from a yo-yo club to a First time Prem winner, a first time FA Cup winner, Europa, Conference and Champions league participants who spent almost £40m on one player in Tielemans. Who seriously thought a club like ours could do such a thing? In fact, apart from the odd club like Forest flying high the odd season, which other club our size has had the same consistent ten years since the formation of the Premier league? None! Only the big clubs and even them have done sweet FA compared to us.

 

We have also attracted high quality much sought managers such as Brendan Rodgers and spent most of our time at the top end of the best domestic league in the world against clubs who are bigger than us, have more income than us and more of a pull than us. We have over achieved so much that it seems some in here feel entitled that we should be doing it every season. We simply are not big enough for that.

 

The same people who called for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked then Cooper, now Rudkin, now Top just continue to be delusional in their expectations. How many would prefer the good old days with Rodgers and that squad, keeping him here in the hope he turned us around? Cooper was hated and not backed from the start. Many actually wanted him to fail and called for a fresh new forward thinking manager. Apparently we got one although I cant see the credentials personally.

 

IMO the mistake we made is to think we should flex and be like the top 4. We should have carried on selling our best players for mega money every season like we did when we sold the likes of Maguire, Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell etc. In 2020/21 we hardly raised any money and didnt sell a high profile player for mega bucks for the first time in but spent over 50m on Daka, Soumare and Vestegard. I remember many were moaning that we should have thrown more money like we have and endless pit. I think that season will be seen as defining regarding transfers and contracts. Also its important that we point out that we have made so many catastrophic transfer decisions for years. Its not like we dropped the ball last year, we have done it for years. Among the well publicized gems like Vardy, Mahrez, Hermansen and hopefully El Khannouss, we have the likes of Slimani, Ghezzal, Silva, Daka, Souttar, Ward., Perez. I think the profits on the likes of Fofana, Maguire, Maddison etc have masked the clangers we have made for years.

 

Of course like all clubs, ours have made mistakes and some real clangers, especially allowing so many high profile players contracts run down and having so much dead wood in the squad not being moved on but I wouldn't swap the last 10 years with any "small to medium" club to be honest. Look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal etc, all so called big clubs who have done fudge all for years and in some respect, decades. 

 

I say we get realistic, I understand the frustration for some of the hierarchy to change but for me we back of the owner as its not simply them being the scapegoat.

 

This season isnt done yet and there are some real shower teams in the league, including 3 other clubs than us. Lets hope a miracle happens with a 4th bottom finish but attacking the owners in protests wont do us any favours.

 

 

[UniFox21]

13 hours ago, Daggers said:

Cobblers started phoning fans during Covid to check they were ok. That’s been kept up for at risk groups and they operate a drop-in warm centre. I’m sure they aren’t unique. Some clubs get the whole community vibe, some - like Leicester - only care about customers.

I only seem to get emails about selling my ticket, buying tickets or merch or filling in a survey. 

Think I got an email when I missed a game, but can't remember if that was a check in or reminding me I could resell my ticket 

[sylofox]

15 minutes ago, Analysethis said:

When we were throwing millions of pounds around buying all these players, I cant remember seeing too many people complaining! When we were challenging for Cups and Leagues, Champions League and Europe and still asking for tens of millions to be spent again (whilst the club was spending a fortune on the training ground), no one was complaining. To me its astonishing how some of our fans are turning on the owner after all his family has done for us.

 

We have gone from a yo-yo club to a First time Prem winner, a first time FA Cup winner, Europa, Conference and Champions league participants who spent almost £40m on one player in Tielemans. Who seriously thought a club like ours could do such a thing? In fact, apart from the odd club like Forest flying high the odd season, which other club our size has had the same consistent ten years since the formation of the Premier league? None! Only the big clubs and even them have done sweet FA compared to us.

 

We have also attracted high quality much sought managers such as Brendan Rodgers and spent most of our time at the top end of the best domestic league in the world against clubs who are bigger than us, have more income than us and more of a pull than us. We have over achieved so much that it seems some in here feel entitled that we should be doing it every season. We simply are not big enough for that.

 

The same people who called for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked then Cooper, now Rudkin, now Top just continue to be delusional in their expectations. How many would prefer the good old days with Rodgers and that squad, keeping him here in the hope he turned us around? Cooper was hated and not backed from the start. Many actually wanted him to fail and called for a fresh new forward thinking manager. Apparently we got one although I cant see the credentials personally.

