5 Incoming Players - allegedly

[coolhandfox]

We are the runt of the litter wanting for the scrap once all the other dogs have eaten.

[Ric Flair]

46 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Iborra had no links or leaks whatsoever if I recall. First we heard about it was when someone snapped a pic of him having media pics done. 

The links did come out of the blue but it was a few days before he then signed. Wasn't Rudkin pictured on holiday at the time doing the deal?

[Lesta2014]

Not even gunna get a last minute rumour to say ain’t good enough and then be annoyed they haven’t signed are we? 

[Glorious Leicester Fan]

On 20/01/2025 at 16:30, ClaphamFox said:

What makes you think we'll get a transfer ban when we're relegated?

I think the championship may possibly punish us for financial reasons. 

[Simonb]

2 hours ago, Alex H 1998 said:

Hobbs and Wayne Brown 

 

way better 

 

Mills and St ledger were better 

They all were yes 

[John rayner]

22 minutes ago, Glorious Leicester Fan said:

I think the championship may possibly punish us for financial reasons. 

There waiting for us 

[Heathrow fox]

3 hours ago, Alex H 1998 said:

Exposed himself for what he really is in that “Enzo we miss you video”

 

front and centre 

 

is Vestergaard, Faes, Coady, Okoli the worst set of centre backs this clubs ever had???

All spent time in and around top tier international squads 

late nineteen eighties Steve Walsh and whoever he was paired with were also pretty shocking believe it or not

[Simonb]

23 minutes ago, Glorious Leicester Fan said:

I think the championship may possibly punish us for financial reasons. 

Which is why splashing out now would be the right decision surely. Stay up breaking the rules..  extra cash in the bank and a points deduction.. go down and have some assets to sell or help us bounce back

 

Atm we are going down.. probably lose half the squad, be stuck with the crap. Mads and bilal to leave at a cut price as we're desperate for cash so only minimal profit off them.. fine, deduction and maybe an embargo .. sounds good

[StanSP]

2 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

Can’t wait for the club to tweet 👀 at 3pm then not announce any new signings at all. 

Didn't Leeds do something similar a few seasons ago? 

[Glorious Leicester Fan]

4 minutes ago, Simonb said:

Which is why splashing out now would be the right decision surely. Stay up breaking the rules..  extra cash in the bank and a points deduction.. go down and have some assets to sell or help us bounce back

 

Atm we are going down.. probably lose half the squad, be stuck with the crap. Mads and bilal to leave at a cut price as we're desperate for cash so only minimal profit off them.. fine, deduction and maybe an embargo .. sounds good

I agree. Although I imagine there’s a major issue in persuading players to come to us. We could try to buy championship level players, but I’m not RVN would be on board with this.

 

We’re in a very weird position. Accepting we’re most probably relegated, but trying to persuade premier league quality players we’re still and will remain a Prem club!!!!!!

[Dan]

I hear a lot of pennies dropping.

 

Get these scumbags out of the club.

[Glasgow fox]

We have a boardroom who don't give a fek about us so we need to stop giving a fek about them.

[moore_94]

I am very much looking forward to us carrying on the rest of the season with the exact same defence (I can’t see Woyo getting much of a go)

[Mickyblueeyes]

8 hours ago, moore_94 said:

I am very much looking forward to us carrying on the rest of the season with the exact same defence (I can’t see Woyo getting much of a go)

2 years ago they left us with the same keeper despite everyone and his left bollock knowing that Leicester needed a keeper. 
 

It’s now let’s repeat our previous mistakes over and over again. 

[Lcfcwigstonblue]

Rudkin is going to make me actually do a full days work today isn’t he.

No point constantly dropping in here for lots of news.

[coolhandfox]

Looking forward to the odd glimmer of hope and then to be totally disappointed at 11:30

 

WELCOME TO DEADLINE 

 

 

[Simonb]

9 hours ago, Glorious Leicester Fan said:

I agree. Although I imagine there’s a major issue in persuading players to come to us. We could try to buy championship level players, but I’m not RVN would be on board with this.

