The "do they mean us?" thread

[the fox]

a lot of people who are criticizing the board for being too "trigger happy" are just jealous because they wish their owners are as ruthless as ours.

[Rusko187]

I can't help but feel that if our owners truly didn't want to give Shakey the job and were waiting for an opportunity to get rid we would have an established list of replacements and the approaches have already been made.

[ajthefox]

On 10/18/2017 at 10:33, Lovejoy said:

I was literally told last night that "you shouldn't complain about going down, you've had your moment". From an armchair Liverpool fan, I'll add. We just have to ride it out, there'll be plenty of goading and sneering from the press and other football watchers.

 

Must admit though, there's a tiny part of me that loves being a hated club.

I hope you reminded him that Danny Simpson has more League Winners Medals than all of the players who have played for Liverpool since 1990 combined.

Edited 19 October 2017 by ajthefox

[STUHILL]

I'm just not buying into this delusions of grandeur bollocks! 

 

Look at how much we have spent on players since our title win and how we managed to keep Vardy, Kasper and Mahrez. 

 

It's like just because we aren't happy being in the bottom 3, we are somehow expecting too much! 

 

None of us expect to ever be pushing the top 4 again or even the top 6, but with the players we have, the money we have spent, is it really that delusional of our owners and us to expect that we should be comfortable in the Premier League with the likes of WBA, Southampton etc.

 

"Experts" are so keen to suggest that we have no right to expect better than a relegation battle each season. Fook off! 

[Koke]

Do any of these media willy pullers know we are in the bottom 3? We have outspent everyone bar the top 7 clubs but we should be okay with parking the bus away at Bournemouth and playing turgid football. 

Edited 19 October 2017 by Koke

[Koke]

Cant wait for Barry Glendenning's take on this on today's Guardian pod.

[Dan LCFC]

On 18/10/2017 at 06:18, lgfualol said:

Lots of people critisising the club again without even watching us this season. 

 

You'd think it was unacceptable to have a bit of ambition these days.

Only certain clubs are allowed to have it. The huge irony in them calling us everything wrong with football when they're the ones who actively support a status quo, effectively killing football as a sport. They're a disgrace.

[Dan LCFC]

On 18/10/2017 at 10:33, Lovejoy said:

I was literally told last night that "you shouldn't complain about going down, you've had your moment". From an armchair Liverpool fan, I'll add. We just have to ride it out, there'll be plenty of goading and sneering from the press and other football watchers.

 

Must admit though, there's a tiny part of me that loves being a hated club.

When they lose in Seville just tell them they had their moment against Maribor.

[Dan LCFC]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

Opinion: Leicester City Are Suffering From Delusions Of Grandeur

By Graham Ruthven

Thursday 19th October 2017

 

In all likelihood, Craig Shakespeare was never the man Leicester City’s owners wanted in charge of the club. He was the man who turned the club’s form around as interim manager following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri, almost forcing their hand in offering him the job on a permanent basis. He was a short-term fix who somehow worked his way into a long-term vision.

Shakespeare’s time as Foxes manager came to an end earlier this week, with Monday night’s 1-1 draw against West Brom prompting Leicester’s owners to pull the trigger. Indeed, things aren’t going so well for Leicester early on this season, currently sitting third bottom of the Premier League table, but this was a decision that highlighted the delusions of grandeur that have taken grip at the King Power Stadium.

It would seem that Leicester City’s owners believe the club should be challenging higher up the table like they were the season they sensationally won the Premier League title. But they must recognise that this was the exception rather than the norm. The norm is what the Foxes are experiencing right now. Down near the bottom is where, on the basis of their squad and stature as a club, they should be.

The statement released to confirm Shakspeare’s exit failed to clarify the club’s official stance on things, only stating that  “the early promise under Craig’s management has not been consistently evident in the months since” and that “a change is necessary to keep the club moving forward.” That lack of clarification was emblematic of a greater lack of direction from the club over the way forward.

 

What’s more, there appears to be no succession plan following the dismissal of Shakespeare. Press reports claimed that the club’s owners wanted to appoint a big name in the mould of Carlo Ancelotti. But the Italian has since distanced himself from the job, with the Premier League’s go-to-man for guaranteed security from relegation, Sam Allardyce, also less than warm on the prospect of taking over at the King Power Stadium. Roberto Mancini and Thomas Tuchel have similarly moved out of reach.

