The assumption that our owners know nothing about football

[Captain...]

Captain Shrapnel - if you are choosing to believe the first paragraph of that post applies to you, then fine...I'm not going to argue! But I hope you are feeling better this morning.

On Nigel Pearson leaving for Hull, the truth is, no-one outside of the inner circle of the club actually knows the answer. I didn't blame the new owners for this but it cannot be ruled out that they were complicit. Therefore it is something they may have gotten wrong.

Last Summer I was as exciting as anybody else by the spending spree. I was expecting a very different season to the one we have just had. In hindsight, the big influx of players and the wild disparities in wages was probably always going to make this season difficult.

I have also spent two decades longing for rich owners of Leicester City. I have witnessed the ineptitude and lack of ambition of local businessmen running the club. I have seen promising prospects going on to fulfil their potential at other clubs. I AM NOT AGAINST THE THAI OWNERS!

But...I have seen the spending spree fail to deliver the goods yet and I have witnessed how quickly rich, foreign owners at other clubs have gone from being saviours to asset strippers.

I have faith the Thai owners are different...but not blind faith.

A little fuzzy round the edges, but chocolate eggs helped resolve that, I have added one word to your post, can you find it?

Blind faith is not required but some evidence is needed before I start to worry about the survival of the club and its demise at their hands.

To be honest in the Summer I started off excited and then started to worry about the number of players we were bringing in, we signed too many and that is part of the reason why we are where we are, too much upheaval in the last few seasons starting with allowing NP to leave.

Now there may be some causality around the timing of NP going and the purchase of the club, by that I mean Mandy was looking at selling, or was aware of interest in the club and saw Hull's approach as a chance to get rid of NP and bring in someone high profile and more media friendly to help facilitate the sale of the club, or make it more attractive to those sniffing around. But even then it doesn't make much business sense, if you were looking to buy a club that had just finished 5th and were a penalty kick and 90 minutes from the premiership, then the last thing you would do is start to shake things up too dramatically on the pitch.

If you were taking over a struggling club then maybe you would want a new man but it really wouldn't make much sense to affect a huge change in the boardroom at the same time as making a massive change at the playing level when the club has just had its most successful season for the best part of a decade. That is a recipe for disaster, it's not like Abrahomvich who has always made a big thing about wanting to watch beautiful football, the Thai owners have only stated they want successful football.

The other thing which gives me more confidence in them is how much they are linking their brand, their name, their livelihood to the club, if they pull out and walk away then it will be a huge embarassment professionally, the link between King Power and Leicester City is much stronger than any other football club, (with the exception of Airbus and Total Network solutions in the Welsh league) any failures we have now and in the future and in the unlikely event of them walking away and we go into administration because of them it will reflect very badly on them and damage them on a professional level, which is one thing they will not let happen. If we don't succeed on the pitch is one thing, but if they cannot run us as a business then they will look very stupid.

[cc_star]

Not sure why people are dazzled by the money they've supposedly thrown around... Strikes me that it is people on here who could do with knowing a bit more rather than them.

All they've done is spent next years revenues & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & so on & so on, in fact the debt will probably be never be paid unless we get promotion & what then? Run up the debt even further spending even more future year's earnings to a) stay up b) get in top half... If so as the debt will be added to by more & more expensive signings, related fees & of course the big one - wages, it's possibly only a sustained spell in the top half of the Prem that will return us to a level playing field. If all this pans out then they will have done a great job, but many many people have taken this path and it more often than not doesn't end nicely.

Any fool can spend money they're still yet to earn.

Money coming into the club will not be put to use for signings, associated fees, wages or academy or anything that the fans see as a benefit... it will leaving the club and instead will be being paid in to a shell company that they own + 8% interest... sure they can raise more money, but all that will happen is that it's just yet more future year's earnings that we will own them

Yes, they have done it with good intentions which I can understand why people are waving their flag... and I'm not anti-owners in the slightest, it's just my support of them is rather more cautious.

What does give me hope is they quickly realised this approach is unsustainable & have put a management team in place that is capable of growing a club, but in a sustainable fashion.

[stourbridgefox]

I agree the Thai owners have made substantial links between King Power and Leicester City and some of the investment would not be recouped by asset stripping the club. For instance, the investment in the training ground can only bear fruit if it is used as a training ground for a high level football club. The value of the training ground is in it's prime location for new housing. If it was sold for this reason, what the actual buildings on the site contained would make no difference to the price as they would be pulled down regardless. If they were only interested in money they would've sold the training ground and moved it onto less valuable land.

