The "do they mean us?" thread pt 3

[ARTY_FOX]

3 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

I don't fully agree there, some of their content actually perfectly hits the nail on the head - as much as Simon Jordan is a plank, some of the crap him and Jim White come out with is spot on. 

 

But shit like this, is actually astonishing people get paid for it 

Even Simon Jordan and Jim whites show is about rage baiting. It's OK it's funny when other teams fans ring in to go wild. But it's best not to pay attention when your club is the subject. 

[Sunbury Fox]

38 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

 

Genuinely not a clue where to start here 

 

All well and good saying he hasn't been backed, without actually looking any deeper than surface level transfers.

Nice of them to miss off the fact he was one of the highest earning managers in the league (impacting us having to let go some key players) and the absolutely spiral in performances theses last 2 years. 

BR hails himself as a coach, so why can't he coach our backline?

 

Not sure why I'm surprised when it's Alex Crook

 

Thinking about this further (I know that i should have better things to do!), this kind of crap is really driven by an inherent view from the likes of Crook (Man U fan from Hampshire, I believe) that Leicester fans should know their place and be grateful to have a manager like Rodgers because, you know, "what does a club like Leicester expect?" I guarantee that if Everton had sacked Rodgers in the same circumstances he would be saying that It was the right decision. 

[davieG]

1 hour ago, kingcarr21 said:

 

That's the narrative Rodgers has spun. He has been deflecting blame since the Forest debacle last season. At different points he has thrown shade at the players, injuries, recruitment, the board and the fans and probably more that i am currently not thinking of. 

 

I do not remember there ever being a moment where he has taken responsibility, you might find a little off the cuff comment about taking responsibility but that is well hidden within all the excuses he threw our way. I was fully backing Brendan to sort the mess out until he blamed the fans. That was the final straw. This whole mess is mostly on him. Can you blame the players for not giving 100%? Yes they get paid mega dough but they are still human and when their manager is so demoralising about the players when talking to the press why would they then give you there all? They must be thinking 'what an absolute willy puller'.

 

Rodgers is a mastermind of deflecting blame and i for one am delighted he has gone. 

 

EDIT : I love my my original word has auto corrected to Willy Puller  

Don't forget the weather which he also blamed.

 

I think the word you're looking for is

 

• Mumpsimuses - those who insist they are right and apportion blame to others without looking at themselves.

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/self-fulfilling-prophecy-heart-brendan-8319638?fbclid=IwAR3RSL1wHs2VF1-iw6A9ePHKQuNEPesWAC_QoLFMUOmkrAsHdG_wUAEdM_Q

 

Self-fulfilling prophecy at the heart of Brendan Rodgers' long unravelling at Leicester City
A closer look at the causes of Brendan Rodgers' downfall at the King Power Stadium, with last summer critical in what has transpired over the nine months since then

ByJordan Blackwell
17:48, 3 APR 2023UPDATED23:48, 3 APR 2023

Trying to pinpoint the start of Brendan Rodgers’ downfall at Leicester City is not easy. There are plenty of moments during his tenure that could be considered the start of the end.

Rewinding just over a year to the humiliating FA Cup exit at Nottingham Forest feels like a good starting point. It was certainly the moment where a lot of supporters lost their faith in Rodgers, while his post-match criticism of the squad will not have been received very well.

But there were significant events before that too. The inability to see out victories, most notably shown by the embarrassing injury-time turnaround at home to Tottenham a month before Forest, has been a significant factor ever since, with 22 points dropped from winning positions this term, the most in the Premier League.

 

Their weak set-piece defending is another long-term factor that has caused problems. It was the principal reason they failed to finish in the European spots last season, while it was also at the heart of their Europa Conference League semi-final exit to Roma. That Rodgers could not fix either of those issues was a black mark against him.

But there were moments that preceded that. While Wesley Fofana’s injury was unfortunate, the panic buy of Jannik Vestergaard, which Rodgers was at the heart of, did nothing to improve the situation. The summer of 2021 as a whole was a disaster.