 

IMO the mistake we made is to think we should flex and be like the top 4. We should have carried on selling our best players for mega money every season like we did when we sold the likes of Maguire, Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell etc. In 2020/21 we hardly raised any money and didnt sell a high profile player for mega bucks for the first time in but spent over 50m on Daka, Soumare and Vestegard. I remember many were moaning that we should have thrown more money like we have and endless pit. I think that season will be seen as defining regarding transfers and contracts. Also its important that we point out that we have made so many catastrophic transfer decisions for years. Its not like we dropped the ball last year, we have done it for years. Among the well publicized gems like Vardy, Mahrez, Hermansen and hopefully El Khannouss, we have the likes of Slimani, Ghezzal, Silva, Daka, Souttar, Ward., Perez. I think the profits on the likes of Fofana, Maguire, Maddison etc have masked the clangers we have made for years.

 

Of course like all clubs, ours have made mistakes and some real clangers, especially allowing so many high profile players contracts run down and having so much dead wood in the squad not being moved on but I wouldn't swap the last 10 years with any "small to medium" club to be honest. Look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal etc, all so called big clubs who have done fudge all for years and in some respect, decades. 

 

I say we get realistic, I understand the frustration for some of the hierarchy to change but for me we back of the owner as its not simply them being the scapegoat.

 

This season isnt done yet and there are some real shower teams in the league, including 3 other clubs than us. Lets hope a miracle happens with a 4th bottom finish but attacking the owners in protests wont do us any favours.

 

 

Rudkin your still a useless cvnt.

[adejo92]

26 minutes ago, Analysethis said:

When we were throwing millions of pounds around buying all these players, I cant remember seeing too many people complaining! When we were challenging for Cups and Leagues, Champions League and Europe and still asking for tens of millions to be spent again (whilst the club was spending a fortune on the training ground), no one was complaining. To me its astonishing how some of our fans are turning on the owner after all his family has done for us.

 

We have gone from a yo-yo club to a First time Prem winner, a first time FA Cup winner, Europa, Conference and Champions league participants who spent almost £40m on one player in Tielemans. Who seriously thought a club like ours could do such a thing? In fact, apart from the odd club like Forest flying high the odd season, which other club our size has had the same consistent ten years since the formation of the Premier league? None! Only the big clubs and even them have done sweet FA compared to us.

 

We have also attracted high quality much sought managers such as Brendan Rodgers and spent most of our time at the top end of the best domestic league in the world against clubs who are bigger than us, have more income than us and more of a pull than us. We have over achieved so much that it seems some in here feel entitled that we should be doing it every season. We simply are not big enough for that.

 

The same people who called for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked then Cooper, now Rudkin, now Top just continue to be delusional in their expectations. How many would prefer the good old days with Rodgers and that squad, keeping him here in the hope he turned us around? Cooper was hated and not backed from the start. Many actually wanted him to fail and called for a fresh new forward thinking manager. Apparently we got one although I cant see the credentials personally.

 

IMO the mistake we made is to think we should flex and be like the top 4. We should have carried on selling our best players for mega money every season like we did when we sold the likes of Maguire, Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell etc. In 2020/21 we hardly raised any money and didnt sell a high profile player for mega bucks for the first time in but spent over 50m on Daka, Soumare and Vestegard. I remember many were moaning that we should have thrown more money like we have and endless pit. I think that season will be seen as defining regarding transfers and contracts. Also its important that we point out that we have made so many catastrophic transfer decisions for years. Its not like we dropped the ball last year, we have done it for years. Among the well publicized gems like Vardy, Mahrez, Hermansen and hopefully El Khannouss, we have the likes of Slimani, Ghezzal, Silva, Daka, Souttar, Ward., Perez. I think the profits on the likes of Fofana, Maguire, Maddison etc have masked the clangers we have made for years.

 

Of course like all clubs, ours have made mistakes and some real clangers, especially allowing so many high profile players contracts run down and having so much dead wood in the squad not being moved on but I wouldn't swap the last 10 years with any "small to medium" club to be honest. Look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal etc, all so called big clubs who have done fudge all for years and in some respect, decades. 

 

I say we get realistic, I understand the frustration for some of the hierarchy to change but for me we back of the owner as its not simply them being the scapegoat.

 

This season isnt done yet and there are some real shower teams in the league, including 3 other clubs than us. Lets hope a miracle happens with a 4th bottom finish but attacking the owners in protests wont do us any favours.

 

 

Is this Novel available in hardback too?

Edited 6 February by adejo92

[MrLuke]

38 minutes ago, Analysethis said:

When we were throwing millions of pounds around buying all these players, I cant remember seeing too many people complaining! When we were challenging for Cups and Leagues, Champions League and Europe and still asking for tens of millions to be spent again (whilst the club was spending a fortune on the training ground), no one was complaining. To me its astonishing how some of our fans are turning on the owner after all his family has done for us.

