Cifuentes OUT

[pmcla26]

I’m still yet to see any implementation of a style of play or any obvious tactics. 
 

Literally looks like he just lines them in 4231 every time and leaves them to it. 
 

I’m not sure what he’s trying to make this team be.

Edited 22 December 2025 by pmcla26

[RonnieTodger]

6 hours ago, Long Eaton Fox said:

I think everyone on here agreed that he picked the best team, one that had been improving. When that team contains players capable of making big mistakes this is what happens. Unfortunately with no cash to improve the team this is the pattern for the future. It will be slow progress. Get used to it.

His job is to do more than pick the correct eleven 

[Mickyblueeyes]

3 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Let's be honest the last 3 manager hires have deen dreadful 

You know what else is quite telling. All of our last 5 have had a sense of desperation on their part. Smith - sacked by Norwich. Enzo - previous to us, he was Pep’s assistant but only a failure with Parma on his CV. Cooper - desperate for a return to PL, sacked by Forest unlikely to get another gig. RVN - no other PL club was going after him after two great games against the mighty Leicester - the PL was where he wanted to be. Cifeuntus paid to be here. 
 

Enzo aside (albeit with a mark against him) None up and comers. Cooper and Smith had a good spell at one other club (both ending in failure) otherwise None proven experience for the level we were at. 
 

Really questionable if we could attract a O’Neil or Little and whether the footballing world knows the incompetence  that is Rudkin. 

[JimJams]

With (possibly) impending points deductions that have been looming for too long now, we're not going to be attractive to anybody who has a reputation that clubs are clamouring for as we represent too much of a risk.

[Claudio Fannieri]

6 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

I bet most of these teams have players on modest contracts who give a shit and are capable of playing as a team.

 

People are making out like we have 22 players of Premier league quality.

We have 22 more players of higher quality than PNE and yet Paul Heginbottom is managing to get a better tune out of his mob. 

[The Doctor]

7 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

I bet most of these teams have players on modest contracts who give a shit and are capable of playing as a team.

 

People are making out like we have 22 players of Premier league quality.

from a technical ability side of things we definitely have 22 players capable of being top 6 in this division. In terms of giving a shit and being capable of playing as a team - that's the job of a manager, to get his players playing coherently and leaving everything on the pitch

[filbertway]

11 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

People underestimate the impact of a good coach and leader.

 

I'm genuinely not sure what strengths in the squad you think a better manager will enhance to have us picking up 2 points a game, which i assume is the minimum expectation 

 

Squad's gash and overestimated by a lot of people.

We dont even have physicality that a back to basics gaffer could draw on. Weak as piss and were doing about what youd expect.

 

Even adding a right back and left back that are average at this level with decent physical attributes would improve us immensely. Even keeping JJ would have been a huge plus.

 

It should be embarassing to Rudkin how much we're spending on this squad.

 

 

[TeamRocket]

He was a dumb pick from the start why we went for someone who was poor for QPR just shows we have lost all hope of anything 

[filbertway]

That was a hell of a performance by Davies, just a shame it was littler he came up against

 

If he was on the doubles it could have been a different story

[filbertway]

Wrong thread. Imagine it the darts thread

 

More interesting than the Marti chat haha

[Slab Edd]

8 hours ago, whoareyaaa said:

I would not be bothered if he went honestly, it wont make a jot of difference though that's my opinion.

What do you mean,managers make a difference at any team they go to, like how we looked stagnant under puel but then Rodgers came and we beat arsenal 3-1 that same season 

[coolhandfox]

3 hours ago, filbertway said:

I'm genuinely not sure what strengths in the squad you think a better manager will enhance to have us picking up 2 points a game, which i assume is the minimum expectation 

I'm not expecting us to be picking up 2 points per game.

 

I'm expecting in 22 games to have some decent performance which has been longer than 45 minutes.

 

I'm expecting us to have to have a structure out of possession, with an idea of when and how to press 

 

Not to have the 5th worse defence on xg.

 

Expecting us to have a idea on attacking and defending set pieces.

 

Expect us to look fit.

 

Basics.

3 hours ago, filbertway said:

Squad's gash and overestimated by a lot of people.

We dont even have physicality that a back to basics gaffer could draw on. Weak as piss and were doing about what youd expect.

Why do we need a backs to basics gaffer, we just need one who actually a good coach.

 

 

[gurru991]

Marti is not a very good coach but in truth this is not a very good team. Until there is an actual plan in place changing coaches is a waste of time. Hire some back room staff that know what they are doing & then hire a coach.

[Vardyshardy]

I do agree he isn’t the right manager for us. But at this point, I’m not sure any decent manager would want to come here. There’s been very little good transfer activity, and seems like they may not have much say on that anyway, and that doesn’t look likely to change. It’d be a huge risk for a manager to come to us in the state we are in, and then it’s on there CV afterwards if it goes spectacularly wrong. 
I do think a decent manager would get us more points than he will. But we have a good few players out of contract at the end of the season, I’d imagine a few will be pushing to leave as well. And I’m not sure how the squad will be replenished. 
So even if someone did risk it, and come in and then do well for the second half of the season, does it just all go wrong again over the summer?? 
 

I think what I’m saying is until King power decide to leave, I think we can change managers over and over and the same cycle will just repeat. 

[Dan]

19 hours ago, honeybradger said:

Enzo was not a builder, the state he left the squad in when he left was not good.

 

He played Faes all season and hardly gave Nelson a sniff, contributed to Vestergaard re-signing, hardly played Akgun who has gone on to be a good player, brought in Winks who has mostly stunk up the place, brought in Coady who entirely stunk up the place, brought in Mavididi who is as fragile as they come, Fatawu was a good pickup.