There is even an argument to say that falling just short of Champions League qualification two years running, despite sitting in the top four for the majority of that period, was a demoralising blow that sucked the energy out of the club.

But really, none of these issues were fatal. City could and in some cases did recover from them. On reflection, it feels like last summer was the pivotal point in starting the run of results that ended with this week's parting of the ways.

While Rodgers was heavily critical of his players after the Forest debacle, he first proposed the idea of a “healthy shake-up” of his squad before, in the week leading up to that game. For the rest of the season, it became his focus. He headed into the summer gearing up for five or six quality new arrivals, with seven or eight heading out the door.

Rodgers was approaching the end of his third full season as City manager and could feel his ideas going stale. City needed a reboot, and Rodgers knew it. His experience at Liverpool told him as much. At Anfield, he lasted just a couple of months into his fourth season. He was wary that three years was the end of a cycle, and that a revamp was required.

If City were to repeat the success of Rodgers' first two seasons, they either needed a new squad or a new manager. The problems truly emerged when they got neither.

In anticipation of a refresh, Rodgers started to tell players they could find new clubs. There were some too, that having experienced European football, were ready to leave the King Power Stadium, with City no longer able to offer that.

But with an assessment of the club’s finances changing their plans completely, very little business was done. City kept up high asking prices for players they were happy to move on and so none of them left. They also resisted enquiries for those that wanted European football. For Youri Tielemans, who they would have sold instead of losing him for nothing, there was no formal interest.

That left City with a squad chock full of players who had hoped to leave, or had been told they would be. It also left them with a manager who had not got what he had wanted. While on holiday at the end of last season, Rodgers had been phoning potential transfer targets, only to then be told the club wouldn't be doing deals.

As such, it felt like his enthusiasm and motivation for the job waned. There were questions at press conferences asking him if he was still happy in his role.

There were other matters behind the scenes that Rodgers referred to as “invisibles”, refusing to elaborate when pushed. But it seemed like more went on last summer than just the about-turn on transfers.

Rodgers’ suggestion that City were at the end of a cycle then became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It looked as though that permeated into the squad and onto the pitch. It was clear that City were no longer a club on the up, one that could ruffle the feathers of the division’s big boys.

All this coincided with other issues, such as Danny Ward’s inability to successfully fill Kasper Schmeichel’s gloves and Jamie Vardy’s fall from elite striker status.

But it was more than just players performing poorly. The club’s defensive disorganisation, particularly on the transition, has been so costly, not only because it has seen them concede a flurry of goals, but because of the impact on the attack too.

Players in possession, scared of giving the ball away and conceding a chance to the opposition, have been making safe passes on the ball. That leads to a tedious brand of football that does not go down well with supporters. It also sees players stop getting themselves into positions to receive forward passes.

If there was a greater belief in the defence, there would have been more adventure on the ball. But Rodgers could not get his rearguard into a position where the team felt solid, as shown by the long wait for a clean sheet this calendar year.

It did not help the mood either that Rodgers occasionally used his media appearances to protect his own reputation. After the home draw with Brighton, he implied the squad could no longer be coached, and that they did not have the technical quality for him to improve them further.

It was a subtle way of Rodgers saying he was doing as well as he could with the squad. But as someone who is a coach first and foremost, admitting to being unable to improve the players is not a great look either.

Transfers were made at the end of January and that did seem to reinvigorate Rodgers a little, the Northern Irishman perhaps accepting that he would see out the final two years of his contract, and that this summer, the club would finally follow through on their promise to reshape the squad. It was perhaps significant though that the new recruitment chief Martyn Glover took full responsibility for those deals, with only minimal input from Rodgers.

The idea, for both Rodgers and the club, was to get through to the end of the season with their Premier League status intact, and then to go again from there. It was clear the manager was still trying to find solutions, bringing in Daniel Iversen for Ward just before the international break. He was not phoning it in.