Now, the likes of Sean Dyche and David Wagner are being linked with the vacant position, and even then, there are suggestions that neither of those candidates will be interested in taking over, with compensation also an issue. It’s entirely feasible that Leicester could end up appointing a manager with a similar pedigree to Shakespeare. 

 

This is the sign of a club that has lost sight of its place in the English football landscape. Leicester City’s Premier League triumph of 2015-16 was a tale for the ages, arguably the greatest sporting upset of all time, but it was an anomaly. It wasn’t an illustration of where the Foxes are as a club, or where they should be season after season.

 

Leicester City’s primary aim every season should be to avoid relegation, and their current position in the Premier League reflects that. The Foxes have faced a difficult start to the campaign, coming up against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United in their opening eight fixtures, but that wasn’t taken into account, seemingly, when evaluating Shakespeare’s place.

This isn’t to say that clubs should aspire to bigger and better things, and having tasted this not so long ago, it’s somewhat understandable that Leicester’s judgement should be informed by that.

 

But Shakespeare’s sacking highlights how the Foxes have lost their way. That could ultimately harm them if they fail to arm themselves for the fight they are fighting rather than the one they wish they were fighting.

Disgrace of an article. People like that kill this sport.

[Stadt]

I don’t know why I even read the reactions of other fans when this sort of thing happens. It’s as though they think we should still be happy if we never won a league game ever again because we won the league once.

 

Had we have finished 2nd I’m certain people wouldn’t be going on about the delusions of grandeur rubbish.

[sk3since03]

Perfectly written by somebody who knows absolutely nothing about the club or what it’s like to support it 

 

What a dickhead you are Graham  

[Koke]

3 minutes ago, Wookie said:

I don’t know why I even read the reactions of other fans when this sort of thing happens. It’s as though they think we should still be happy if we never won a league game ever again because we won the league once.

 

Had we have finished 2nd I’m certain people wouldn’t be going on about the delusions of grandeur rubbish.

 

Funny thing is the 5 Live presenter argued that had we not won the league Shakespeare wouldn't be sacked. Like since when has it become our standards to be in the bottom 3!! 

 

They can legitimately argue that Shakespeare wasn't given enough time which is fair enough but to say we are deluded and we have top 4 ambitions is just moronic.

[Lovejoy]

I've come to expect it. The underlying thing I've found over the last 18 months, well before Claudio got the chop, is that other fans aren't actually pleased we won the title as people love to pretend, they're actually all jealous as f**k and are now delighted we've slumped back. That applies to supporters of clubs of all repute.

[Ted Maul]

Another 'journalist' telling us that we're delusional for not wanted to get relegated.

 

It's almost as though they don't realise that 7th-17th positions exist, and we're somehow expecting to jump from 18th to 4th.

 

And people saying 'a club like Leicester should accept that they will be relegated'- why? Since WW1, we've spent much more time in the top flight than outside it- why the f**k wouldn't we want to stay in it? 

 

The internet and social media has given some absolute simpletons a platform, I suppose.

[Ted Maul]

3 minutes ago, Lovejoy said:

I've come to expect it. The underlying thing I've found over the last 18 months, well before Claudio got the chop, is that other fans aren't actually pleased we won the title as people love to pretend, they're actually all jealous as f**k and are now delighted we've slumped back. That applies to supporters of clubs of all repute.

Absolutely. Plenty of plaudits came our way through gritted teeth when we won it.

[4everfox]

This whole attitude of 'what are Leicester doing? They are at their expected position in the table' really does grind my gears. Can't a club have ambitions to break into the top four without being slagged off every time they sack a manager who fails to meet expectations. The owners have spent millions trying to achieve their long term targets and have every right to sack anybody they feel jeopardises that goal. It seems that all of these pundits want Leicester to behave like a good little club. Really does anger me. 

[Stadt]

I’ve stared to think that actually 95% of people really ought to shut the **** up when talking about Leicester, with a lot of our own fans included in that number.

Edited 19 October 2017 by Wookie

[davieG]

Why Craig Shakespeare Was Unlucky To Be Sacked By Leicester City

Steve Price , CONTRIBUTOR

I write about the world game from a global viewpoint Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

 

After just one win in eight games, Craig Shakespeare was sacked as the manager of Leicester City. The six points that the East Midlands side have picked up this season puts them in eighteenth place - in the relegation zone - and for their Thai owners, that isn’t good enough for a side who won the Premier League just two years earlier.

