Muzzy_Larsson

Would someone like Fraser be a good interim signing in January if that’s the right term. He’d improve what you have just now and it may be easier to get him at a fair price given he’s soon to be out of contract. Then come the summer, hopefully having qualified for the champions league you go out and bring in a real top wide player, a genuine difference maker. That means Long term Fraser really enhances the squad and is maybe first reserve but in the short term he provides a more risk adverse upgrade on what’s already in the squad.

That’s a very good point, that’ll likely be the main driver as watched a fair bit of the last one and the stadiums were absolutely empty.

That's a fair enough observation, I perhaps should have chosen my words a bit more carefully, my point was I can't understand any fan just accepting being rolled over 4-0 at home by any side, I didn't mean to call his authenticity as a fan into question. Heads have gone with his reply though like you allude to.

Again your misinformed and too lazy to get your facts right, fact of the matter is we continued to have great results in Europe under Lennon first time around, not just back in the by gone days of O'Neill and Strachan, results were poor under Rodgers in Europe and they've drastically improved in a European sense since Lennon came back in as we've won our Europa League group, beating the side currently third in Serie A home and away, thus reinforcing my point about Rodgers underperforming in Europe while at Celtic. On that note I'm out in terms of engaging with you. You've been talking absolute hum-drum for a couple of days on this thread now and been called it by your own fans so that says it all. Resorting to that sort of daft slander as opposed to having a reasoned debate says it all.

No such thing can happen, the tournament is in the FIFA calendar and as such takes priority, the rules are that if a player (not otherwise retired from international duty) refuses to play then they are also banned from playing for their club in the same time period. Probably much a do about nothing this, if I recall correctly the tournament has only been played once in the summer months so it'll just revert back to the way it always was. Some clubs will be picky about signing African players as a result, similar to how Alex Ferguson was but it's such a rich continent in terms of footballing talent now that it's not as if these guys will struggle to sign for top clubs.

Look at our European results prior to Rodgers arriving and then when he arrived we suffered our three record defeats on the trot, if your going to have an opinion on something please try and be the slightest bit informed otherwise you just look like a fool. I'd have been quite happy keeping the score down as you allude to but we made an almighty hash of that also with how we set up. This isn't a Rodgers bashing session, everyone is in agreement he is a terrific manager but it doesn't mean he is above constructive criticism and shouldn't be questioned ever. The point about being beaten by better teams with better players is again a vague, sweeping generalisation with no consideration for the facts. The frustration I interpret among Leicester fans on this thread is that other, shall we say, less equipped teams have given Liverpool and Man City in particular, far sterner tests than yourselves this season (Norwich and Newcastle being the obvious examples) and naturally people try to analyse why, particularly given the fact you are sitting in the top 4 in the league, which is perfectly natural and understandable. Given your lofty position it's quite plausible to expect that Leicester will be a tough proposition for these sides and the way it's panned out has been the polar opposite. All that aside no one should be coming to your own ground and rolling you over the way Liverpool did, fans have every right to feel aggrieved and ask questions after that result in particular. If your happy to accept that happening and put it down to the fact they "have better players" and that satisfies you I'd question how much of a fan you really are. Regardless of opposition, gap in finances or whatever I'm enraged anytime a side comes to Celtic Park and gives us a going over on our own patch and the same should apply at the King Power.

Yeah that’s pretty much my point. Hopefully he’ll learn and adapt though.

There are gems to be found here if you look hard enough however, Tielemans last year should make that fairly obvious. Guys like Lemar, Carrasco, etc fall into this bracket and woudl be a huge upgrade on anything you have at present, whether they come in on loan initially or whatever else. Players are still available in January it's just that you may have to be a premium to get them at that time of the year, if you have to do that then it may be worth doing if it means qualifying for the Champions League where you'll get any extra money you've had to fork out back and then some.

There's no reason why other clubs' business should define yours though. It's clear for all to see that a decent wide player is very much required, of the names mentioned Leicester should be doing all they can to get such a player, maybe they are behind the scenes, who knows.

I wouldn't pay Shaw £190 a week to have him at Celtic, a poor footballer, doesn't even look fit enough.

These players being available shows the "January is too hard a window to get quality in" as an absolute cop out. If any of these guys end up at Wolves, Everton, West Ham or any clubs like that and Leicester miss out then it shows a lack of ambition imo. If you want to seriously be regular CL participants then as a club you need to start acting and thinking like one.