But the defeat to Crystal Palace, and more importantly the performance at Selhurst Park, showed that the plan of scraping through to the end of the campaign and hoping to be in 17th or above was in real doubt.

Rodgers’ run as boss ended 10 games short of checkpoint from where he may have been able to get what he wanted and manage the club for the remaining two years of his deal. It’s been a long unravelling for Rodgers, but the summer of discontent last year appears to be the point where it started to fall apart more quickly than either he or the club could cope.

[Dahnsouff]

Decent article

[DanDare]

Don't really expect the media to be in any way critical of Rodgers in general. I can easily see one or more wanting to line him up as a pundit. 

He tells a good story, looks good on telly interviews, says what he thinks they want to hear and knows all you need to see for creative, fast flowing entertaining football ......apparently. 

 

Anything else just isn't his fault. 

 

 

Edited 4 April 2023 by DanDare

[OntarioFox]

2 hours ago, teblin said:

Was listening to the Monday Night Club last night and it was very pro-Brendan. "he's been let down", "lack of money to spend" .

 

To be fair to Chris Sutton he did call out Vestergaard and Bertrand as bad signings.

[cityfanlee23]

Honestly Brendan doesn’t even need to save face, all of the excuses of the last 18 months were just wasting his breath, the media immunised him from 99% of the scrutiny anyway. Your average football fan who hasn’t followed the club directly still think he hasn’t been backed and he’s been unlucky. 
 

Hasnt been backed? 
about 270m or something in 4 years on transfers, 

100m on world class training facilities, and a wage budget that rose from 90m a season to 190m a season. (A rise of 25m a season would accumulate to over 225m of extra spending on wages since he arrived) 

 

Unless I’m missing something, the clubs spending since Rodgers arrived has accumulated to just short of 600m  EXTRA ontop of what they were spending to run the club when he turned up. 

Sure it’s not directly on transfers, but the fact he turned the entire team bar Maddison into championship fodder was the biggest issue. If he had got the best out of the players we kept we wouldn’t be in this mess. But fans have no clue. 

Edited 4 April 2023 by cityfanlee23

[UniFox21]

4 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Honestly Brendan doesn’t even need to save face, all of the excuses of the last 18 months were just wasting his breath, the media immunised him from 99% of the scrutiny anyway. Your average football fan who hasn’t followed the club directly still think he hasn’t been backed and he’s been unlucky. 
 

Hasnt been backed? 
about 270m or something in 4 years on transfers, 

100m on world class training facilities, and a wage budget that rose from 90m a season to 190m a season. (A rise of 25m a season would accumulate to over 225m of extra spending on wages since he arrived) 

 

Unless I’m missing something, the clubs spending since Rodgers arrived has accumulated to just short of 600m  EXTRA ontop of what they were spending to run the club when he turned up. 

Sure it’s not directly on transfers, but the fact he turned the entire team bar Maddison into championship fodder was the biggest issue. If he had got the best out of the players we kept we wouldn’t be in this mess. But fans have no clue. 

A point that baffles me; in one breath the media say we haven't backed him, but in the next they're saying we're Leicester and should know our place 

 

Now surely it's one or then other right? 

[cityfanlee23]

1 minute ago, UniFox21 said:

A point that baffles me; in one breath the media say we haven't backed him, but in the next they're saying we're Leicester and should know our place 

 

Now surely it's one or then other right? 

Yep, the media showing once again all they care about is division and lazy journalism. It was so refreshing seeing people like Simon Jordan finally call the situation out, but even then he was reluctant to admit Rodgers had been backed. 
 

The UK football media is some of the most disingenuous in the world. 