I do wonder whether they regret making such a fuss about the link between LCFC and King Power though. I think realising their ambition for the club and making it a useful marketing tool for King Power has proven much more difficult than they thought. I think the purchase price of £39 million was over-valued and shows some naivety too. I sincerely hope they intend to learn from their mistakes and continue their support but there are worrying signs.

When Mandaric stopped press releases about the club and became a bit more distant from it, it was because he was planning on leaving. Mandaric hadn't run up the amount of debt the Raksriaksorns have which made selling the club much easier than it is likely to be now.

Also, why the delay in announcing season ticket prices and why is the player of the season thing with the sponsors not planned? Is there a problem with our high level sponsors from the Far East who were expecting their name attached to a Premier League club by now? It seems very strange for these things to be delayed.

To try to sum my point up in a sentence, I think the club is to some degree in a more precarious position now than it was this time last year.

And I hope you enjoy your chocolate!!

[seenitall]

You want to know the difference between Mandy and NP? How about Mandy was in charge when we got RELEGATED TO THE LOWEST POSITION IN OUR ENTIRE HISTORY!!!

Sorry for shouting but I don't think that point can be overstated, he also oversaw a ridiculous number of managers coming and going, turned the club into a joke, and has a chequered past littered with numerous accusations of dodgy dealings and tax shenanigans. He was also the one in charge when Pearson was allowed to leave, not the current owners.

Not solely to blame, Hoos and the rest need to take a largs part of the blame, as do the players and Holloway, Megson, Allen, Worthington and Kelly (our 2007 managers)

I'd love to know by what criteria you choose to ignore or deplore the shady dealings of football club owners - is it what the Daily Mail prints or what you learn from the wisdom of Foxestalk - whatever it is, painting Mandaric as a fraudster and the current owners as saints is as naive a view as I've read on here. A quick look through the Google news pages on both parties should help restore the balance in your deluded mind.

Arguably, relegation to a lower tier was the best thing that could have happened to us at the time (although I'm sure it wasn't planned) - it cleared a lot of dross (not enough) out from the playing staff and brought the fans back to the stadium - the momentum was good and I do believe if NP had been kept on it would have been maintained but either MM or the new owners wanted Sousa - to my mind the first huge mistake made and then the knee jerk, poorly advised sacking of the Sousa's successor derailed this season for a gamble that didn't (probably) pay off.

That makes two huge balls ups since King Power have been associated with Leicester City - suggests a certain naivety when it comes to running a football club - and as for Top supporting Leicester for years - my arse

[AKCJ]

[Mack]

I've not read this thread in entirity but just to throw a few other names into the hat...

Roman Abramovich

Thaksin Shinawatra

John Henry

Carson Yeung

The Glaziers

Chan Tien Ghee

Flavio Briatore

Eggert Magnússon

Just to name a few.

You think all these people know more about Football than the fans of their clubs?

Do you think these people just because they have money are hugely intelligent?

Do you think these people are qualified to make footballing decisions?

Lets get something straight here.

If anyone believes that these people buy into football clubs because they love them or just to help them out then removal of your head from you arse is advised.

These people get involved either to make money or to boost their own ego / profile / popularity / fame. And they can disappear as quickly as they came.

Our owners are here in my opinion to boost their own personal profiles and social standing in Thailand.

Do they know anything about Football? The bits they have picked up from watching the odd game live and quite a few games on TV does not qualify them to run a football club so I would say they know less than the average fan in England.

It also worries me that they then employ a retail management high flier to run the club, another Football novice.

Of course I hope it all works out, and I couldn't give a monkeys where they come from or what colour they are.

Only their dedication and credentials are relevant, and I would say they are novices.

[Webbo]

The most important thing any owners need to know is how to run a business. It's irrelevant to me whether the owners prefer Wes Morgan at CB or Matt Mills, that's not their job. They need to appoint someone to run the football side and they can run the business.

[foxesfan1989]

Racism? What a plank. People assume this because it is more than likely true. Who said anything about them being football fans? What team do they follow? They want their name plastered everywhere, thats the reason they bought the team. They are more than entitled to this too. Legally make the players change their name to King Power if they want, they have spent enough money. But i very much doubt they have half the knowledge of English football than most of the posters on this forum, and accusing me of being racist for thinking this? Moronic.

[21st Century Fox]

Racism? What a plank. People assume this because it is more than likely true. Who said anything about them being football fans? What team do they follow? They want their name plastered everywhere, thats the reason they bought the team. They are more than entitled to this too. Legally make the players change their name to King Power if they want, they have spent enough money. But i very much doubt they have half the knowledge of English football than most of the posters on this forum, and accusing me of being racist for thinking this? Moronic.