 

We have gone from a yo-yo club to a First time Prem winner, a first time FA Cup winner, Europa, Conference and Champions league participants who spent almost £40m on one player in Tielemans. Who seriously thought a club like ours could do such a thing? In fact, apart from the odd club like Forest flying high the odd season, which other club our size has had the same consistent ten years since the formation of the Premier league? None! Only the big clubs and even them have done sweet FA compared to us.

 

We have also attracted high quality much sought managers such as Brendan Rodgers and spent most of our time at the top end of the best domestic league in the world against clubs who are bigger than us, have more income than us and more of a pull than us. We have over achieved so much that it seems some in here feel entitled that we should be doing it every season. We simply are not big enough for that.

 

The same people who called for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked then Cooper, now Rudkin, now Top just continue to be delusional in their expectations. How many would prefer the good old days with Rodgers and that squad, keeping him here in the hope he turned us around? Cooper was hated and not backed from the start. Many actually wanted him to fail and called for a fresh new forward thinking manager. Apparently we got one although I cant see the credentials personally.

 

IMO the mistake we made is to think we should flex and be like the top 4. We should have carried on selling our best players for mega money every season like we did when we sold the likes of Maguire, Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell etc. In 2020/21 we hardly raised any money and didnt sell a high profile player for mega bucks for the first time in but spent over 50m on Daka, Soumare and Vestegard. I remember many were moaning that we should have thrown more money like we have and endless pit. I think that season will be seen as defining regarding transfers and contracts. Also its important that we point out that we have made so many catastrophic transfer decisions for years. Its not like we dropped the ball last year, we have done it for years. Among the well publicized gems like Vardy, Mahrez, Hermansen and hopefully El Khannouss, we have the likes of Slimani, Ghezzal, Silva, Daka, Souttar, Ward., Perez. I think the profits on the likes of Fofana, Maguire, Maddison etc have masked the clangers we have made for years.

 

Of course like all clubs, ours have made mistakes and some real clangers, especially allowing so many high profile players contracts run down and having so much dead wood in the squad not being moved on but I wouldn't swap the last 10 years with any "small to medium" club to be honest. Look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal etc, all so called big clubs who have done fudge all for years and in some respect, decades. 

 

I say we get realistic, I understand the frustration for some of the hierarchy to change but for me we back of the owner as its not simply them being the scapegoat.

 

This season isnt done yet and there are some real shower teams in the league, including 3 other clubs than us. Lets hope a miracle happens with a 4th bottom finish but attacking the owners in protests wont do us any favours.

 

 

Appreciate your positivity but I disagree.

 

We have been sleepwalking into the current state the club is in; poor signings, inflated wages and an enormous amount of talent leaving the club on a free.

 

I do agree I wouldn't swap our last 10 years with any other non top 6 club, but that's no excuse for the lack of forward planning.

 

Admittedly we were probably in a state of shock from winning the league and didn't really know what to do next, I get that. But that was 9 years ago. The club is a business. We have absolutely squandered a once in a lifetime opportunity to become an established top 8 team due to carelessness and mismanagement. Any CEO that was in charge of a company spiralling out of control like Leicester are would be shown the door pretty sharpish, so why are there no changes at the club to reverse the direction we are going in?

 

I absolutely agree we should be realistic. Realism to me is acknowledging there are problems at the club and finding a solution to fix them. Until the club publicly acknowledges this and starts making changes to reverse it, we will continue to drop down the league and more importantly, lose the connection with the fans.

 

 

[Vlad the Fox]

14 hours ago, Daggers said:

Cobblers started phoning fans during Covid to check they were ok. That’s been kept up for at risk groups and they operate a drop-in warm centre. I’m sure they aren’t unique. Some clubs get the whole community vibe, some - like Leicester - only care about customers.

To be fair we’re looking at doing this during cold spells. £25 for a chair by the radiator though. 

[LCFCJohn]

8 hours ago, Analysethis said:

When we were throwing millions of pounds around buying all these players, I cant remember seeing too many people complaining! When we were challenging for Cups and Leagues, Champions League and Europe and still asking for tens of millions to be spent again (whilst the club was spending a fortune on the training ground), no one was complaining. To me its astonishing how some of our fans are turning on the owner after all his family has done for us.

 

We have gone from a yo-yo club to a First time Prem winner, a first time FA Cup winner, Europa, Conference and Champions league participants who spent almost £40m on one player in Tielemans. Who seriously thought a club like ours could do such a thing? In fact, apart from the odd club like Forest flying high the odd season, which other club our size has had the same consistent ten years since the formation of the Premier league? None! Only the big clubs and even them have done sweet FA compared to us.

