Liam Cullen signs until 2029 - Official

[Haywood_6]

Welcome Liam! 

[brookfox]

Not the straight #9 we desperately need but hoping he can do a good job. Almost as important, both him and Chaplin come with very good off field reputations.

[Durnerz]

5 minutes ago, Ricey said:

We spent £1m on 19 players that season. We’ve spent more than that just on Cullen. Even taking into account inflation I don’t think money can be the excuse.

It reeks of more short term thinking. Give the new manager what he’s asking for, for next season alone, and then what? What if the manager is sacked? Then what? What if these players aren’t good enough in the Championship, like recent evidence suggests.

That’s true but still Cullen is the only signing we’ve paid a fee for and he isn’t going to be on serious dough. 
 

You are correct about the lack of forward thinking and that comes down to our incompetent recruitment team and DOF. 
 

That said, prepare to see more signings from the bargain bin of the EFL. 

[filbertway]

Just now, Finnegan said:

Probably my one take is that at least he does graft. We're desperate for players that actually put a shift in because it's genuinely in their DNA. 

 

He massively lacks technical quality, he isn't fast, he isn't strong and the position generally best suitable to him (honestly, probably a box to box midfielder, which Bellamy has tried a bit with alright results) is somewhere he almost never plays. 

 

I'm not enthused, especially for any noticeable money, but he should come in with the right attitude which is better than half the squad we have. 

 

In 2006 this described Hume. in 2016 this described Okazaki. 

 

By my calculations and I may be playing fast and loose with a few things, we've got ourselves a cult hero.

[Rubbersoul]

if he isn’t a arsehole and wants to be here I’m happy. Sort of lost the will to care about prices now haha 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

4 minutes ago, filbertway said:

In 2006 this described Hume. in 2016 this described Okazaki. 

 

By my calculations and I may be playing fast and loose with a few things, we've got ourselves a cult hero.

"Wout Faes new cult hero"

 

[TrickyTrevLeftPeg]

Fine at this level but severe lack of forward thinking especially if we go back up.

 

Chaplin, McCarthy and Cullen however, seem like model pros and also don't appear to be idiots and have hard working personalities.

 

Hopefully the culture at the club will slowly be changing.

[when_you're_smiling]

23 minutes ago, Ricey said:

We spent £1m on 19 players that season. We’ve spent more than that just on Cullen. Even taking into account inflation I don’t think money can be the excuse.

It reeks of more short term thinking. Give the new manager what he’s asking for, for next season alone, and then what? What if the manager is sacked? Then what? What if these players aren’t good enough in the Championship, like recent evidence suggests.

The most any club spent on a transfer when we were last in League One was us with the £1m on 26-year-old Tunchev.

 

Peterborough signing Zakuani was the next highest about £400k less.

 

Here’s the incomings for 08/09. Heaven help the forum if we signed 38-year-old, 31 year-old left backs and a 35-year-old striker now. -https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/leicester-city/transfers/verein/1003/saison_id/2008

 

Edited 12 hours ago by when_you're_smiling

[Rubbersoul]

His brother Joe is a solid darts player. 
 

Our first Welshman as well 

[David Guiza II]

30 minutes ago, Ricey said:

I just can't get excited by players that bottom half Championship teams don't want. It just rams home how far we've fallen so quickly.

 

My biggest concern though is that we aren't signing players with resale value. The last time we went down to League One our transfer business was a good mixture of experience and players that could develop then make the step up to the Championship or even the Premier League. I'm not seeing that so far. It's all loans, older players and players making a step down.

Agree with the overall lack of excitement in the signing. However, in terms of the previous stint in this league, I think you could only really include Michael Morrison and Nicky Adams in that bracket and neither worked out in profit terms.

 

Those aside, Dyer was 26, Tunchev was 27 and the remainder were mid to late 30s or loans (Dickov, Edworthy, Powell).

 

We've also got a much younger squad to begin with - Andy King and Maxi Gradel were probably the only two regulars who weren't seasoned pros. This time around it's likely we'll have 5 or 6+.

[StinckleyFox]

26 minutes ago, Ricey said:

We spent £1m on 19 players that season. We’ve spent more than that just on Cullen. Even taking into account inflation I don’t think money can be the excuse.

It reeks of more short term thinking. Give the new manager what he’s asking for, for next season alone, and then what? What if the manager is sacked? Then what? What if these players aren’t good enough in the Championship, like recent evidence suggests.

How much did we pay for Cullen?

[st albans fox]

36 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

I had to find something new after watching women’s tennis blindfolded no longer worked

I thought I was the only one ………….

[FrankieADZ]

good luck to him, 

if he doesnt get at least 3 hat tricks and 35 assits within the first month of the season then hes poo

[BenTheFox]

26 minutes ago, Ricey said:

I just can't get excited by players that bottom half Championship teams don't want. It just rams home how far we've fallen so quickly.

 

My biggest concern though is that we aren't signing players with resale value. The last time we went down to League One our transfer business was a good mixture of experience and players that could develop then make the step up to the Championship or even the Premier League. I'm not seeing that so far. It's all loans, older players and players making a step down.