 

We’re in a very weird position. Accepting we’re most probably relegated, but trying to persuade premier league quality players we’re still and will remain a Prem club!!!!!!

Tbh, if I was a player of championship quality I'd still not fancy coming here. It's turning toxic, will be worse when we drop. Better off going somewhere like Sheffield Wednesday where you have half a chance at promotion and it's a success if you do.

 

Come here, it's expected and the minute it goes wrong it turns.

[jonny_wright]

No links, no rumours, no signings, no hope 

[ronnup]

Chakvetadze?

[Finn Claw II]

Well recall all our loans and bring Andy King back out of retirement.  
 

5 Incoming

[lcfc_forever]

Tanner's latest article suggests RVN is likely going to have to work with what we've got. 

 

No surprise the issue is PSR, and he highlights the ongoing arbitration with the Premier League.

 

Best possibility of a signing is a loan from abroad.

 

Not surprising based on what we've heard already. 

[lcfc_forever]

8 hours ago, moore_94 said:

I am very much looking forward to us carrying on the rest of the season with the exact same defence (I can’t see Woyo getting much of a go)

At least switch to 3-5-2 to help make up for the defensive issues, and play the defenders with pace if you want to play a high line! 

[Torten]

9 hours ago, StanSP said:

Didn't Leeds do something similar a few seasons ago? 

Worse, they put something along the lines of "Don't go to sleep just yet..."

 

Only to announce a reserve player going out on loan 5 mins before the deadline. 

[jonny_wright]

Tanner article:

 

Leicester City are unlikely to be doing any business on transfer deadline day.

Continued concerns about profit and sustainability rules (PSR) mean there is limited scope for manager Ruud Van Nistelrooy to bolster the squad he inherited two months ago before the window shuts on Monday at 11pm UK time (6pm ET), certainly with players who could actually make a difference.

There will be outgoings, including Will Alves moving to Cardiff City of the second-tier Championship on loan, but it seems the arrival of full-back Woyo Coulibaly from Parma of Italy for £3million ($3.7m) a couple of weeks ago will prove to be the only piece of mid-season business Leicester do.

Both Premier League loan slots are taken up by summer signings Facundo Buonanotte and Odsonne Edouard, neither of whom featured as Leicester suffered a chastening 4-0 away defeat against relegation rivals Everton on Saturday. Edouard, who has played just 26 minutes of Premier League football in four appearances since moving from Crystal Palace, was not even in the 20-strong matchday squad — the 11th time in Leicester’s past 12 top-flight games for which he was eligible.

Unless a tempting deal emerges on the international loan market before today’s deadline, the restrictions imposed by PSR will mean Van Nistelrooy will have to try to keep Leicester in the Premier League with what he already has at his disposal.

After the trouncing at Goodison Park — which could have been by an even wider margin — that seems a daunting prospect.

Leicester do have funds to spend and would like to back Van Nistelrooy, but they continue to sail close to the PSR limits and are still in arbitration with the Premier League over previous issues, most notably the 2022-23 season, when they avoided a charge by effectively arguing they ceased to be a Premier League club at the point of breach due to their relegation but were not yet a Championship club either.

Such tight restrictions mean the business they did in the summer post-promotion, when they sold key midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea for £30million and then spent around £80m to improve the squad Steve Cooper took over from Chelsea-bound Enzo Maresca, will come under further scrutiny.

PSR may have paralysed the club in this window, but their previous transfer dealings have not been effective enough in terms of having an impact on the current starting XI. It is hard to argue this squad is an improvement on the one that won instant promotion back to the Premier League last season and it certainly is not as stacked with talent as the group who surprisingly went down a year earlier.

It seems tough on Van Nistelrooy, who has repeatedly said he was given assurances he would have support in this window during the negotiations before he agreed to take over from Cooper, who was sacked in November after just 12 league games in charge.