[KingsX]

7 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/self-fulfilling-prophecy-heart-brendan-8319638?fbclid=IwAR3RSL1wHs2VF1-iw6A9ePHKQuNEPesWAC_QoLFMUOmkrAsHdG_wUAEdM_Q

 

Self-fulfilling prophecy at the heart of Brendan Rodgers' long unravelling at Leicester City
A closer look at the causes of Brendan Rodgers' downfall at the King Power Stadium, with last summer critical in what has transpired over the nine months since then

ByJordan Blackwell
17:48, 3 APR 2023UPDATED23:48, 3 APR 2023

Trying to pinpoint the start of Brendan Rodgers’ downfall at Leicester City is not easy. There are plenty of moments during his tenure that could be considered the start of the end.

Rewinding just over a year to the humiliating FA Cup exit at Nottingham Forest feels like a good starting point. It was certainly the moment where a lot of supporters lost their faith in Rodgers, while his post-match criticism of the squad will not have been received very well.

But there were significant events before that too. The inability to see out victories, most notably shown by the embarrassing injury-time turnaround at home to Tottenham a month before Forest, has been a significant factor ever since, with 22 points dropped from winning positions this term, the most in the Premier League.

 

Their weak set-piece defending is another long-term factor that has caused problems. It was the principal reason they failed to finish in the European spots last season, while it was also at the heart of their Europa Conference League semi-final exit to Roma. That Rodgers could not fix either of those issues was a black mark against him.

But there were moments that preceded that. While Wesley Fofana’s injury was unfortunate, the panic buy of Jannik Vestergaard, which Rodgers was at the heart of, did nothing to improve the situation. The summer of 2021 as a whole was a disaster.

There is even an argument to say that falling just short of Champions League qualification two years running, despite sitting in the top four for the majority of that period, was a demoralising blow that sucked the energy out of the club.

But really, none of these issues were fatal. City could and in some cases did recover from them. On reflection, it feels like last summer was the pivotal point in starting the run of results that ended with this week's parting of the ways.

While Rodgers was heavily critical of his players after the Forest debacle, he first proposed the idea of a “healthy shake-up” of his squad before, in the week leading up to that game. For the rest of the season, it became his focus. He headed into the summer gearing up for five or six quality new arrivals, with seven or eight heading out the door.

Rodgers was approaching the end of his third full season as City manager and could feel his ideas going stale. City needed a reboot, and Rodgers knew it. His experience at Liverpool told him as much. At Anfield, he lasted just a couple of months into his fourth season. He was wary that three years was the end of a cycle, and that a revamp was required.

If City were to repeat the success of Rodgers' first two seasons, they either needed a new squad or a new manager. The problems truly emerged when they got neither.

In anticipation of a refresh, Rodgers started to tell players they could find new clubs. There were some too, that having experienced European football, were ready to leave the King Power Stadium, with City no longer able to offer that.

But with an assessment of the club’s finances changing their plans completely, very little business was done. City kept up high asking prices for players they were happy to move on and so none of them left. They also resisted enquiries for those that wanted European football. For Youri Tielemans, who they would have sold instead of losing him for nothing, there was no formal interest.

That left City with a squad chock full of players who had hoped to leave, or had been told they would be. It also left them with a manager who had not got what he had wanted. While on holiday at the end of last season, Rodgers had been phoning potential transfer targets, only to then be told the club wouldn't be doing deals.

As such, it felt like his enthusiasm and motivation for the job waned. There were questions at press conferences asking him if he was still happy in his role.

There were other matters behind the scenes that Rodgers referred to as “invisibles”, refusing to elaborate when pushed. But it seemed like more went on last summer than just the about-turn on transfers.

Rodgers’ suggestion that City were at the end of a cycle then became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It looked as though that permeated into the squad and onto the pitch. It was clear that City were no longer a club on the up, one that could ruffle the feathers of the division’s big boys.

All this coincided with other issues, such as Danny Ward’s inability to successfully fill Kasper Schmeichel’s gloves and Jamie Vardy’s fall from elite striker status.