 

We have also attracted high quality much sought managers such as Brendan Rodgers and spent most of our time at the top end of the best domestic league in the world against clubs who are bigger than us, have more income than us and more of a pull than us. We have over achieved so much that it seems some in here feel entitled that we should be doing it every season. We simply are not big enough for that.

 

The same people who called for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked then Cooper, now Rudkin, now Top just continue to be delusional in their expectations. How many would prefer the good old days with Rodgers and that squad, keeping him here in the hope he turned us around? Cooper was hated and not backed from the start. Many actually wanted him to fail and called for a fresh new forward thinking manager. Apparently we got one although I cant see the credentials personally.

 

IMO the mistake we made is to think we should flex and be like the top 4. We should have carried on selling our best players for mega money every season like we did when we sold the likes of Maguire, Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell etc. In 2020/21 we hardly raised any money and didnt sell a high profile player for mega bucks for the first time in but spent over 50m on Daka, Soumare and Vestegard. I remember many were moaning that we should have thrown more money like we have and endless pit. I think that season will be seen as defining regarding transfers and contracts. Also its important that we point out that we have made so many catastrophic transfer decisions for years. Its not like we dropped the ball last year, we have done it for years. Among the well publicized gems like Vardy, Mahrez, Hermansen and hopefully El Khannouss, we have the likes of Slimani, Ghezzal, Silva, Daka, Souttar, Ward., Perez. I think the profits on the likes of Fofana, Maguire, Maddison etc have masked the clangers we have made for years.

 

Of course like all clubs, ours have made mistakes and some real clangers, especially allowing so many high profile players contracts run down and having so much dead wood in the squad not being moved on but I wouldn't swap the last 10 years with any "small to medium" club to be honest. Look at Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal etc, all so called big clubs who have done fudge all for years and in some respect, decades. 

 

I say we get realistic, I understand the frustration for some of the hierarchy to change but for me we back of the owner as its not simply them being the scapegoat.

 

This season isnt done yet and there are some real shower teams in the league, including 3 other clubs than us. Lets hope a miracle happens with a 4th bottom finish but attacking the owners in protests wont do us any favours.

 

 

You make a couple pf good points such as we should have carried on selling to invest. The point later about the clangers for years were obviously masked by the sales and the fact PSR was quite new/not being enforced. People were annoyed at those at the time so let’s not pretend we were all oblivious. Remember the storm against Rudkin after Silva 14 seconds gate? So people have seen through Rudkin for years but at that point, we were still covering our mistakes with big sales. Honestly outside of Pearson and his team, Puel/Macia and a couple of gems (Mads and Fats) under Maresca, our recruitment has been awful.

 

But, with respect, you lose credibility for using the past achievements to justify clapping along this decline now. Of course people were happy when things were going well, equally when things turn to shit, people are unhappy, it’s not rocket science. If fans could see evidence of learning from mistakes, the owners would be given more allowances for what they have been a part of (let’s not pretend they have been the sole or even main reason for the success).

 

But as you point out, bad decisions have been happening for years. Now they are not getting bailed out by managers like Pearson and Puel and the financial stuff has hit, they were going to come under a lot of scrutiny. It eased a bit last year as there seemed to be a plan and some decent signings and signs that maybe, just maybe, lessons were learnt. Enter this season, Cooper and a host of awful (or at least poor value for money) signings. The squad wasn’t improved nor the PSR position by signings the likes of Skipp for £25mill and him not playing or being remotely worth that.

 

So it is lessons not being learnt. If Top came out, gave those responsible the boot, showed evidence of restructuring the football side and acknowledged the mistakes, I’m sure you’d find few people who wouldn’t get behind him. But he’s not doing that is he? People saying ‘Top’s fine, he just needs to get rid of Rudkin etc’. Yes he does, but he isn’t!

 

And re the last part. It’s over. We are just awful. We may have one side in Southampton to finish below. We may find another, likely Ipswich and be 18th. But you’re kidding yourself if you think we are finishing above 3. For me, Wolves are going to end up putting a gap between us and the bottom 3 will be cut off. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s mathematically done with a couple of games to spare.

Edited 7 February by LCFCJohn

[Vardyshardy]

On 05/02/2025 at 18:27, davieG said:

Well done Brentford. This week my PA ticket was cancelled without any communication at all because Leicester decided they wanted to see my paperwork again. No reminders, no anything. 
It’s honestly top to bottom with this club at the moment 

[davieG]

[Sol thewall Bamba]

On 05/02/2025 at 18:27, davieG said:

This is what Facebook KPFC diehards think our owners do.