Cifuentes OUT

[HankMarvin]

10 minutes ago, danny2997 said:

Southampton were on a downward spiral like us but have had decent investment in the summer.

Decent investment because they sold their best players that made them a even worse team than than the shit show that finished less than half our points and 2 wins in 38

[nnfox]

 

Interesting pre-Marti thread, because there's some posts in here that were correct about our season before we had a manager.

 

There's interesting references to us going to be fine because we have Bilal, Mads, Wilf.  Justin will be fine at this level and McAteer was decent in the Championship (all of them now gone).

 

Yet some people blame our current predicament on the fact that Faes is preferred over Nelson.

 

I'm not saying Marti is perfect by any stretch but look at the tools he has at his disposal.

 

This club limped over the line in 2024 with Maresca.  It was a poor finish to the season where we benefitted massively from a statistically anomalous first half of the season.  We were shocking in the Prem under Cooper, some would say even worse under Ruud. Now we have much weaker team on paper, yet for some, it's Marti's fault we're not winning every game.

 

So many fans were calling for a reset last season.  Now it appears loads of those same fans thought it could be sorted in a single transfer window and less than half a season. 

 

It's a multi-window, multi-season task.  Yes, of course we all want to be winning every week but we pretty much all wanted a manager to preside over a rebuild.  We're still very much in the demolition phase and Marti needs at least one transfer window to start laying some proper foundations.

 

 

 

[Claudio Fannieri]

4 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

It his job to get the most out or them or not pick them.

 

Enzo got a tune out of them, who management experience was 14 games a Parma.

 

Marti has 300+ games of experience as a manager.

 

I'm not excusing the players but there is no excuse for the manager.

 

You think this squad should have less points than two of the side promoted from L1? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enzo did get a tune out of them but slightly different circumstances as Winks had only just signed and we had a lot more quality in the squad including KDH, Wilf, Vards, JJ to name a few, also Faes had only been here a season himself whereas now we are 2 seasons on and both have checked out. I agree he shouldn’t be picking them both but I do question if he is being directed to include certain players. If so it is a weakness as he has to stand up and refuse to include them or if it’s by his own choosing then he is going to be complicit in his own downfall. 

[coolhandfox]

18 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Enzo did get a tune out of them but slightly different circumstances as Winks had only just signed and we had a lot more quality in the squad including KDH, Wilf, Vards, JJ to name a few, also Faes had only been here a season himself whereas now we are 2 seasons on and both have checked out. I agree he shouldn’t be picking them both but I do question if he is being directed to include certain players. If so it is a weakness as he has to stand up and refuse to include them or if it’s by his own choosing then he is going to be complicit in his own downfall. 

Than he would be even worse then I credit him for, do you think Pearson would stand for that? 

 

He had the same issue with Mills a record signing and Beckford another expensive signing at the time an bombed them out.

 

If he has picked them and can't get a tune out of them, thats a 100% on him.

 

If he'd have back the likes of Nelson he would have had a lot more backing from the fans.

 

Having a video of walking around Leicester and eating Fish and Chips with fans is window dressing at connecting with the fan base

 

What he needed to do was show strong leadership which has fallen short off.

 

 

Edited 30 November 2025 by coolhandfox

[markko]

30 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Enzo did get a tune out of them but slightly different circumstances as Winks had only just signed and we had a lot more quality in the squad including KDH, Wilf, Vards, JJ to name a few, also Faes had only been here a season himself whereas now we are 2 seasons on and both have checked out. I agree he shouldn’t be picking them both but I do question if he is being directed to include certain players. If so it is a weakness as he has to stand up and refuse to include them or if it’s by his own choosing then he is going to be complicit in his own downfall. 

There is no way this squad is anywhere near what we had last time we were in this league. There are some players we can agree are not great. If Top has said you have to play these players and we get performances like yesterday we get no points and unhappy fans saying he has to go. If he does not play them then Top may be saying I told you to play them...there is the door. What a terrible position he or anyone else who has the job will be in. I don't think the manager is the issue and the last three have had at least one hand tied behind their backs. We need to stabilize and wanting promotion this season is madness as we will not be in any position to compete. A lot of players will be out of contract and if we can shift Faes then we can start to rebuild. The issues are about how the club is being run IMO.

Edited 30 November 2025 by markko

[Dames]

Just like with Rodgers they won’t sack him until its too late. 
 

I really despise this leadership. 

[john ridley]

If he don't grow  a pair he's  going to get sacked.He ought to tell Top , Rudkin he'll  pick who he  wants ,it's not his fault if cvnts like faes or winks are kicking off  and on big money .RVN did it to winks and Vestergaard and things picked up effort  wise .Be your own man or be the fall guy?