But it was more than just players performing poorly. The club’s defensive disorganisation, particularly on the transition, has been so costly, not only because it has seen them concede a flurry of goals, but because of the impact on the attack too.

Players in possession, scared of giving the ball away and conceding a chance to the opposition, have been making safe passes on the ball. That leads to a tedious brand of football that does not go down well with supporters. It also sees players stop getting themselves into positions to receive forward passes.

If there was a greater belief in the defence, there would have been more adventure on the ball. But Rodgers could not get his rearguard into a position where the team felt solid, as shown by the long wait for a clean sheet this calendar year.

It did not help the mood either that Rodgers occasionally used his media appearances to protect his own reputation. After the home draw with Brighton, he implied the squad could no longer be coached, and that they did not have the technical quality for him to improve them further.

It was a subtle way of Rodgers saying he was doing as well as he could with the squad. But as someone who is a coach first and foremost, admitting to being unable to improve the players is not a great look either.

Transfers were made at the end of January and that did seem to reinvigorate Rodgers a little, the Northern Irishman perhaps accepting that he would see out the final two years of his contract, and that this summer, the club would finally follow through on their promise to reshape the squad. It was perhaps significant though that the new recruitment chief Martyn Glover took full responsibility for those deals, with only minimal input from Rodgers.

The idea, for both Rodgers and the club, was to get through to the end of the season with their Premier League status intact, and then to go again from there. It was clear the manager was still trying to find solutions, bringing in Daniel Iversen for Ward just before the international break. He was not phoning it in.

But the defeat to Crystal Palace, and more importantly the performance at Selhurst Park, showed that the plan of scraping through to the end of the campaign and hoping to be in 17th or above was in real doubt.

Rodgers’ run as boss ended 10 games short of checkpoint from where he may have been able to get what he wanted and manage the club for the remaining two years of his deal. It’s been a long unravelling for Rodgers, but the summer of discontent last year appears to be the point where it started to fall apart more quickly than either he or the club could cope.

 

Maybe I need to improve my opinion of Blackwell and the Mercury.

 

It's not easy to assess these situations in the heat of the moment, but that seems a balanced view of a bad marriage.  Much of the problem lies with a manager who simply could not adjust or react constructively to not getting what he wanted.  But the board also managed to consistently do the wrong thing at the wrong time over the last couple of years.  Everybody working at cross purposes.

 

If you read that again in a few years, I'll bet it still looks accurate.  Most likely Rodgers will have bounced between a couple more short term appointments, with initial success at each.  The few clubs that can keep refreshing a squad to his specifications won't touch him with a barge pole.  It will be interesting to see whether he pops up in Spain.

 

 

[Finnegan]

8 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

 

Genuinely not a clue where to start here 

 

All well and good saying he hasn't been backed, without actually looking any deeper than surface level transfers.

Nice of them to miss off the fact he was one of the highest earning managers in the league (impacting us having to let go some key players) and the absolutely spiral in performances theses last 2 years. 

BR hails himself as a coach, so why can't he coach our backline?

 

Not sure why I'm surprised when it's Alex Crook

 

 

It's just rage bait. They want you to ring up and argue. 

[don_danbury]

lists a load of crap players he signed then states he hasnt been backed  

Edited 4 April 2023 by don_danbury

[Stadt]

The ‘not been backed’ thing is especially annoying as we already had a very good squad. You don’t need to spend £50m net each year when you have (near) peak Maddison, Vardy, Barnes, Ndidi, Tielemans, Evans, Ricardo et al.

[coolhandfox]

You can't excuse some of the basic errors in organisation and structure when we don't have the ball on no signing.

 

Coaching is about finding solutions.