That's a fair point.

Relying on the other teams being crap is a very dangerous game to play, especially with the dip in form currently being experienced and in a league that's so competitive where pretty much any team can beat the other (Liverpool aside of course!).

Wide player! Wide player! Wide player! Wide player! Wide player! It was glaringly obvious in the summer this was the weakest area of the side. Now have a second chance to rectify the mistake by strengthening in this window whilst still in a great position in the league.

It was the one black mark against Rodgers in his time with us, we never progressed in Europe at all, in fact we went backwards in relation to previous managers in Europe such as Lennon and Strachan, a large part of it being Rodgers stubborness in trying to pass it out from the back against some of the deadliest front three's in world football. We suffered our record home defeat and two record away defeats in Europe under him for example. Beating that Barcelona side who were arguably one of the greatest of all time is an outlier yes, but in a general sense we were more competitive in these kind of games pre-Rodgers, for example we went to the Nou Camp previously and it took a last minute goal to beat us, even before Lennon we had similar results under Strachan, we were never embaressed, also Celtic Park was a bit of a fortress, that changed under Rodgers too when sides like Anderlecht and Monchengladbach beat us comfortably at home. The only real memorable European results in Rodgers time were drawing with Pep's Man City home and away and beating RB Leipzig at home, the rest we really underperformed. Looking at his record with Liverpool in Europe it's pretty similar also. It's only my own opinion but I don't think he adapts his team's approach enough to deal with the opposition in Europe, he just blindly expects to play the same way, regardless of the approach or quality of the opposition.

We lost 2-0 at home but could easily have been 5 or 6. A year later we got spanked 5-0 at home against PSG by trying to go toe to toe with them and then went to Paris 6 weeks later and played the exact same way and they took 7 off us and it could have been more. I get there is a huge disparity in finances with these sorts of sides and Celtic and it’s hard to compete but bar one bad result against Barcelona under Lennon in the nou camp we were always competitive in these matches against Europe’s elite prior to Rodgers arriving.

Playing devil's advocate here but what if you don't strengthen at all and the cost of it is no champions league football come the end of the season? I get all the theory about January being a more difficult window but if the club are as ambitious as they say they are then now is the time to push the boat out and ensure Champions League qualification by signing a wide player that is a marked upgrade on what is currently available. You may have to pay a bit over the odds at this time of the year but you'll get that money back in spades with Champions League football secured.

Congerton has probably left his list of targets in his old flat again

This is spot on. If clubs finished in the league in order of budget then what's the point but that very rarely happens, when there is a small disparity in terms of budget anyway. Obviously Man City and the likes are in another stratosphere in terms of budget and finance and it would be unrealistic and unfair to expect to consistently compete with them. I'll caveat this with saying I haven't looked at the figures in any real depth but I can't imagine there is too much in it in terms of finance between clubs like Leicester, West Ham, Newcastle, Everton, etc.To accept any such club should finish ahead of you due to a greater budget of something like £10m is a cop out imo. Any sporting advantage gained from say West Ham being circa £5m better off is absolutely negligible. Given the vast wealth sloshing around the EPL in terms of TV money and the fact it accounts for most of clubs budgets means that bar slight variations it's pretty much a level playing field for all the clubs outside the traditional top 6 in terms of finance imo, the key is to how best to utilise the cash. A lot of clubs are scattergun with it and pay way above the odds consistently for average players.

Said this at the time but there was a strong sense of deja vu for me watching these games, it was very much like what happened in Europe under Rodgers at Celtic. We'd look like rabbits caught in the headlights a lot and would simply abandon our typical style of play and ethos and it was hard to spot our actual game plan. May just be a coincidence but I couldn't and can't still put my finger on why that happened to us.

This is the crux of the point, people merely pointing out they don't operate on a small budget as @FoxyJim1987 tried to suggest. That doesn't mean people think Howe should be sacked or he's not done a great job overall, of course he has.

Apparently the polish lad we're signing today is described as "Poland's Jamie Vardy"

Apparently Madrid are desperate to sign him so if that is indeed the case you'd imagine they'd get not a kick in the back side off the release clause if they come calling.

This. About as dangerous as a balloon on the end of a stick.

Come on now, they were dishing out 100k contracts to guys like Defoe.