I don't think that was his point.

[Smudge]

Fine insult me, you realise by doing so it makes you just the same as me, join the dark side Luke, I had had a little to drink last night and I may not have been in the most rational and balanced mood, apart from the first line in the response to you, I don't think the rest was overly aggressive, but just answer me this one part, the bit that really pissed me off.

Why are you (and others) blaming the current owners for NP leaving us for Hull? When that happened well before they took over, and even when they did take over Mandy was still running the show.

The rest of my points still stand, we may have spent a lot last summer, but, Mills aside, I don't think we overpaid for anyone.

Wages may be high, but they are still inline with turnover and not pushing us further into debt.

Finally we will be at the "mercy" of whoever owns the club, but then that just means you will distrust anyone who owns the club. Why?

[Captain...]

I'd love to know by what criteria you choose to ignore or deplore the shady dealings of football club owners - is it what the Daily Mail prints or what you learn from the wisdom of Foxestalk - whatever it is, painting Mandaric as a fraudster and the current owners as saints is as naive a view as I've read on here. A quick look through the Google news pages on both parties should help restore the balance in your deluded mind.

Arguably, relegation to a lower tier was the best thing that could have happened to us at the time (although I'm sure it wasn't planned) - it cleared a lot of dross (not enough) out from the playing staff and brought the fans back to the stadium - the momentum was good and I do believe if NP had been kept on it would have been maintained but either MM or the new owners wanted Sousa - to my mind the first huge mistake made and then the knee jerk, poorly advised sacking of the Sousa's successor derailed this season for a gamble that didn't (probably) pay off.

That makes two huge balls ups since King Power have been associated with Leicester City - suggests a certain naivety when it comes to running a football club - and as for Top supporting Leicester for years - my arse

Trust me it was MM, he was a close personal friend of Sousa and didn't have a great relationship with NP, MM was still the chairman for a further 2 months after Sousa was appointed, I really don't understand any direct association with Pearson leaving us for Hull and the current owners, and anyone saying otherwise is just needlessly trying to stir up negative feelings towards the owners and I don't understand why. I am genuinely bemused.

As for Mandy, I was not his biggest fan when he was at Pompey, I didn't like the fact that we ended up with 5 managers in one calendar year and a massive playing squad of average players, nor did I like the way he intefered and tried to get us to sign big name players, such as Davids and Hasselbank. You are entitled to think that Mandy was great, but the afore mentioned things are actual reason's I hvae not to have liked him as our owner and was in part why we ended up at our lowest point in our history.

Likewise you are free to disagree with them for something they actually did, sack Sven, personally I think it was the correct decision at the correct time, but that's opinion for you. What I don't agree with is tarring them with this idea that they were directly responsible for NP leaving in the first place.

As for them not being saints, if you have any hard facts, or links to any article that would prove otherwise then please share, I think it is important to know, it is easy enough to find plenty of accusations aimed at Mandy, nothing has stuck, but then I never said that it had.

[Kitchandro]

Arguably, relegation to a lower tier was the best thing that could have happened to us at the time

lol You absolute twat

[seenitall]

lol You absolute twat

What a charmer you are - and clueless as well - did relegation not bring the mighty Nige to us? Pretty sure Olly would have stayed if he'd kept us up and we would have had another season slugging it out in mid table - the momentum nearly got us up again but you are such a w**ker you probably missed all that playing with your own cock

[Captain...]

Not sure why people are dazzled by the money they've supposedly thrown around... Strikes me that it is people on here who could do with knowing a bit more rather than them.

All they've done is spent next years revenues & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & the year after & so on & so on, in fact the debt will probably be never be paid unless we get promotion & what then? Run up the debt even further spending even more future year's earnings to a) stay up b) get in top half... If so as the debt will be added to by more & more expensive signings, related fees & of course the big one - wages, it's possibly only a sustained spell in the top half of the Prem that will return us to a level playing field. If all this pans out then they will have done a great job, but many many people have taken this path and it more often than not doesn't end nicely.

Any fool can spend money they're still yet to earn.

Money coming into the club will not be put to use for signings, associated fees, wages or academy or anything that the fans see as a benefit... it will leaving the club and instead will be being paid in to a shell company that they own + 8% interest... sure they can raise more money, but all that will happen is that it's just yet more future year's earnings that we will own them

Yes, they have done it with good intentions which I can understand why people are waving their flag... and I'm not anti-owners in the slightest, it's just my support of them is rather more cautious.

