Plan to become well run again.

[LCFCCHRIS]

For too long the upper management have let players and managers walk all over us. Here is what I would implement to combat some of the issues and get back on a good financial standing. Please note all these changes link into each other and support the functioning of each point. 
 

1. Have a hard wage cap of say 45k with a bonus scheme for performance metrics. You want more money, prove you deserve it.

2. When scouting for players in each position, have a shortlist of 15 minimum players ranked by how much we want to sign them from #1 to #15 or more. If one is asking too much or taking too long, simply move onto the next candidate. Even if they are slightly worse in some metric. We should be setting the rules on players coming, not the other way around. We don’t want to be in the position where we are begging anyone to come here with huge bags of cash.
 

3. If the club wants to retain a player, they will be asked to sign a new contract when their contract reaches under 2 years left. If they refuse, they will be placed on the transfer list and become 2nd option to their counterpart, whether that’s another player or an academy graduate. We need to let them know that their game time and career will suffer by running out their contract. Yes the hardline approach may put off some players, but if we’re in the EPL that’s a big enough of a pull. There’s plenty of players good enough that would come still. 
 

4. If anyone comes in for our manager, we let them pay us off and take him. We should have a constantly updated list of replacements that play in a way defined as the target style by the club.

All transfers will be in this style and the academy will adopt this style all the way down to the very youth. 
 

5. Stick to our guns, if we only wanted to give vestegaard a 2 year deal for example, we should have offered it to him and then walk away with a solid deadline for his decision that gives us time to go to a second option. 

6. We have a set budget that is calculated by financially savvy management that makes it impossible to fail PSR, even if we can’t offload players. Managers are made aware of this budget before signing and are told the complete truth about it. 
 

There may be things here that would be difficult to pull off in the realities of the footballing world, but we need to have an actual plan at least and not a scattergun, reactive approach. 

 

 

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

Welease Wudkin 

[Pita]

With our muppets running the club. No chance. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

Get over it, the banter era is back strap in and enjoy it 

[Chrysalis]

These are improvements, but I would tie in the low starting standard wage with 6 year deals for young players that come in from a low starting point, likewise players coming from youth team, 6 years.  Thats 4 years of playing time on the 2 year transfer rule which increases squad stability and gives an upper hand on wage contract renewals.  If the player has proven worth after 2 years they can get an upgraded contract, although these upgraded contracts would follow a rigid wage limit as well e.g. 65k standard per week, and we would cap the amount of players at each level, so once cap is reached, and we want to buff a player, then someone else on that higher level has to leave the club.

 

You are right, our strategy now seems to be due to lack of charisma, and football aura from the DoF, the only way he can get anyone here is a bag of cash.  With only 1 or 2 targets, so once those fail we screwed.  We dont seem to know how to deal with agents in particular.  Logically you give the agent a fat payment, he convinces the player the move is good for him on a low salary.

 

Also outgoing decisions need to change, we seem to have a policy if that the paper value is not met we refuse the offer, which of course is nonsensical.  This has led to us holding onto squad players for excessive periods and is contributing to wage bill problems and lack of flexibility in transfer windows.  To not even be able to fire a manager to PSR is an embarrassment of financial management.

 

Even when PSR is a threat, any quick witted owner realises that to breach it isnt a big deal, a 2 point deduction, its not even a win.

Edited Monday at 23:04 by Chrysalis

[The Horse's Mouth]

14 minutes ago, Chrysalis said:

 

 

You are right, our strategy now seems to be due to lack of charisma, and football aura from the DoF,

 **** me 

[LCFCCHRIS]

1 hour ago, Chrysalis said:

These are improvements, but I would tie in the low starting standard wage with 6 year deals for young players that come in from a low starting point, likewise players coming from youth team, 6 years.  Thats 4 years of playing time on the 2 year transfer rule which increases squad stability and gives an upper hand on wage contract renewals.  If the player has proven worth after 2 years they can get an upgraded contract, although these upgraded contracts would follow a rigid wage limit as well e.g. 65k standard per week, and we would cap the amount of players at each level, so once cap is reached, and we want to buff a player, then someone else on that higher level has to leave the club.

 

You are right, our strategy now seems to be due to lack of charisma, and football aura from the DoF, the only way he can get anyone here is a bag of cash.  With only 1 or 2 targets, so once those fail we screwed.  We dont seem to know how to deal with agents in particular.  Logically you give the agent a fat payment, he convinces the player the move is good for him on a low salary.

