Should We Have Kept Cifuentes?

[funkyrobot]

40 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

No, we just replaced him late and with the wrong man.

 

Both him and Rowett have a roughly a 1.3 ppg record in the championship, massive red flag.

Rowett definitely doesn’t have that ppg at Leicester or Oxford. 

[Hales]

Honestly with Top and Rudkin still in charge and the rot within the club and team no manager stands a chance

[cityfanlee23]

19 hours ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

The problem is I am not sure the hierarchy at the club necessarily back their manager to drive the standards and change in culture. We saw it last season with RvN he tried to take on the toxic players and bad eggs, raise the standards and change the culture and he was cut off at the knees and here we are 12 months later on the verge of another relegation and the likes of Winks et al still here stinking the gaff out because the owner wants to be best mates with his players rather than drive professionalism, hard work and respect. 

You're right. I think sadly we have for a while been in a situation where we needed a bit of luck in timing, we need a manager who is willing to stand up against the board, but also is in a position to get wins, if the wins come, the board have a much harder job sacking. 
If RVN had 6-7 first team players who were fully committed and were putting in half decent performances every week, he may have been able to shift the culture, the board are incapable of doing it clearly, the issue is, any manager who attempts to shift the culture is likely to face backlash from the players and a downturn in performances as a result, which ends with the board sacking the manager. 

In an alternative universe where we went down fighting under RVN and the Man City performance more frequent he may have been in a position to actually change the culture, sadly the only manager who looked up for the fight inherited the most spineless squad we've created in modern memory, at a time where the board were at their most incompetent. RVN also takes his share in the blame for his odd decisions of course. But he is the first manager we've had since Pearson that actually felt capable of taking on the hierarchy. Rogers tried to undermine them toward the end, but that was to undo the mess that he and the board had gotten us into!

Maybe League 1 presents the opportunity for a manager to come in and start getting the wins needed to make himself untouchable as to actually address the culture at the club . 
Part of me does fear if by some miracle we stayed up, it would result in us trying to extend the usual suspects contracts in the championship where possible. 

Edit: - Massively unfair on Enzo, he looked like he would potentially take the board on, but didn't include him because he chose to leave so wasn't here long enough. 

Edited 20 April by cityfanlee23

[Chrysalis]

Probably yes, if a change was felt needed, wait till end of season unless we was heading for relegation, his results were however good enough to avoid the drop.  So should have been kept on.  Same mistake as we made with Cooper, the Owner over estimating the squad ability thinking we under achieving and then after a managerial change everything nose dived.

Ultimately though, no manager is going to thrive here until we have a change of leadership at the club.

Edited 20 April by Chrysalis

[CosbehFox]

Yes, but not for the reason he was any ****ing good. 

 

For the reason that a manager needs to be given time here to sort this ****ing squad out. We never have a manager for one more than one transfer window. I can imagine Marti saying to the recruitment staff 'striker January' else we would not sent Carranza back or given Antonio a trial or tried to line a loan deal for random signing from Sweden. 

 

What you had then was Rudders and Glover thinking they know what's best. Aribo and Richards a complete waste of time. Lascelles not far behind. Musaka would have worked with the right manager. 

 

Someone in the managerial role has to be allowed to be an architect - the greatest accidental decision that Vichai did was to avoid sacking Pearson with the Watford play off season, because after a loss at Easter at Oakwell, he weren't far off. 

 

A manager comes in works out the bad eggs, and then gets sacked. And the cycle starts again. Either way I think Cifuenties hasn't done his job prospects any harm getting sacked. 

Edited 20 April by CosbehFox

[tinpot_fox]

On 19/04/2026 at 00:03, Headcase said:

Our last 4 managers could literally be the same .manager, because nothing changed. Not even slightly. Which makes you wonder who really was running the team

The only manager out of the last few we’ve sacked, including Rodger’s, that I believe could have got more points than his successor, is Copper. Not because I think he’s a managerial genius, but because we seemed to be threatening to shithouse a goal in we don’t deserve somehow before the end of the match. I don’t think the others would have stymied the decline that was happening under their watch. It does feel like Ruud was a bit of a victim though and he was visibly trying to fight the shackles above and around him for a while.

 

I don’t think Brendon or Marti would have kept us up.

 

we’ll probably end up with manager trying some kind of showboating passing style again next. Ugh.

[TeamRocket]

Think better question would have been should we have kept Vardy for another season 

[tinpot_fox]

3 minutes ago, TeamRocket said:

Think better question would have been should we have kept Vardy for another season 

There was always more chance of him scoring the most of our players, so yes we should have offered Vardy good compensation for staying another season. Kasper would have been amazing too, but probably too expensive and he has his critics about this seasons performances, even on FoxesTalk 

[HankMarvin]

4 minutes ago, TeamRocket said:

Think better question would have been should we have kept Vardy for another season 

I don’t think it was as quite as simple as that. He wage was based on the fact that he had been here 10 plus years and what he had achieved. I very much doubt that he was willing to take the sort of salary he finally got offered at Cremonese here. 
The delay in getting a deal probably meant he was more desperate to accept by that point. 