[LcFc_Smiv]

42 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Who was responsible for the sign?

Winks wasn't it? Maybe we will have to wait until after the players Christmas night out

[markko]

13 minutes ago, john ridley said:

If he don't grow  a pair he's  going to get sacked.He ought to tell Top , Rudkin he'll  pick who he  wants ,it's not his fault if cvnts like faes or winks are kicking off  and on big money .RVN did it to winks and Vestergaard and things picked up effort  wise .Be your own man or be the fall guy?

What are they kicking off about? They are paid  far more than their worth. We have great training facilities. We have a great stadium. They are spoilt brats. I am betting 99 per cent on here would give their right arm to be in their position. There is no way we are getting VFM and if they are negative influences then they can go somewhere else. In Winks we got someone who could not make it at Tottenham. That tells me all I need to know about his talent and application. Faes just stands and waves his arms around. He may be a great lad but I doubt it.

[David Hankey]

If the manager goes so do about 6 of the players. They are not putting a shift in and appear to be just going through the motions.

 

Personally, there are many I wouldn't pay in copper washers.

[winteriscoming]

Look how long it took us to appoint him. 
We are so reactive rather than being proactive. 
If we sacked him today we wouldn’t have anyone in for over a week. 

I bet we haven’t even approached anyone else yet. 
 

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, danny2997 said:

Not the same though is it, Selles was sacked because he took a team that was relatively successful last year to not even win a game.

Southampton were on a downward spiral like us but have had decent investment in the summer.

We're in the league on a downward spiral and ALSO had no investment.

Our squad is shit, ****ing dog bob. But it’s not THIS crap. We’ve been absolutely abject in every game. We can’t score, create or defend. There’s no system or philosophy. Nobody knows what this bloke is trying to achieve and the football is absolutely dire. Sorry, but nobody is going to convince me this nincompoop is getting the best out of this squad.

 

Edited 30 November 2025 by RoboFox

[inckley fox]

58 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

It his job to get the most out or them or not pick them.

 

Enzo got a tune out of them, who management experience was 14 games a Parma.

 

Marti has 300+ games of experience as a manager.

 

I'm not excusing the players but there is no excuse for the manager.

 

You think this squad should have less points than two of the side promoted from L1? 

He got a tune out of some of them for a while, until it started to go awry.

 

Our second half of the season form, extrapolated, would have got us into the play-offs in 5th. The final quarter / 12 games would have seen us battling for 6th on goal difference. Fair play to Maresca for delivering what he was supposed to and, on paper, overwhelmingly expected to, but things were already slipping.

 

And that's the point. Maresca is a good manager and yet, even with funds for a partial rebuild, and Vardy/Ndidi/KDH/Hermansen and a younger Ricardo at his disposal, it still started to go wrong. Cifuentes has none of those things, a far worse matchday atmosphere to get around, an inescapable deduction and a deeply divided dressing room. He might be expected to get the same tune out of 'them' as Maresca, but it's not the same 'them' as it was back then. And those expectations have always been more than a little hopeful.

 

We've had three managers since Enzo, all of which came with something resembling a reputation, and they've not managed to lift the club out of the slump we saw in the second half of Enzo's brief reign. Or, if you like, the one we'd been in before he even turned up, when some of the worst of the current batch (Faes, Soumare, Kristiansen, Thomas, Daka) were also culpable.

 

At some point you have to see that the common denominators - on-going poor recruitment of players (including, for the most part, under Maresca) and arguably staff, poor financial management, poor levels of professionalism - aren't really on the manager. Was it Rodgers who thought Faes, Kristiansen and Tete were the answer? Probably, I tended to think. Or Maresca who was convinced personally that Coady, Winks, Cannon constituted thirty million well spent for the long-term good of the club? Hmm. To a degree, perhaps. Or Cooper who lined up Skipp, Ayew, Reid and Okoli as the right way forward? Some of them maybe. Ruud with Coulibaly? Cifuentes with Carranza and Veites? A lot of these players, experienced veterans and emerging talents alike, were brought in and then promptly overlooked by managers. It's almost as if there's a disconnect...

 

As such I find it easy to believe that these managers were unwise appointments, because of the people who chose them. And it's easy to criticise some of the more bizarre decision-making under whichever manager we're talking about, but always with the sneaking feeling that it's a lost, flailing boss who's desperately grasping for solutions.