[davieG]

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-unappealing-job-maddison-barnes-2255198?ITO=newsnow

 

Leicester has become a deeply unappealing job – Maddison and Barnes cannot save them
SPORT ANALYSISFrom a blunted Jamie Vardy to a stunted Wilfred Ndidi, there is very little about this Leicester team that works anymore
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: James Maddison of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on April 4, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via 
By Daniel Storey
Chief Football Writer
April 5, 2023 7:00 am
Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa (Barnes 35, Dewsbury-Hall sent off 70′ | Watkins 24′, Traore 87′)

If sacking Brendan Rodgers was done purely to stop a run of defeats, Leicester City’s owners may feel a little sheepish. If they hoped that Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell might be the change that was as good as a rest, the jury is still out but reaching a decision. On a night when Leicester stared their own flaws in the face, as they have so often during this horrible season, the glimmer of resilience they displayed was snuffed out by Bertrand Traore and their own individual mistakes.

They left the King Power stadium furious with the referee – isn’t that always the way these days? But the officials, with the help of VAR, got the big decisions right, most significantly when reversing a late penalty decision that would have been a travesty. It was a desperate fall to the ground in the vain search of a port in the storm. Anyone in need of a metaphor for this Leicester season as a whole?

There is no injustice, only a team of apparently capable footballers who haven’t even reached mediocrity for too long. The honourable exceptions, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, cannot do it alone. Barnes’ goal was a masterpiece of inverted winger-ing and he celebrated raucously. But this crowd are used to watching the away end bounce. Those who travelled from Aston and beyond are getting used to the good times again.

Even in the good moments, the signs of a struggling blue soul were hardly covered in a heavy disguise – think wispy fake moustache and thin spectacles. Leicester were third to the ball more often than they were first before the break. Too often players wait for someone else to grab the hose and put out the fire, rather than deal with the emergency themselves. The groans that greet misplaced passes are still audible every minute.

Rodgers does not strike as a manager who would lose a dressing room, far more likely to smother players in love than he is to cover them in angry spittle. Leicester did not want to sack him, because they deeply hoped that things would sort themselves out as they have before. This is a club that sleepwalked under the last manager and is still at slumber now.

But Rodgers had categorically given up on Jamie Vardy. Vardy had not started a Premier League game since 21 January and scored once in the league all season, age and a lack of service rounding off some of the sharp edges.

Sadler, thrust into unexpected spotlight, reasoned that Leicester could do with some of Vardy’s other qualities: grit, bite, the pluck of a lightweight intent on bruising noses and breaking hearts. Vardy touched the ball 14 times in 76 minutes – that tells you all you need to know.

Leicester’s principal recent issue, a desperate lack of energy and control in midfield, was still apparent because there are no in-house solutions if Wilfred Ndidi is struggling to find his rhythm – it was alarming how often a Villa player was able to carry the ball 20 yards forward. But they did at least work for a foothold and then a lifeline after falling behind. That’s an upgrade of the recent iteration of this team.

But it is a fine line between exuberance and foolishness. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, at this club since he was eight years old and so more entrenched than most in the mire of their relegation, eventually got sick of the enforced patience when Villa had the ball. His clattering challenge earned him a second yellow card. As the grim realisation hit, Dewsbury-Hall looked broken in two.

Aston Villa made their change several months earlier and it was a far easier call. In managerial terms, swapping Steven Gerrard for Unai Emery appears to be like trading in rhinestones for diamonds. They will spend the last two months of this league season watching the relegation battle unfold with glee. Pull up a deck chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold – it’s not us this time.

Leicester had their own days in the sun, when they looked down on the rest of the Premier League as if it were their own fiefdom. Now the only way to look is up and nobody around these parts really feels like optimism is an option. Leicester have no manager, they have the worst form of any team in the division and they seem incapable of avoiding the mistakes that have tied heavy rocks to their legs. Good luck to whoever considers this an appealing gig.