After Claudio Ranieri did the impossible and won the league title for Leicester, it seemed like he was unsackable. But poor form in the following season put the Foxes at risk of relegation. The clubs owners are smart enough to know that their Premier League triumph was a one-off. Nobody was expecting Leicester to repeat that magical feat, but a top-half finish did seem reasonable. When it comes to the Premier League, a decent finish is nice, but relegation is unthinkable. From the owners’ perspective, there is more at stake than just the huge TV revenues that being in England’s top tier of soccer brings. Having a Premier League side gives your name global coverage, and with it brand recognition or political visibility. In his book The Billionaires Club, James Montague says Leicester’s shock title win in 2016 also helped shield owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha from some of the turbulence of Thai domestic politics. Owning a team in the Championship doesn’t have quite the same effect. For me, Claudio Ranieri should also have been untouchable after he won the league with Leicester, a team that was 5000-1 outsiders at the start of the 2015-6 season. But the club’s owners thought with their head rather than their heart, and the risk of relegation was too great. Ranieri had to go. With Leicester currently just inside the drop zone, it appears that Leicester’s owners have applied the same realism, and perhaps short-termism, when deciding the fate of Craig Shakespeare. The now former Leicester boss signed a long term deal in the summer and will be receiving a large payoff for his troubles. Compared to the amount that Leicester would lose if they got relegated, that money will feel like spare change to the owners. The thing is though… what if Craig Shakespeare was the right man to keep Leicester in the Premier League?

Infogram

On the surface, with four defeats, three draws, and the one solitary win from eight games, Leicester are struggling. But that doesn’t take into account the teams they’ve played. Those four defeats were to Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, all teams you would probably expect Leicester to lose to. If you ignore matches against the so-called 'big six' (those four plus Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City), then Leicester are unbeaten, with a win and three draws. Relegation fights are won and lost not by results against the supposed top six teams, but by the scrappy battles against the league’s other thirteen sides, and so far this season, Shakespeare has been winning (or at least drawing) those battles. In fact, if you go back to the start of his time in charge of Leicester, Shakespeare has only lost once in the league to a side outside of the ‘big six’, a 4-2 defeat to Everton last April. Under Shakespeare last season, there were some big defeats to those top sides too, including a six-one thumping to Tottenham Hotspur. In fact, between last season and the start of the current campaign, Leicester have actually been quite consistent.

Leicester have also been hamstrung by circumstance. Their Premier League winning midfield engine of N'Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater were both sold to Chelsea. While most of Leicester’s other stars have stayed, the hole left by Kante and Drinkwater in midfield desperately needs plugging. Wilfred Ndidi has been a solid replacement for Kante, but the other side of the midfield partnership has been struck down by bad luck. Vincent Iborra, who won the Europa League three times with Sevilla, has managed less than 150 minutes in the league for Leicester so far this season. And their other big midfield signing, Portuguese international Adrien Silva, missed out on being registered for the Foxes after his transfer went through fourteen seconds after FIFA’s deadline. He has been stuck in limbo this season, unable to play for either his former side Sporting Clube de Portugal or for Leicester due to this bureaucratic mix-up. To try and get Silva match fit for January, Leicester have even been arranging closed-door friendly matches just for him.

Michael Appleton will take charge for Leicester’s match against Swansea this weekend. Ironically, he actually has more managerial experience than Shakespeare, having managed over 200 games at Portsmouth, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers, and Oxford United before joining Leicester as an assistant coach. The Leicester Mercury has Wales manager Chris Coleman down as favorite to replace Shakespeare in the long term, but whoever gets the job, there will be some fans wondering if the change was needed in the first place.

[urban.spaceman]

Everyone's an expert on Leicester CIty Football Club.

[foxinsocks]

15 minutes ago, davieG said:

Why Craig Shakespeare Was Unlucky To Be Sacked By Leicester City

Steve Price , CONTRIBUTOR

I write about the world game from a global viewpoint Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

 

After just one win in eight games, Craig Shakespeare was sacked as the manager of Leicester City. The six points that the East Midlands side have picked up this season puts them in eighteenth place - in the relegation zone - and for their Thai owners, that isn’t good enough for a side who won the Premier League just two years earlier.