 

So Marti is most probably the wrong man for the job. I suspect reintegration of players was very high on the list of priorities and that was always unlikely to come off. But do you really want those same people - Top and Rudkin - at great expense, to lump for yet another gamble, and drag another poor desperate soul into the same mire? If there were any sign that problems really had been fixed, then by all means get rid of him. It's early days but he doesn't look up to the job. That much is true. But if you're going to change things there has to be a reasonable chance of it being for the better.

 

Players need to be moved on and the club needs restructuring without the smear of Top's whims being all over our decision-making. Financial issues need resolving. We need to know where we stand. Recruitment needs an overhaul. And at that point there might be something to gain from looking at the manager.

[john ridley]

25 minutes ago, markko said:

What are they kicking off about? They are paid  far more than their worth. We have great training facilities. We have a great stadium. They are spoilt brats. I am betting 99 per cent on here would give their right arm to be in their position. There is no way we are getting VFM and if they are negative influences then they can go somewhere else. In Winks we got someone who could not make it at Tottenham. That tells me all I need to know about his talent and application. Faes just stands and waves his arms around. He may be a great lad but I doubt it.

Haven't  got a clue why any of them are like they are considering how they're  looked after ,what more do they want ?Right from the FA Cup win it's been like it .

[GingerrrFox]

1 hour ago, nnfox said:

 

Interesting pre-Marti thread, because there's some posts in here that were correct about our season before we had a manager.

 

There's interesting references to us going to be fine because we have Bilal, Mads, Wilf.  Justin will be fine at this level and McAteer was decent in the Championship (all of them now gone).

 

Yet some people blame our current predicament on the fact that Faes is preferred over Nelson.

 

I'm not saying Marti is perfect by any stretch but look at the tools he has at his disposal.

 

This club limped over the line in 2024 with Maresca.  It was a poor finish to the season where we benefitted massively from a statistically anomalous first half of the season.  We were shocking in the Prem under Cooper, some would say even worse under Ruud. Now we have much weaker team on paper, yet for some, it's Marti's fault we're not winning every game.

 

So many fans were calling for a reset last season.  Now it appears loads of those same fans thought it could be sorted in a single transfer window and less than half a season. 

 

It's a multi-window, multi-season task.  Yes, of course we all want to be winning every week but we pretty much all wanted a manager to preside over a rebuild.  We're still very much in the demolition phase and Marti needs at least one transfer window to start laying some proper foundations.

 

 

 

Sorry not having that. Anyone with any sense in football was aware that we weren’t gonna keep the likes of Bilal and Wilf in the Championship.

 

Marti has pure bottled it, he gave it big ones in the summer about how if a young player was good enough he would give them the opportunity, Ben Nelson spent all season putting in good performances for Oxford, he came back pre-made stick me in the oven M&S meal and he went back to Wout Faes.

 

He had Louis Page playing solid football for us, he signed a new contract and he was out the side. He’s been playing our best central midfielder as a number 10 and not utilising him the best he can. 
 

He’s just not a very good manager, there’s obvious things he’s should have done and hasn’t done, put his faith in players that are known to be shirkers and bad attitudes and it’s done him here. 

 

 

[Pliskin]

They won’t sack him until a decision is made about points deductions….

[JimJams]

8 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

They won’t sack him until a decision is made about points deductions….

Agree with this.  And it's probably for the best.  The possible deduction in the Premier League meant that potential candidates were slim pickings.  If we'd have gone into that summer after Enzo left knowing we weren't getting a deduction then I think it's fair to say we'd have looked a much brighter prospect to any suitors and could have got a better man in the job. Same goes for now.  We're languishing in the wrong half of the table, we've got a squad that'll need a rebuild regardless of where we end up and so a points deduction kills the potential for a replacement to come in and be a success in the short term, and short term is all managers get for the most part.  If we get the points deduction this season and stay in the division we'd look a much better prospect for a new gaffer in the summer, simply because they get a clean slate rather than a deficit to work from.

[nnfox]

12 minutes ago, GingerrrFox said:

Sorry not having that. Anyone with any sense in football was aware that we weren’t gonna keep the likes of Bilal and Wilf in the Championship.

 

Marti has pure bottled it, he gave it big ones in the summer about how if a young player was good enough he would give them the opportunity, Ben Nelson spent all season putting in good performances for Oxford, he came back pre-made stick me in the oven M&S meal and he went back to Wout Faes.

 

He had Louis Page playing solid football for us, he signed a new contract and he was out the side. He’s been playing our best central midfielder as a number 10 and not utilising him the best he can. 
 

He’s just not a very good manager, there’s obvious things he’s should have done and hasn’t done, put his faith in players that are known to be shirkers and bad attitudes and it’s done him here. 