[Nalis]

3 minutes ago, davieG said:

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-unappealing-job-maddison-barnes-2255198?ITO=newsnow

 

Leicester has become a deeply unappealing job – Maddison and Barnes cannot save them
SPORT ANALYSISFrom a blunted Jamie Vardy to a stunted Wilfred Ndidi, there is very little about this Leicester team that works anymore
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: James Maddison of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on April 4, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via 
By Daniel Storey
Chief Football Writer
April 5, 2023 7:00 am
Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa (Barnes 35, Dewsbury-Hall sent off 70′ | Watkins 24′, Traore 87′)

If sacking Brendan Rodgers was done purely to stop a run of defeats, Leicester City’s owners may feel a little sheepish. If they hoped that Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell might be the change that was as good as a rest, the jury is still out but reaching a decision. On a night when Leicester stared their own flaws in the face, as they have so often during this horrible season, the glimmer of resilience they displayed was snuffed out by Bertrand Traore and their own individual mistakes.

They left the King Power stadium furious with the referee – isn’t that always the way these days? But the officials, with the help of VAR, got the big decisions right, most significantly when reversing a late penalty decision that would have been a travesty. It was a desperate fall to the ground in the vain search of a port in the storm. Anyone in need of a metaphor for this Leicester season as a whole?

There is no injustice, only a team of apparently capable footballers who haven’t even reached mediocrity for too long. The honourable exceptions, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, cannot do it alone. Barnes’ goal was a masterpiece of inverted winger-ing and he celebrated raucously. But this crowd are used to watching the away end bounce. Those who travelled from Aston and beyond are getting used to the good times again.

Even in the good moments, the signs of a struggling blue soul were hardly covered in a heavy disguise – think wispy fake moustache and thin spectacles. Leicester were third to the ball more often than they were first before the break. Too often players wait for someone else to grab the hose and put out the fire, rather than deal with the emergency themselves. The groans that greet misplaced passes are still audible every minute.

Rodgers does not strike as a manager who would lose a dressing room, far more likely to smother players in love than he is to cover them in angry spittle. Leicester did not want to sack him, because they deeply hoped that things would sort themselves out as they have before. This is a club that sleepwalked under the last manager and is still at slumber now.

But Rodgers had categorically given up on Jamie Vardy. Vardy had not started a Premier League game since 21 January and scored once in the league all season, age and a lack of service rounding off some of the sharp edges.

Sadler, thrust into unexpected spotlight, reasoned that Leicester could do with some of Vardy’s other qualities: grit, bite, the pluck of a lightweight intent on bruising noses and breaking hearts. Vardy touched the ball 14 times in 76 minutes – that tells you all you need to know.

Leicester’s principal recent issue, a desperate lack of energy and control in midfield, was still apparent because there are no in-house solutions if Wilfred Ndidi is struggling to find his rhythm – it was alarming how often a Villa player was able to carry the ball 20 yards forward. But they did at least work for a foothold and then a lifeline after falling behind. That’s an upgrade of the recent iteration of this team.

But it is a fine line between exuberance and foolishness. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, at this club since he was eight years old and so more entrenched than most in the mire of their relegation, eventually got sick of the enforced patience when Villa had the ball. His clattering challenge earned him a second yellow card. As the grim realisation hit, Dewsbury-Hall looked broken in two.

Aston Villa made their change several months earlier and it was a far easier call. In managerial terms, swapping Steven Gerrard for Unai Emery appears to be like trading in rhinestones for diamonds. They will spend the last two months of this league season watching the relegation battle unfold with glee. Pull up a deck chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold – it’s not us this time.

Leicester had their own days in the sun, when they looked down on the rest of the Premier League as if it were their own fiefdom. Now the only way to look is up and nobody around these parts really feels like optimism is an option. Leicester have no manager, they have the worst form of any team in the division and they seem incapable of avoiding the mistakes that have tied heavy rocks to their legs. Good luck to whoever considers this an appealing gig.