What does give me hope is they quickly realised this approach is unsustainable & have put a management team in place that is capable of growing a club, but in a sustainable fashion.

Have you heard the phrase you have to spend money to make money?

I understand your point, but you are exagerrating the situation a lot, firstly promotion in the next few years will wipe out any debt, the reward of premiership football is that lucrative, the mistake made by Sven was too much short termism with the loans, financially getting in a loan player makes sense, no transfer fees and no money tied up in it, but we had nothing to show for it in the end.

It has been shown that our wage bill is within our means at 90% of our turnover, so the other big outlay has been transfer fees.

Yes they have spent a lot of money on transfers, but only Mills was overpriced, take him out the equation and we spent 2.5 million on Beckford, then around 1 million each on SSL, Morgan, Drinkwater, Marshall, Konchesky, Peltier, Kasper then we got Danns and Nugent for free, rough figures that are if anything too high, but for the sake of argument 10 million on all of them, I am pretty sure that their actual value is now much higher and will continue to increase, Konchesky aside, they are all youngish and improving as players. Yes we have spent 10 million, but we have at least 15 million in assets to show for it, unfortunately that profit could be wiped out by including Mills in there, but that is football.

As long as we do what Sven didn't and sell players at something like their worth then that money will be recouped, and is still in the club as assets and not lost money.

Anyway all of this will soon become moot with the FFP regulations, so it really is not something to get concerned over, reckless spending, the likes of which could jeopardise the future of a club is basically becoming illegal.

I do wonder if it was with that in mind they allowed Sven to have his spending spree to get in the prem before restrictions came in. Then took a more prudent approach.

Afterall, they are successful business men, they know money, and how to make it, much better than most do.

[seenitall]

Trust me it was MM, he was a close personal friend of Sousa and didn't have a great relationship with NP, MM was still the chairman for a further 2 months after Sousa was appointed, I really don't understand any direct association with Pearson leaving us for Hull and the current owners, and anyone saying otherwise is just needlessly trying to stir up negative feelings towards the owners and I don't understand why. I am genuinely bemused.

As for Mandy, I was not his biggest fan when he was at Pompey, I didn't like the fact that we ended up with 5 managers in one calendar year and a massive playing squad of average players, nor did I like the way he intefered and tried to get us to sign big name players, such as Davids and Hasselbank. You are entitled to think that Mandy was great, but the afore mentioned things are actual reason's I hvae not to have liked him as our owner and was in part why we ended up at our lowest point in our history.

Likewise you are free to disagree with them for something they actually did, sack Sven, personally I think it was the correct decision at the correct time, but that's opinion for you. What I don't agree with is tarring them with this idea that they were directly responsible for NP leaving in the first place.

As for them not being saints, if you have any hard facts, or links to any article that would prove otherwise then please share, I think it is important to know, it is easy enough to find plenty of accusations aimed at Mandy, nothing has stuck, but then I never said that it had.

God you know lots don't you?

It's all been shared before laddy - just because you can only read The Sun doesn't mean there aren't other publications in the world you know........I am sure they are fine upstanding long term Leicester supporters who got into this out of a love for our club, and I am sure when they can't get promotion they will invest more and be around for many years. Look, you are happy with them, with Nige and with the way things are, but I am not - we are in the wrong division with an unproven manager and a shaky ownership prone to volatile decisions - if you're happy and you know it clap your hands - me, I expect more

[Captain...]

What a charmer you are - and clueless as well - did relegation not bring the mighty Nige to us? Pretty sure Olly would have stayed if he'd kept us up and we would have had another season slugging it out in mid table - the momentum nearly got us up again but you are such a w**ker you probably missed all that playing with your own cock

I would agree with you that relegation did turn out to be a blessing in disguise, but I am not going to thank Mandaric or Holloway or any of the players from that season for letting it happen.

Yes relegation did bring us Nigel, appointed by Mandy, but I am not going to change my opinion of MM because he got one managerial appoint out of 6 right.

[Captain...]

God you know lots don't you?

It's all been shared before laddy - just because you can only read The Sun doesn't mean there aren't other publications in the world you know........I am sure they are fine upstanding long term Leicester supporters who got into this out of a love for our club, and I am sure when they can't get promotion they will invest more and be around for many years. Look, you are happy with them, with Nige and with the way things are, but I am not - we are in the wrong division with an unproven manager and a shaky ownership prone to volatile decisions - if you're happy and you know it clap your hands - me, I expect more

A shaky ownership prone to volatile decisions? Can you please elaborate on that.