[Monk]

No. After witnessing that Oxford game it really felt one of the lowest points in 35 years as a fan. He had to go. 

[Chelmofox]

30 minutes ago, TeamRocket said:

Think better question would have been should we have kept Vardy for another season 

I think injury would have caught up with him and he wouldn't have featured much. Think he is now out for the season.

[TeamRocket]

24 minutes ago, tinpot_fox said:

There was always more chance of him scoring the most of our players, so yes we should have offered Vardy good compensation for staying another season. Kasper would have been amazing too, but probably too expensive and he has his critics about this seasons performances, even on FoxesTalk 

True, but think instead of getting some of loans we got may have been better to offer him them deals? Who know but could dream I guess.

[TeamRocket]

Just now, Chelmofox said:

I think injury would have caught up with him and he wouldn't have featured much. Think he is now out for the season.

Fair point

[TeamRocket]

24 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

I don’t think it was as quite as simple as that. He wage was based on the fact that he had been here 10 plus years and what he had achieved. I very much doubt that he was willing to take the sort of salary he finally got offered at Cremonese here. 
The delay in getting a deal probably meant he was more desperate to accept by that point. 

Fair point but surely was worth a try. Who know they may have (but dunno if they would have to be true)

[Chelmofox]

1 minute ago, TeamRocket said:

Fair point

Not to say that having him there would not have made an impact. Some players just loved having him about (always noticed how BEK loved playing in the team with him). 

[HybridFox]

I'd go as far as back as saying had we left Ruud in for this season, I don't think he'd have been any worse. At least we saw a few results towards the close.

 

The appointments after Maresca have all headed one way and that tells you a lot about this squad to work with

[tinpot_fox]

2 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

I think injury would have caught up with him and he wouldn't have featured much. Think he is now out for the season.

IF the intention of those at the top of the club was gun for promotion, then to me the economics of paying him a decent amount would have almost been a guarantee for a return in goals that could have pushed over the line to promotion and a higher return in premier league money for the club, than what he would have been paid. Yes he would have been putting his body on the line and inevitably been out with injury. 
 

the other option was the strikers we already had, who didn’t have a great goal rate or sign a striker who will get goals.

 

Mukasa started well, james got injured and was a weird choice if he was meant to replace Vardy but did get goals. 
 

feels almost like we deliberately didn’t want to score goals this season… our recruitment is slicer the place 

[Corky]

1 hour ago, CosbehFox said:

Yes, but not for the reason he was any ****ing good. 

 

For the reason that a manager needs to be given time here to sort this ****ing squad out. We never have a manager for one more than one transfer window. I can imagine Marti saying to the recruitment staff 'striker January' else we would not sent Carranza back or given Antonio a trial or tried to line a loan deal for random signing from Sweden. 

 

What you had then was Rudders and Glover thinking they know what's best. Aribo and Richards a complete waste of time. Lascelles not far behind. Musaka would have worked with the right manager. 

 

Someone in the managerial role has to be allowed to be an architect - the greatest accidental decision that Vichai did was to avoid sacking Pearson with the Watford play off season, because after a loss at Easter at Oakwell, he weren't far off. 

 

A manager comes in works out the bad eggs, and then gets sacked. And the cycle starts again. Either way I think Cifuenties hasn't done his job prospects any harm getting sacked. 

Our best week was the Derby, Bristol City, Ipswich spell where he had removed the difficult personalities and we looked better. But the next few matches included the collapse at QPR, the Watford home loss, the no show at Sheffield United and the extremely fortunate win over West Brom.

 

We just could not get any momentum this season.

[SafewayFox]

Our players are heinous but look back at their reaction when scored that equaliser against Wrexham.

 

The players weren’t having him and had downed tools.

 

At the beginning of the season, our abject performances were for everyone to see (our stats were hideous under him) but was bailed out by JJ/Abdul’s wonder strikes.

[ALC Fox]

I think we should have kept him. Some of the players may not have been having him but most of them have downed tools under Cooper, RVN, Marti and now Rowett.

 

Easy to say in hindsight, but I think sacking Marti gave the players too much knowledge of the power they hold. Keep Marti, let him keep Winks out of the side, use Page and Aluko more often, and let the players know that Marti has the backing of the board, and we may have seen more fight.

 

We'd still be frothing at the mouth for him to go at the end of the season after all our inconsistency and lacklustre performances with him, but I do believe we would have survived and at least postponed the potential winding up of our club by another season (or hopefully reversed it).

 

As it stands, we're a season or two from not having a club to support anymore. And before anyone suggests it, I really don't want to support Market Harborough, Coalville, Hinckley, Oadby, or whoever else.

 

If it comes to it, I'll support whatever continuity club comes after Leicester City, whatever division they're in, but I'd rather we stayed up and rebuilt from the Championship instead of staring into the abyss as we'll do so from potentially tomorrow night.

Edited 20 April by ALC Fox