After the defeat by Everton, when asked twice if he would be able to strengthen a player pool who had just been humbled emphatically, the Dutchman tempered any expectation in that direction. “Now it is about focusing on the squad we have because we are better than we showed today,” he said.

Leicester are 18th, two points from safety, with 14 games to go (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

They were better last weekend when they came from a goal down to win 2-1 away against Tottenham Hotspur, but it remains just one clean sheet all season in their 24 league fixtures. It is clear where the biggest and most immediate problem lies. Leicester cannot hope to survive in the 2024-25 Premier League with such a porous defence — which, with Coulibaly having only played twice as a substitute so far, is effectively the same one they had two seasons ago as they got relegated.

Without being able to bring in much-needed reinforcements, Van Nistelrooy will have to work with what he has for the remaining 14 games of the season. It will be the greatest test of his young managerial career.

When the 48-year-old agreed to join Leicester, he had just one season of first-team management under his belt, at PSV of the Netherlands in 2022-23. And he walked away from that with one game left because, having had two of his best players — Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke — sold in the January window, he felt he did not have the backing of those above him at the club. Could history repeat itself at Leicester?

Gakpo and Madueke were so important to a PSV side who eventually finished second in the Eredivisie that season because attack was Van Nistelrooy’s best form of defence: they scored a league-leading 89 goals in their 34 matches (eight more than eventual champions Feyenoord), but conceded 40, the highest total in the final top six.

Everton’s first goal on Saturday, scored just 10 seconds into the match, was the 50th Leicester have conceded in the Premier League this season; after 24 games, it is the earliest they have reached that figure in a top-flight campaign since 1959-60 (when it took until the 23rd match).

Van Nistelrooy was a great striker for Manchester United, Real Madrid and the Netherlands in his playing days. Is he now able to build a defensive structure that will form the foundation of a survival bid? So far, the answer is no.

In Cooper’s 12 league matches, Leicester conceded 23 goals. In the 11 under Van Nistelrooy, they have allowed 26.

By contrast, his Everton counterpart David Moyes came into the press room on Saturday evening after his side’s third consecutive victory, and second straight clean sheet, and mentioned how they had a defensive foundation that was key to their resurgence since his return for a second spell at Goodison Park early last month.

Leicester do not have that solid base currently. It is like building on quicksand because of previous recruitment failings, but it is now Van Nistelrooy’s responsibility to do everything he can to mitigate those issues.

After Tottenham, there was hope. That win in north London felt significant to many Leicester fans who were buoyed by how their team stood firm under late pressure, defended deep and broke quickly. All that positivity evaporated in the opening seconds on Saturday, with that hope being replaced by anger, recrimination and dejection.

And when they went two down inside six minutes, the travelling fans shouted for the removal of director of football Jon Rudkin and the board of directors.

There were ironic celebrations in the away section when Leicester had possession or even a shot and chants of “This is embarrassing” as the game quickly slipped away.

At times, it was embarrassing. Some of Leicester’s defending was so bad, so far off the level expected of a Premier League team, that after the game, fan-made videos of the goals they conceded appeared on social media with the soundtrack of ‘Entrance of the Gladiators’ — a tune that has become synonymous with a trip to the circus.

Worryingly, after just five minutes and when it was only 1-0, there was a chant of “We’re going down”. If the more hardcore away fans are resigned to relegation, there really is trouble ahead. At half-time, with Leicester three goals behind, some in the away end left their seats and did not return. It will be the last time they see their side play at Goodison, with Everton set to move to a state-of-the-art stadium this summer.

Unless Van Nistelrooy adopts a more pragmatic approach, even switching to a back five to hide the individual deficiencies these players possess defensively, Leicester may have a long wait to visit Everton’s new home.

[justfoxes]

On 20/01/2025 at 16:30, ClaphamFox said:

What makes you think we'll get a transfer ban when we're relegated?

Well the one indication was they were well Pished off when our lawyers got the one where the Premier League tried to do us over the year we went down, the EFL are rubbing their hands together to give us a few fines sanctions or both just to prove they can !!

Biased Bitter & Twisted FA EFL !