 

Also outgoing decisions need to change, we seem to have a policy if that the paper value is not met we refuse the offer, which of course is nonsensical.  This has led to us holding onto squad players for excessive periods and is contributing to wage bill problems and lack of flexibility in transfer windows.  To not even be able to fire a manager to PSR is an embarrassment of financial management.

 

Even when PSR is a threat, any quick witted owner realises that to breach it isnt a big deal, a 2 point deduction, it’s not even a win.

Yeah I agree with the addition. If there was a tiered system with clear ways to reach the next tier, the genuinely good players would prove it. And the fakers and / or absolute shite deadwood is wouldn’t get bumper deals. 

[Sooper Steve's shin]

It all falls apart as soon as the Board follows point 1 and refuses to pay a star player over the cap. Fans would go mad. Same for most of the points, really - good in theory but not rooted in the reality of a competitive business. 

[Clever Fox]

Who decides if someone is worth more money. ? Rudkin.

 

It's not difficult to set up a proper system. Every one on the same basic. If you play you get more. If

You win or draw you get more.

If you are out injured you go back to the basic. That way you get less players feining injury.

And an added bonus at the end of the season for finishing position and Cup runs.

This way they are all in it together and playing for each other.

You'd be surprised how quickly a higherarchy is formed amongst the players and those not performing will be sorted out by the group.

[JimJams]

You wouldn't be surprised however to see that no player signs a contract with those kinds of stipulations in them.

 

I think there's a massively naive sentiment here where as fans you're wanting to weight everything in the clubs favour, but in reality it's not a working system.

At Champ level, in the player pool we'll be fishing in, we have a massive upside. Talk of wage limits are fine because even at the suggested limits here you're still talking about top earners in the division. Step up and what do you do? Offer championship contracts? Up your numbers? Because now you're no longer the big fish. You aren't the draw on size, you aren't the draw you were. You're now in competition with bigger clubs with bigger spending limits, so how do you draw those targets in if there's competition from other clubs? 

So do you miss out on players and go down because you haven't improved?

 

There is no rigid system that works. It has to be flexible. Much lauded Brighton have bought cheap from South America and sold big. But they signed Rutter for 40mill, totally contrary to their normal business, and he's proved a success.

 

Ultimately the finances aren't the biggest issue. It's the identification of talent. Signing shit on high wages with big fees is of course bad, but signing shit at any price is bad. We need our strike rate to improve.

I'd sooner sign good players on excessive contracts than poor players for peanuts.

 

I suppose it depends who we see ourselves competing with for signings.

We've struggled with signings every time there's been a step up in status and trying to level up.

We've lost our established tag now, so we're back to 20 years ago!

 

[LCFCCHRIS]

31 minutes ago, JimJams said:

You wouldn't be surprised however to see that no player signs a contract with those kinds of stipulations in them.

 

I think there's a massively naive sentiment here where as fans you're wanting to weight everything in the clubs favour, but in reality it's not a working system.

At Champ level, in the player pool we'll be fishing in, we have a massive upside. Talk of wage limits are fine because even at the suggested limits here you're still talking about top earners in the division. Step up and what do you do? Offer championship contracts? Up your numbers? Because now you're no longer the big fish. You aren't the draw on size, you aren't the draw you were. You're now in competition with bigger clubs with bigger spending limits, so how do you draw those targets in if there's competition from other clubs? 

So do you miss out on players and go down because you haven't improved?

 

There is no rigid system that works. It has to be flexible. Much lauded Brighton have bought cheap from South America and sold big. But they signed Rutter for 40mill, totally contrary to their normal business, and he's proved a success.

 

Ultimately the finances aren't the biggest issue. It's the identification of talent. Signing shit on high wages with big fees is of course bad, but signing shit at any price is bad. We need our strike rate to improve.

I'd sooner sign good players on excessive contracts than poor players for peanuts.

 

I suppose it depends who we see ourselves competing with for signings.

We've struggled with signings every time there's been a step up in status and trying to level up.

We've lost our established tag now, so we're back to 20 years ago!

 

I’d argue the bulk of the players we signed and won the prem with would have fit into this bracket of signing though. Of course that was an exceptional circumstance, I will admit.

 

I also think there’s tonnes of players that would sign under those circumstances. Few leagues in the world can pay players over 20-30k a week anyway and those that can, aren’t really the waters we should be fishing in. 
 

We seem to perform much better when operating as a lean crew of underdogs / under appreciated gems found in the rough, than the expensive Crown Jewels that turn out to be fake. 

 I don’t know if we sign players based on any sort of data, but judging by our appointment of managers and signings when we came up, I’d be willing to bet we’re hugely behind now on that sort of scouting. Which is why we can’t find gems. 
 