I get what you're saying, but we need to recruit for the level we are playing at. We have plenty of talented young players that, if they prove themselves, will have resale value. However, we won't get promoted with them alone. We need players have many games of senior football under their belt. They only way you sign experienced players that have a resale value is if you sign players from league one between the age of 22 and 26. I'd appreciate us signing players who are of the prole but they also command a transfer. Funnily enough, my main issue with this signing is that we have paid a transfer fee.

[les-tah]

This goes for Cullen and any other signing Martin makes, Big names don’t win you titles, systems do. Martin needs players who get his style, and if Cullen fits it 100% it doesn’t matter he’s not a world beater. Albrighton, Okazaki, Morgan, Fuchs etc not one world class player between them, but they fit the jigsaw and won the best league in the world.

to be clear im not comparing players, im highlighting that for a system to work it needs the correct players the manager wants.

Edited 11 hours ago by les-tah

[Horibbly Wrong]

Hold your horses boys, this is subject to international approval!!!

[Finnegan]

28 minutes ago, filbertway said:

In 2006 this described Hume. in 2016 this described Okazaki. 

 

By my calculations and I may be playing fast and loose with a few things, we've got ourselves a cult hero.

 

I suspect you're being a bit tongue in cheek but as other people have made similar comments and I don't think they were joking:

 

I addressed this elsewhere but Okazaki had a significant footballing intelligence that gets hugely overlooked. He was a major pivot in the middle of the park that enabled our ball progression and was essential in a system that had a 2 man centre midfield and at least one winger that wanted to stay as high up the pitch as possible with Vards. 

 

Cullen is not that player. It's dismissive of Okazaki to boil him down to "he ran around a lot" purely based on the fact his goals and assists were admittedly lacking. Okazaki didn't make over 100 appearances each in the J League, Bundesliga and Premier League (the latter two being two of the best leagues in the world) as well as his country because he "ran around a lot."

 

Oh and Hume was really shit. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I think Cullen will be popular with an element of the fanbase because he's a domestic player that's unfussy and works hard and we're definitely a club that appreciates those things. But I don't think he'll be anyone's hero and comparing him to Okazaki is doing one of our title winners a genuine disservice. 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Finnegan

[Buzzell]

All the best to him. Hopefully more to come.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

28 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

"Wout Faes new cult hero"

 

 

I remember when ColCityFan simply couldn't grasp what the concept of a cult hero was and kept posting things like

"Jamie Vardy. Now THERE'S your cult hero "

 

Yeah just the club's third all time top scorer pal, real cult hero, deep cut

[AKCJ]

5 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I suspect you're being a bit tongue in cheek but as other people have made similar comments and I don't think they were joking:

 

I addressed this elsewhere but Okazaki had a significant footballing intelligence that gets hugely overlooked. He was a major pivot in the middle of the park that enabled our ball progression and was essential in a system that had a 2 man centre midfield and at least one winger that wanted to stay as high up the pitch as possible with Vards. 

 

Cullen is not that player. It's dismissive of Okazaki to boil him down to "he ran around a lot" purely based on the fact his goals and assists were admittedly lacking. Okazaki didn't make over 100 appearances each in the J League, Bundesliga and Premier League (the latter two being two of the best leagues in the world) as well as his country because he "ran around a lot."

 

Oh and Hume was really shit. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I think Cullen will be popular with an element of the fanbase because he's a domestic player that's unfussy and works hard and we're definitely a club that appreciates those things. But I don't think he'll be anyone's hero and comparing him to Okazaki is doing one of our title winners a genuine disservice. 

 

Okazaki was an expert at man marking the defensive midfielder and ensuring they couldn't get the tempo set for their team.

[BenTheFox]

43 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Probably my one take is that at least he does graft. We're desperate for players that actually put a shift in because it's genuinely in their DNA. 

 

He massively lacks technical quality, he isn't fast, he isn't strong and the position generally best suitable to him (honestly, probably a box to box midfielder, which Bellamy has tried a bit with alright results) is somewhere he almost never plays. 

 

I'm not enthused, especially for any noticeable money, but he should come in with the right attitude which is better than half the squad we have. 

 

I actually don't hate the signing in isolation because we need players who are probably good enough to do a job for us at this level, have many games under their belt in senior football and I can see the logic in signing a player who has previously worked under our manager. However, I am concerned about us paying a transfer for him when we have areas of the squad which desperately need addressing first. We seem to be stacking the squad with what are effectively attacking midfielders/forwards with Cullen, Watson, Chaplin, Alves, Bobby Decordova Reid and Mavididi, yet the spine of the team is looking thread bare. We still have no proper number 9, we have centre halves that want to leave and our midfield is currently looking very lightweight. 

Edited 11 hours ago by BenTheFox

[Samilktray]

It’s a big ask to turn your back on Snoop Dogg, so fair play 

[Spudulike]

Don't know if he'll be a good 'un for us but think that I can get behind him more than Ayew. A bit of effort will go a long way towards getting our team back.

[Death by Football]

Can't believe he's already nicked an honesty flag.

He'll fit in well.

[fazzyfox]

"No, No, NO Ruuuudkin! I said the squad really needs CULLING you fool" !!!