 

A proper builder would have gutted that 23/24 squad and not brought in Winks and Coady, would we have gone up that season? Probably not but we would likely be in a better position now.

Don't think that's entirely fair on Maresca to be honest although I get the point. I suppose you could also flag up the Sensi deal as well which he wanted. In fairness to him though, he was delivering, certainly at that point anyway and I don't think he ever came here on the premise that we were going to stick around in the league and rebuild. He then left before we could really judge what he would do in the long run, plus I think he's very much a cog at Chelsea rather than calling all the shots.

 

I'd be fascinated to know what he had in mind for the summer of 2024 - which turned into a complete and utter shitshow and basically everything since has been a total shambles.

[Mickyblueeyes]

I get the squad isn’t as good as Maresca’s. There is still some talent there. However, we didn’t lose against QPR due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t go 3-0 v Sheff U due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t get spanked by Saints because of a lack of talent.

 

We certainly didn’t draw with Pompey or Wrexham due to a lack of talent. 
 

we’ve lost, collapsed, looked useless due to sheer application, tactics and/or effort. The last after a run of 2 wins and a draw. That is on the manager. 

[Muzzy_no7]

2 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

I get the squad isn’t as good as Maresca’s. There is still some talent there. However, we didn’t lose against QPR due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t go 3-0 v Sheff U due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t get spanked by Saints because of a lack of talent.

 

We certainly didn’t draw with Pompey or Wrexham due to a lack of talent. 
 

we’ve lost, collapsed, looked useless due to sheer application, tactics and/or effort. The last after a run of 2 wins and a draw. That is on the manager. 

BuT wHo ElSe Is ThErE aNd We AlWaYs UsEd To Be A yOyO ClUb.

 
Oh AnD wE uSeD tO bE iN lEaGuE oNe 

 

😴

[Happy Fox]

On 21/12/2025 at 10:52, coolhandfox said:

 

Key word is maybe......

 

 

Yes but we cannot wait for maybe in our predicament, we need to be decisive, Marti will not get us promotion his ceiling is very low, the fact that QPR have a better manager than us says it all, it's quite frankly disgraceful.

[fox_up_north]

33 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

I get the squad isn’t as good as Maresca’s. There is still some talent there. However, we didn’t lose against QPR due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t go 3-0 v Sheff U due to lack of talent. 
 

We didn’t get spanked by Saints because of a lack of talent.

 

We certainly didn’t draw with Pompey or Wrexham due to a lack of talent. 
 

we’ve lost, collapsed, looked useless due to sheer application, tactics and/or effort. The last after a run of 2 wins and a draw. That is on the manager. 

This is where I'm at. Some losses you can appreciate that something didn't work, a wonder goal, a bad ref decision, etc.

 

But the squad IS capable. Maybe not of challenging for 1st or 2nd but definitely of play offs. Most teams in the division would take a number of our players and it's been shown what a good manager can do to elevate perceptions, with appropriate planning and attitude. 

[BarringtonHayles]

Really tired of the little old Leicester, anyone decent wouldn’t want to come here stuff as a defence for Cifuentes staying. People still underestimate how big we are as a club and how big English football in general is nowadays. It all comes back to Rudkin and the board being incompetent as always.

 

We could realistically attract any manager in every other 2nd division and the majority of managers in most top divisions as well, the top 5 leagues aside. We’ve got a 32k stadium, a ridiculous training ground, a squad with holes but one that is still better than most in the league and we pay wages beyond what most clubs our size do. We just need a DOF and board that will actually research up and coming managers rather than going for the same tired names recommended by agents.

The Cifuentes replacement is probably going to be crap as well, but that’s not a reason to keep him. He’s never going to be good enough.

[Fox85]

If we dont BACK him then we need to SACK him.

 

He needs atleast 40 million or even just 25 million to buy a new defence and a striker in January possibly with a few loans.

 

If the club are not prepared to do that then they just need to sack him because what he is trying to do with this team he has at his disposal is just not working.

 

I cannot even tell you what he is trying to do because its all over the place with 0 consistency 

[lcfc sheff]

Truth be told, if the points deduction does come we’ll do well to stay up. Need on average is it 50 points to stay up? So need another 8 wins (factoring roughly 6 points deduction) and it could easily go soar like it has under previous management.

 

not sure whether the answer is to sack the manager or not but we should be concerned, needs a refresh in January whether it be the players or somehow an inspiring manager but I do feel a manager will struggle to deal with this squad 

[lcfc sheff]

1 minute ago, Fox85 said:

If we dont BACK him then we need to SACK him.

 

He needs atleast 40 million or even just 25 million to buy a new defence and a striker in January possibly with a few loans.

 

If the club are not prepared to do that then they just need to sack him because what he is trying to do with this team he has at his disposal is just not working.

 

I cannot even tell you what he is trying to do because its all over the place with 0 consistency 

I agree with the first and last sentence. But obviously the club doesn’t have the money or can spend that sort of money within the parameters of FFP

[Fox85]

21 minutes ago, lcfc sheff said:

I agree with the first and last sentence. But obviously the club doesn’t have the money or can spend that sort of money within the parameters of FFP

Surely not spending any money in the summer should mean we can atleast stretch to 25 million at least.

 

 

[AjcW]

3 minutes ago, Fox85 said:

Surely not spending any money in the summer should mean we can atleast stretch to 25 million at least.

 

 

Are you on the wind up or been living under a rock?