To the bolded point - you don’t draw the same targets, you go lower on your list, or find an angle on the data that others aren’t looking as as much. 

 

What I’m saying is, we’re lawless right now, at least with a rigid structure you would

a) sort out the financial issues

and

b) put a leash on the idiots that are running the club with little direction or care for financials 
 

Edited Tuesday at 05:10 by LCFCCHRIS

[Claudio Fannieri]

The issue I have is with our piss poor judgement when it comes to finances, I have no issue in paying big wages if you are talking about players of the class of Vardy, Kante, Mahrez, Schmichael etc but what has massively tripped us up is where we have thrown out big hefty contracts and massive wedge to utter pony like Skipp, Winks, Coady, Vesty, Daka, Soumare even the Eduarod loan just shows how rather than pay our player based on their own worth we have almost accepted that all players should be on £70k minimum just to get them through the door. 
 

That to me highlights the failings and shortcomings of the likes of Top and Rudkin. We have some decent recent history of success, we have a decent stadium and a world class training facility, we could and should be attracting top drawer young EFL talent and young talent from abroad, where we can pay relatively respectable wages but also have a high sell on opportunity. 
 

we do seem to have a real blind spot when it comes to signing established players, we usually get it very wrong and over pay either in fee and/or wages and contracts. 

[Mike Oxlong]

Top has aspirations to be a a bad guy Ryan Reynolds aiming to do a reverse Wrexham by attaining Conference League status through successive relegations 

[Philkeavo]

8 hours ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

For too long the upper management have let players and managers walk all over us. Here is what I would implement to combat some of the issues and get back on a good financial standing. Please note all these changes link into each other and support the functioning of each point. 
 

1. Have a hard wage cap of say 45k with a bonus scheme for performance metrics. You want more money, prove you deserve it.

2. When scouting for players in each position, have a shortlist of 15 minimum players ranked by how much we want to sign them from #1 to #15 or more. If one is asking too much or taking too long, simply move onto the next candidate. Even if they are slightly worse in some metric. We should be setting the rules on players coming, not the other way around. We don’t want to be in the position where we are begging anyone to come here with huge bags of cash.
 

3. If the club wants to retain a player, they will be asked to sign a new contract when their contract reaches under 2 years left. If they refuse, they will be placed on the transfer list and become 2nd option to their counterpart, whether that’s another player or an academy graduate. We need to let them know that their game time and career will suffer by running out their contract. Yes the hardline approach may put off some players, but if we’re in the EPL that’s a big enough of a pull. There’s plenty of players good enough that would come still. 
 

4. If anyone comes in for our manager, we let them pay us off and take him. We should have a constantly updated list of replacements that play in a way defined as the target style by the club.

All transfers will be in this style and the academy will adopt this style all the way down to the very youth. 
 

5. Stick to our guns, if we only wanted to give vestegaard a 2 year deal for example, we should have offered it to him and then walk away with a solid deadline for his decision that gives us time to go to a second option. 

6. We have a set budget that is calculated by financially savvy management that makes it impossible to fail PSR, even if we can’t offload players. Managers are made aware of this budget before signing and are told the complete truth about it. 
 

There may be things here that would be difficult to pull off in the realities of the footballing world, but we need to have an actual plan at least and not a scattergun, reactive approach. 

 

 

 

 

Too late Jon, you’ve had your chance 😹 

[LCFCCHRIS]

@Adster @fairbanksh

I bet you were giggling like that when we put Édouard on 90k a week to sit on the bench, let Perez & Tielemans  go for free after huge transfer fees, signed the Southampton back line that shipped 9 against us and traded champions league for championship. 
In other words, a contribution might be helpful instead of a juvenile laugh react. 

[Chrysalis]

Players do sign these contracts at some clubs, one player came out not that long ago saying he was on same salary as the academy players at man city.  We also had a wage structure when we initially got promoted under KP.

[Muzzy_no7]

1. New chief executive 

 

2. New DOF

 

3. Sporting director/ technical director to be hired. 

 

4. Once the above is done hire a competent manager and back him with a FULL compliment of coaching staff.

 

5. Use our youth and the loan market for the 25/26 season and we should be competitive. 

6. Nelson, Jakub, Ricardo, Thomas, Skipp, Alves, Mavididi, Fatawu and a new complete forward to form our core next season. 

[Terraloon]

Sorry but I find this type of discussion futile for a variety of reasons but above all you can’t under estimate the power the players have in all this.

