Liam Cullen signs until 2029 - Official

[Hales]

Another signing 

[filbertway]

35 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. 

 

 

I was indeed being slightly tongue in cheek and boiling them down to basic descriptions haha.

 

If Cullen has the ability to score as many goals without hitting the back of the net as Okazaki did then he'll definitely go down as a cult hero. 

[Dan]

Good luck to him. I don't blame him, but I think this is a silly move and a red flag that we haven't learnt a thing.

[Lesta2014]

Was he training today?

[Happy Fox]

He’s confident he can score the goals and that’s what we need, hopefully it works out for him.

[HankMarvin]

You would like to think it can’t be any worse than the shit that was served up last season, but the worry is, that it will have be but just against worse opposition.

Which I can live with, if it’s good young players playing who are developing along the way and might in turn help the future playing squads have more quality should they end up being sold for a nice lump. 

If the team ends up being filled with loans and older journeyman type players, then it’s down to the manager and jury will be out a lot quicker if the team struggles.

[Dan]

1 hour ago, when_you're_smiling said:

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

 

If we make 16 signings this season then yeah, fair enough.

 

But we won't.

[HankMarvin]

“Apparently 1.5m going up to 3m is really good going from us. Home grown player who gave years of service and we've got a decent amount for him. Best of luck Culls, league one will hopefully be a bit more forgiving.”

 

From top poster on Swansea FB page 

[Dan]

Just now, HankMarvin said:

“Apparently 1.5m going up to 3m is really good going from us. Home grown player who gave years of service and we've got a decent amount for him. Best of luck Culls, league one will hopefully be a bit more forgiving.”

 

From top poster on Swansea FB page 

Crikey  

[H.a.r.r.y]

he's lived in swansea his whole life, where is his welsh accent?

[Ryy]

15 minutes ago, Lesta2014 said:

Was he training today?

Yes

[Iwebema]

Swansea fans saying its 1.5m, doubling on conditions around promotion.

 

I actually dont mind the signing, im just surprised we are paying money for anyone and if we are paying what their fans suggest, are we sure he is the one to spend it on, frees and loans you take what you can right, but when you have some money options open up.

 

That said I do think he will do well in League one for us and if he scores 15+ and we get promoted we will likely all look back and think, ok, surprised we paid the money but its worked out.

[adejo92]

If we do get promoted, we're going to be stuck with a squad full of mid to lower league players.

 

Its going to be a few years until we see Premier League football, and won't be seeing European football again in my lifetime.

 

[Long Eaton Fox]

1 hour 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.

If these players with no resale value help us get promotion that will pay for themselves. Also with promotion the likes of Page Alves Braybrooks  value will rocket to around the £10m mark

[ALC Fox]

Last time we signed Jack Hobbs, Lloyd Dyer, Michael Morrison, Dany N'Guessan, Kerrea Gilbert, Bruno Berner, Paul Dickov, Nicky Adams, Chris Powell, etc.

 

Pearson took us up then into the playoffs the following year. If he hadn't have gone, we probably would have gone up again before he came back and did so in 13/14.

 

We're signing players for now. If we go up again, we'll sign players for then.

 

A lot can happen in a year. We may not be owned by KP by then either.

[Muzzy_no7]

Daka and Ayew out.

 

Cullen and Chaplin in.

 

Vastly reduced wages.

 

Cant really complain, as long as we still strengthen in one or two other areas and sell/loan out 3 or 4 more 

[J.Lisemore]

Let’s not write him off before we’ve seen him line up for us in League One. Admittedly the fee is high but Martin clearly sees him as a vital cog in the machine for this season, I just hope we’ve got enough money to fund a move for a capable striker as that’s clearly a priority. 

[Stadt]

In isolation, based on his ability, versatility, character and his record (more or less 1 in 3, per 90) in a better league it's a good signing.

 

Where it falls down is:

What does he add that we're missing? We already have two paceless, physically-lacking, scorers-but-not-creators in Reid and Chapman.

Opportunity cost -  we could have spent this money on fixing problem positions at ST, DM or CB. An extra 2.5m (admittedly a lot for where we are now) probably gets us Tolaj.

Financial implications  - it remains to be seen what our budget actually is but 1.5m (first spend since Woyo ****ing Coulibaly in January '25) on a player we'll only ever sell at a loss, he's not dropping down a division for a paycut.

Lessons haven't been learned - our managers last less than 6 months on average, we've got a teachers pet/manager pick just like Skipp and Ayew, if/when Martin is sacked we have a system player he loves, not a long term asset.

Long term planning - we go up and then what we have a guy who is good enough to be a Championship squad player which isn't a good use of our limited funds. With a 3 year deal ( without a +1 option?), after S1 he has 2 years left, extend, sell or risk losing on a free following summer?

 

We've gone all in on Martin and all in on a style of play that's led to 3 relegations in 4 seaons. We haven't replaced our last decent DM (signed in 2017 lmao) and we've been very easy to play through because of lack of effort an physicality. Cullen seemingly works hard but he's a piss ant. I can see a narrow deep-mid block and direct counters causing us huge trouble, just as it did in the latter half of 23/24.

 

There's a chance we pull a few more good signings out the bag and address issues we haven't for about 7 or 8 consecutive windows, but why would you give the club the benefit of the doubt? What have they done to suggest they deserve it? As I've said, they've doubled or tripled down. It could work because finally our extant players might just be too good for the third division but eventually being better than the opponents you plummet into isn't viable.

Edited 10 hours ago by Stadt

[Richmondfox]

If he doesn’t look to fall over at every opportunity, avoid passing to his team mates and drops deep into areas other than upfront then it’s an improvement on Ayew.

 

If he doesn’t trip himself when running with the ball then it’s an improvement on Daka.

 

Not sure what quality we can expect to buy in our condition so he will have to do.  
 

Hopefully Mavadidi will learn how to pass the ball so we have a fighting chance this season. 

[Richmondfox]

3 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Daka and Ayew out.

 

Cullen and Chaplin in.

 

Vastly reduced wages.

 

Cant really complain, as long as we still strengthen in one or two other areas and sell/loan out 3 or 4 more 

Im going to check out some YouTube videos later to make sure he doesn’t hobble around the pitch with a face like a bulldog licking a nettle after he has dived. If not then that’s a great start. 

[Fox92]

We needed a striker, got one. He will get enough goals at that level I’m sure.

[Pita]

A good improvement on our last toforwards. Welcome to Leicester 

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

So I’m picking up this signing should be regarded as underwhelming? But I guess he reflects our position in the pecking order these days…

[Ricey]

I don't think he's really a striker, that's the problem. We need a proper No.9, not entirely small, hard working players that can play across the front line.

[kingfox]

I see Hourihane called him Culls.

 

Looking forward to the Leicester social media birthday post.

 

Happy birthday, Culls 🥳