 

 

This argument where he should play the kids is a nonsense.  We have had a good few years where decent talent from the academy has been slim pickings.  Now we have half a dozen genuinely promising prospects, they should all go straight into the team and show the seasoned pros how it's done? Come off it 

 

Ben Nelson.. I have seen him play two games.  Good in one, poor in the other.  Has been injured for a bit.  Would I like to see more of him? Yes.  Does not picking him in every game mean that Marti doesn't know what he's doing? No

 

Louis Page... Has looked out of his depth whenever I've seen him.  Decent prospect? For sure.  Ready to rip up the Championship? Absolutely not.

 

Jake Evans... Hasn't featured.  From what I saw if him in pre-season, he didn't look like someone who was going to get double figures in the Championship.  Do I want him to do well? Definitely (he was in the year above my lad at school) Does he need more development time? Yes, I think so.

 

Jeremy Monga... Exceptionally talented.  Could he go to the very top of the game? Maybe, but he's nowhere near yet.  A lot of pressure for a 16 year old and there are many aspects of his game that need fine tuning.

 

Olabade Aluko... People crying out for him to get a game.  "Marti, give Aluko a game because Thomas is rubbish", "Marti should give Aluko a chance".  Gets a game.  Gets sent off after 30 minutes, what happens? "Marti shouldn't have played him in that game".

 

Silko Thomas... Another one that holds a lot of promise, but needs careful development.

 

The list goes on.

 

What do you do? Play them all? At the same time? What happens when they get battered 5 or 6 nil?  Still Marti's fault.

 

Any manager that comes in at this point in our history is on an absolute hiding to nothing.  Spring follows Winter.  Right now it's Winter.  Things will get better but changing the manager will not all of a sudden bring us sustainable long term success.  It's not possible in the current situation.

[South Shire Fox]

2 hours ago, nnfox said:

 

Interesting pre-Marti thread, because there's some posts in here that were correct about our season before we had a manager.

 

There's interesting references to us going to be fine because we have Bilal, Mads, Wilf.  Justin will be fine at this level and McAteer was decent in the Championship (all of them now gone).

 

Yet some people blame our current predicament on the fact that Faes is preferred over Nelson.

 

I'm not saying Marti is perfect by any stretch but look at the tools he has at his disposal.

 

This club limped over the line in 2024 with Maresca.  It was a poor finish to the season where we benefitted massively from a statistically anomalous first half of the season.  We were shocking in the Prem under Cooper, some would say even worse under Ruud. Now we have much weaker team on paper, yet for some, it's Marti's fault we're not winning every game.

 

So many fans were calling for a reset last season.  Now it appears loads of those same fans thought it could be sorted in a single transfer window and less than half a season. 

 

It's a multi-window, multi-season task.  Yes, of course we all want to be winning every week but we pretty much all wanted a manager to preside over a rebuild.  We're still very much in the demolition phase and Marti needs at least one transfer window to start laying some proper foundations.

 

 

 

I dont think its the not winning everygame thats the problem. Its the being second best most weeks and not having an actual game plan to go out and try to win that is. A bloke that still has the mentality of being QPR manager where he sets up not to lose rather then to go out and win

Edited 30 November 2025 by South Shire Fox

[Pliskin]

1 hour ago, JimJams said:

Agree with this.  And it's probably for the best.  The possible deduction in the Premier League meant that potential candidates were slim pickings.  If we'd have gone into that summer after Enzo left knowing we weren't getting a deduction then I think it's fair to say we'd have looked a much brighter prospect to any suitors and could have got a better man in the job. Same goes for now.  We're languishing in the wrong half of the table, we've got a squad that'll need a rebuild regardless of where we end up and so a points deduction kills the potential for a replacement to come in and be a success in the short term, and short term is all managers get for the most part.  If we get the points deduction this season and stay in the division we'd look a much better prospect for a new gaffer in the summer, simply because they get a clean slate rather than a deficit to work from.

This is it. Promotion is off the cards now. So the club needs to spend this period seriously planning. Sort the backroom out, things aren’t going to improve on the pitch under Marti, but like you’ve pointed out, we’re in a perilous position why would a manager want to take this on not knowing what’s around the corner.

 

Unfortunately, things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better. 

[GingerrrFox]

56 minutes ago, nnfox said:

This argument where he should play the kids is a nonsense.  We have had a good few years where decent talent from the academy has been slim pickings.  Now we have half a dozen genuinely promising prospects, they should all go straight into the team and show the seasoned pros how it's done? Come off it 

 

Ben Nelson.. I have seen him play two games.  Good in one, poor in the other.  Has been injured for a bit.  Would I like to see more of him? Yes.  Does not picking him in every game mean that Marti doesn't know what he's doing? No

 

Louis Page... Has looked out of his depth whenever I've seen him.  Decent prospect? For sure.  Ready to rip up the Championship? Absolutely not.