After Claudio Ranieri did the impossible and won the league title for Leicester, it seemed like he was unsackable. But poor form in the following season put the Foxes at risk of relegation. The clubs owners are smart enough to know that their Premier League triumph was a one-off. Nobody was expecting Leicester to repeat that magical feat, but a top-half finish did seem reasonable. When it comes to the Premier League, a decent finish is nice, but relegation is unthinkable. From the owners’ perspective, there is more at stake than just the huge TV revenues that being in England’s top tier of soccer brings. Having a Premier League side gives your name global coverage, and with it brand recognition or political visibility. In his book The Billionaires Club, James Montague says Leicester’s shock title win in 2016 also helped shield owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha from some of the turbulence of Thai domestic politics. Owning a team in the Championship doesn’t have quite the same effect. For me, Claudio Ranieri should also have been untouchable after he won the league with Leicester, a team that was 5000-1 outsiders at the start of the 2015-6 season. But the club’s owners thought with their head rather than their heart, and the risk of relegation was too great. Ranieri had to go. With Leicester currently just inside the drop zone, it appears that Leicester’s owners have applied the same realism, and perhaps short-termism, when deciding the fate of Craig Shakespeare. The now former Leicester boss signed a long term deal in the summer and will be receiving a large payoff for his troubles. Compared to the amount that Leicester would lose if they got relegated, that money will feel like spare change to the owners. The thing is though… what if Craig Shakespeare was the right man to keep Leicester in the Premier League?

Infogram

On the surface, with four defeats, three draws, and the one solitary win from eight games, Leicester are struggling. But that doesn’t take into account the teams they’ve played. Those four defeats were to Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, all teams you would probably expect Leicester to lose to. If you ignore matches against the so-called 'big six' (those four plus Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City), then Leicester are unbeaten, with a win and three draws. Relegation fights are won and lost not by results against the supposed top six teams, but by the scrappy battles against the league’s other thirteen sides, and so far this season, Shakespeare has been winning (or at least drawing) those battles. In fact, if you go back to the start of his time in charge of Leicester, Shakespeare has only lost once in the league to a side outside of the ‘big six’, a 4-2 defeat to Everton last April. Under Shakespeare last season, there were some big defeats to those top sides too, including a six-one thumping to Tottenham Hotspur. In fact, between last season and the start of the current campaign, Leicester have actually been quite consistent.

Leicester have also been hamstrung by circumstance. Their Premier League winning midfield engine of N'Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater were both sold to Chelsea. While most of Leicester’s other stars have stayed, the hole left by Kante and Drinkwater in midfield desperately needs plugging. Wilfred Ndidi has been a solid replacement for Kante, but the other side of the midfield partnership has been struck down by bad luck. Vincent Iborra, who won the Europa League three times with Sevilla, has managed less than 150 minutes in the league for Leicester so far this season. And their other big midfield signing, Portuguese international Adrien Silva, missed out on being registered for the Foxes after his transfer went through fourteen seconds after FIFA’s deadline. He has been stuck in limbo this season, unable to play for either his former side Sporting Clube de Portugal or for Leicester due to this bureaucratic mix-up. To try and get Silva match fit for January, Leicester have even been arranging closed-door friendly matches just for him.

Michael Appleton will take charge for Leicester’s match against Swansea this weekend. Ironically, he actually has more managerial experience than Shakespeare, having managed over 200 games at Portsmouth, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers, and Oxford United before joining Leicester as an assistant coach. The Leicester Mercury has Wales manager Chris Coleman down as favorite to replace Shakespeare in the long term, but whoever gets the job, there will be some fans wondering if the change was needed in the first place.

Any fans looking at the way we have played know the shakey's time was up.... those more remote look at the fixtures and wonder if it was too hasty.  I saw most fans saying sad and thanks... not saying no 

[Spudulike]

Lovin' that Ruthven piece. I'm starting to get my mojo back.

[Daggers]

38 minutes ago, davieG said:

Steve Price , CONTRIBUTOR

Forbes

Glorified clickbait.

 

His opinion is as irrelevant and uninformed as any other tldr forum post.

[NewEnglandFox]

3 hours ago, Koke said:

Cant wait for Barry Glendenning's take on this on today's Guardian pod.

Considering Sunderland are already 3 points below the drop he will have a lot of anger to displace.

[sdb]

There's an (apparently) excellent telegraph article on how deep our troubles run within the club. Obviously it won't be a fun read and I know most on here feel it's the case too, but I'd like to see it. Can anyone copy and paste it in here? I can't access it all. 

[sdb]

36 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I tried reading that earlier but can't you only see a paragraph then it asks you to pay, right?

Yeah