I don't think they did it for the love of Leicester, they did it largely for business reasons because they are businessmen.

I didn't read it in the Sun, I probably read it on here, it also makes reference to it here: http://theseventytwo...e-at-leicester/

But I will happily change it to, they are alleged to have been friends, because I have no desire to trawl through google to prove otherwise.

Now will you kindly back up your statements about the owners being shakey and volatile, I have not read anything on here or anywhere else to agree with that, nothing showed up when they passed the fit and proper person's test.

Also any hard evidence that they were in anyway involved with NP getting leaving.

[Kitchandro]

What a charmer you are - and clueless as well - did relegation not bring the mighty Nige to us? Pretty sure Olly would have stayed if he'd kept us up and we would have had another season slugging it out in mid table - the momentum nearly got us up again but you are such a w**ker you probably missed all that playing with your own cock

You hate Nigel, so I'm going to ignore that one. Obviously that wasn't a good thing in your opinion.

How is relegation ever a good thing? It's failure, however you look at it.

We lost our proud record and it led to our worst position ever.

I'm not convinced Olly would have stayed at all. And so what if he did. the worst that could have happened was that we could have been relegated the season after.

Relegation was one of the worst things that ever happened to us, not quite as bad as Peter Taylor or administration, but it was fvcking terrible.

[flowwolf]

Trust me it was MM, he was a close personal friend of Sousa and didn't have a great relationship with NP, MM was still the chairman for a further 2 months after Sousa was appointed, I really don't understand any direct association with Pearson leaving us for Hull and the current owners, and anyone saying otherwise is just needlessly trying to stir up negative feelings towards the owners and I don't understand why. I am genuinely bemused.

As for Mandy, I was not his biggest fan when he was at Pompey, I didn't like the fact that we ended up with 5 managers in one calendar year and a massive playing squad of average players, nor did I like the way he intefered and tried to get us to sign big name players, such as Davids and Hasselbank. You are entitled to think that Mandy was great, but the afore mentioned things are actual reason's I hvae not to have liked him as our owner and was in part why we ended up at our lowest point in our history.

Likewise you are free to disagree with them for something they actually did, sack Sven, personally I think it was the correct decision at the correct time, but that's opinion for you. What I don't agree with is tarring them with this idea that they were directly responsible for NP leaving in the first place.

As for them not being saints, if you have any hard facts, or links to any article that would prove otherwise then please share, I think it is important to know, it is easy enough to find plenty of accusations aimed at Mandy, nothing has stuck, but then I never said that it had.

Your typo's are showing again love.

[Lobsterboyuk]

I'm not sure if I had £50 million to invest and expected a decent return that I would turn to a football club as my vehicle. Clubs generally are lucky to break even against investments and I'm not sure anybody has gotten rich off of the back of club ownership

I'm happy to take the Thai's at face value that they love football and want to raise the game's profile in Thailand and buying a club in Europe is a good way to kick that off. I haven't seen any acts of disrespect towards us, on the contrary they have demonstrated commitment to the club and the community.

Are they perfect - of course not but until they actually act in a manner that demonstrates less than honourable intent - then I'll leave the pessimism and criticism to others and I'll remain grateful that they decided LCFC was the club for them...

[Captain...]

Your typo's are showing again love.

Oops, I would go back and change them, but as you have already quoted them and my fallability is there for everyone to see, I can't be arsed.

I think I am going to have to change my sig, being a Grammar Nazi on here is a full time job.

I'm not sure if I had £50 million to invest and expected a decent return that I would turn to a football club as my vehicle. Clubs generally are lucky to break even against investments and I'm not sure anybody has gotten rich off of the back of club ownership

I'm happy to take the Thai's at face value that they love football and want to raise the game's profile in Thailand and buying a club in Europe is a good way to kick that off. I haven't seen any acts of disrespect towards us, on the contrary they have demonstrated commitment to the club and the community.

Are they perfect - of course not but until they actually act in a manner that demonstrates less than honourable intent - then I'll leave the pessimism and criticism to others and I'll remain grateful that they decided LCFC was the club for them...

I'm glad it's not just me, although I will add they are using Leicester as a promotional vehicle for their brand, and it is not just for the love of the game, return on investment takes more guises than just monetary.

[flowwolf]

Please don't change your sig , it gives me something to look forward to during the long hours of reading absolute dross on here. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

[fox ache]