 

Jake Evans... Hasn't featured.  From what I saw if him in pre-season, he didn't look like someone who was going to get double figures in the Championship.  Do I want him to do well? Definitely (he was in the year above my lad at school) Does he need more development time? Yes, I think so.

 

Jeremy Monga... Exceptionally talented.  Could he go to the very top of the game? Maybe, but he's nowhere near yet.  A lot of pressure for a 16 year old and there are many aspects of his game that need fine tuning.

 

Olabade Aluko... People crying out for him to get a game.  "Marti, give Aluko a game because Thomas is rubbish", "Marti should give Aluko a chance".  Gets a game.  Gets sent off after 30 minutes, what happens? "Marti shouldn't have played him in that game".

 

Silko Thomas... Another one that holds a lot of promise, but needs careful development.

 

The list goes on.

 

What do you do? Play them all? At the same time? What happens when they get battered 5 or 6 nil?  Still Marti's fault.

 

Any manager that comes in at this point in our history is on an absolute hiding to nothing.  Spring follows Winter.  Right now it's Winter.  Things will get better but changing the manager will not all of a sudden bring us sustainable long term success.  It's not possible in the current situation.

The players who have let him down most this season are players where there were other options. Page was playing regularly when we were 3rd btw, since we’ve gone to playing James as the number 10 we’ve not looked anywhere as good and James should have been played deeper, that’s where he looks most dangerous and scores goals from. 
 

He said he wanted a team that worked hard and pressed and we’ve not been that for ages, funnily enough when the likes of Winks and Faes have been brought back in.
 

There’s zero excuses for how bad we’ve been as a football team recently. It’s not acceptable to go 2 down in 5 minutes at home and the writing has been on the wall for a while. We need to have more energy and aggression and he should have played Nelson and Page more than he has so far. The rest of Aluko, Thomas and Evans for me aren’t what’s needed now. Soumare/James/Page would have been my middle 3.  

[JJD_LCFC]

3 hours ago, nnfox said:

 

Interesting pre-Marti thread, because there's some posts in here that were correct about our season before we had a manager.

 

There's interesting references to us going to be fine because we have Bilal, Mads, Wilf.  Justin will be fine at this level and McAteer was decent in the Championship (all of them now gone).

 

Yet some people blame our current predicament on the fact that Faes is preferred over Nelson.

 

I'm not saying Marti is perfect by any stretch but look at the tools he has at his disposal.

 

This club limped over the line in 2024 with Maresca.  It was a poor finish to the season where we benefitted massively from a statistically anomalous first half of the season.  We were shocking in the Prem under Cooper, some would say even worse under Ruud. Now we have much weaker team on paper, yet for some, it's Marti's fault we're not winning every game.

 

So many fans were calling for a reset last season.  Now it appears loads of those same fans thought it could be sorted in a single transfer window and less than half a season. 

 

It's a multi-window, multi-season task.  Yes, of course we all want to be winning every week but we pretty much all wanted a manager to preside over a rebuild.  We're still very much in the demolition phase and Marti needs at least one transfer window to start laying some proper foundations.

 

 

 

Fully agree our rebuild is a multi window task. My main concern is that I have not seen anything from Marti to suggest he deserves more time. As a manager I would expect to see improvement from our players. But for every single player to be poor alarms. 

 

you mention Ben Nelson and that Marti plays Faes over him. Whatever the question is, watching Faes every single week surely tells you he is not the answer. Nelson has a far higher ceiling, and in the long run valuable to our club. Give him the game time!
Okoli started the season ok. Then dropped for Faes too, coincidentally when our results turned to this again. Okoli struggles in possession, our whole club continues to decline with his fascination to pass the ball. If any club breaks the mould on style of play, surely it is us who won the league playing counter attack. Okoli is a better defender than faes and vestegaard. Play him. Can not be a coincidence that with our 2 best passers in defense we actually can’t defend. 
 

as you correctly said, we limped over the line in 2024 and have been dire in every aspect since from board, managers to players. 
I really struggle to see 1 positive from Marti’s 18 or so games here that he is the right man for the club. 

 

[Dahnsouff]

Very much of the opinion that this season we need to survive with the points deduction.

 

...and where did we get 24 points from?  

[frany104]

Can’t believe he’s not been sacked today. 

[Wymsey]

Just now, frany104 said:

Can’t believe he’s not been sacked today. 

Probably means that is staying on.