 

For instance the suggestion that you can put a player who refuses to sign a new contract onto a “ transfer list” and in effect consign them to the reserves is nothing more than folly. Players will simply know that if they are treated in such a way they will apply to the FA at seasons end to have their contract cancelled or just as likely they will leave on a Webster.

 

The suggestion a a club cap is fine in theory but what happens if one of the real gems you uncover wants to stay but won’t sign his new deal do you consign them to the reserves to see them walk for free ? 

Player identification and trading  is an incredibly complex process fraught with risks.
 

Players loose form, get injured have mental issues the same as any other employee but because of FIFAs rules you can’t sack them, can’t force them to move to another club in effect you sign them and keep them till either their contract runs out or the player decides to move on. Very few clubs, if any, will be prepared to consign their best players ( because that’s what they are if you want them to sign extensions to their contracts) to the reserves.

 

Of course LCFC want to unearth the best players, develop academy players work within a defined budget but so do  just about every other club who don’t have unlimited resources but the key sorry isn’t just about what you spend it’s about what you earn and there LCFC trails probably circa 75% of the current PL clubs and unfortunately I can’t see how a club which yes has won a few things over the last few years who  hasn’t grown its income streams  will get out of this promotion/ relegation cycle . LCFC  has relied , like many clubs who usually end up in the bottom half of the PL , far too heavily on TV monies. 
 

It is hard to see how any players recruited for the 25/26 season will be on close to £45k a week indeed I am thinking that it’s quite possible that the problems and consequences of the excesses going back to 21/22 are going to bite big time.

 

I can’t see any way that  there won’t be an imposed business plan from the EFL  which will cause untold problems when it comes to getting in any players let alone players that have other viable options who would make a real difference .

 

Clubs relegated  need to get promotion in the following season put quite simply  the benefit of parachute payments is obviously the most lucrative in year one but I am absolutely convinced that next season is going to be the most challenging with the club needing to generate circa £70 million in the transfer market before 30/6 and know that they can’t realistically increase the sums amortised.

 

Sadly I see a very difficult few years and the challenge will be trying to identify and recruit from a limited pool and if you add in almost unique approach to how you manage players then sorry I can’t see anything else other than failure

 

[Adster]

46 minutes ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

@Adster @fairbanksh

I bet you were giggling like that when we put Édouard on 90k a week to sit on the bench, let Perez & Tielemans  go for free after huge transfer fees, signed the Southampton back line that shipped 9 against us and traded champions league for championship. 
In other words, a contribution might be helpful instead of a juvenile laugh react. 

Rent free

[Mark_w]

1 hour ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

@Adster @fairbanksh

I bet you were giggling like that when we put Édouard on 90k a week to sit on the bench, let Perez & Tielemans  go for free after huge transfer fees, signed the Southampton back line that shipped 9 against us and traded champions league for championship. 
In other words, a contribution might be helpful instead of a juvenile laugh react. 

Is it possible you’re taking yourself a little bit too seriously?

[LCFCCHRIS]

9 minutes ago, Mark_w said:

Is it possible you’re taking yourself a little bit too seriously?

It’s possible. But the whole reason for a forum is to discuss ideas etc, not to belittle those who wish to do so. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:01 by LCFCCHRIS

[Alf Bentley]

I wanna be well (run).....

 

 

[Mark_w]

4 minutes ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

It’s possible. But the whole reason for a forum is to discuss ideas etc, not to belittle those who wish to do so. 

A laughing react is not belittling you, if you can’t cope with people finding your suggestions funny you probably shouldn’t post them.

Edited Tuesday at 08:06 by Mark_w

[Edingleyfox]

I got the impression last summer that Leicester completely lost focus.The club needed another striker and box to box midfielder with KDH and Kelechi leaving but all that got lost buying average players at inflated prices that were no better than existing players. I remember Cooper saying they had to trust each other on recruitment. I had a vision of people working through spreadsheets knowing little or nothing about how these players would fit in. So we had duplication with Reid/Ayew, Skipp similar to Winks, another albeit younger centre back when Leicester had loads on their books. Bilal has been good but still developing and had no pre season.Finally hired a striker with minutes left in the window that has barely played and similarly in January with Coulibaly. Shambolic.

Edited Tuesday at 08:12 by Edingleyfox

[LCFCCHRIS]

8 minutes ago, Mark_w said:

A laughing react is not belittling you, if you can’t cope with people finding your suggestions funny you probably shouldn’t post them.

I can cope, I simply tagged them asking for suggestions . If my suggestion is so funny, I’d like to know what is a serious suggestion in their minds. 

Anyway, let’s agree to disagree. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:14 by LCFCCHRIS