Harsh but sadly fair overall

[Daggers]

8 minutes ago, davieG said:

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-unappealing-job-maddison-barnes-2255198?ITO=newsnow

 

Leicester has become a deeply unappealing job – Maddison and Barnes cannot save them
SPORT ANALYSISFrom a blunted Jamie Vardy to a stunted Wilfred Ndidi, there is very little about this Leicester team that works anymore
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: James Maddison of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on April 4, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via 
By Daniel Storey
Chief Football Writer
April 5, 2023 7:00 am
Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa (Barnes 35, Dewsbury-Hall sent off 70′ | Watkins 24′, Traore 87′)

If sacking Brendan Rodgers was done purely to stop a run of defeats, Leicester City’s owners may feel a little sheepish. If they hoped that Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell might be the change that was as good as a rest, the jury is still out but reaching a decision. On a night when Leicester stared their own flaws in the face, as they have so often during this horrible season, the glimmer of resilience they displayed was snuffed out by Bertrand Traore and their own individual mistakes.

They left the King Power stadium furious with the referee – isn’t that always the way these days? But the officials, with the help of VAR, got the big decisions right, most significantly when reversing a late penalty decision that would have been a travesty. It was a desperate fall to the ground in the vain search of a port in the storm. Anyone in need of a metaphor for this Leicester season as a whole?

There is no injustice, only a team of apparently capable footballers who haven’t even reached mediocrity for too long. The honourable exceptions, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, cannot do it alone. Barnes’ goal was a masterpiece of inverted winger-ing and he celebrated raucously. But this crowd are used to watching the away end bounce. Those who travelled from Aston and beyond are getting used to the good times again.

Even in the good moments, the signs of a struggling blue soul were hardly covered in a heavy disguise – think wispy fake moustache and thin spectacles. Leicester were third to the ball more often than they were first before the break. Too often players wait for someone else to grab the hose and put out the fire, rather than deal with the emergency themselves. The groans that greet misplaced passes are still audible every minute.

Rodgers does not strike as a manager who would lose a dressing room, far more likely to smother players in love than he is to cover them in angry spittle. Leicester did not want to sack him, because they deeply hoped that things would sort themselves out as they have before. This is a club that sleepwalked under the last manager and is still at slumber now.

But Rodgers had categorically given up on Jamie Vardy. Vardy had not started a Premier League game since 21 January and scored once in the league all season, age and a lack of service rounding off some of the sharp edges.

Sadler, thrust into unexpected spotlight, reasoned that Leicester could do with some of Vardy’s other qualities: grit, bite, the pluck of a lightweight intent on bruising noses and breaking hearts. Vardy touched the ball 14 times in 76 minutes – that tells you all you need to know.

Leicester’s principal recent issue, a desperate lack of energy and control in midfield, was still apparent because there are no in-house solutions if Wilfred Ndidi is struggling to find his rhythm – it was alarming how often a Villa player was able to carry the ball 20 yards forward. But they did at least work for a foothold and then a lifeline after falling behind. That’s an upgrade of the recent iteration of this team.

But it is a fine line between exuberance and foolishness. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, at this club since he was eight years old and so more entrenched than most in the mire of their relegation, eventually got sick of the enforced patience when Villa had the ball. His clattering challenge earned him a second yellow card. As the grim realisation hit, Dewsbury-Hall looked broken in two.

Aston Villa made their change several months earlier and it was a far easier call. In managerial terms, swapping Steven Gerrard for Unai Emery appears to be like trading in rhinestones for diamonds. They will spend the last two months of this league season watching the relegation battle unfold with glee. Pull up a deck chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold – it’s not us this time.

Leicester had their own days in the sun, when they looked down on the rest of the Premier League as if it were their own fiefdom. Now the only way to look is up and nobody around these parts really feels like optimism is an option. Leicester have no manager, they have the worst form of any team in the division and they seem incapable of avoiding the mistakes that have tied heavy rocks to their legs. Good luck to whoever considers this an appealing gig.

And entirely avoidable.

[ALC Fox]

5 hours ago, davieG said:

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-unappealing-job-maddison-barnes-2255198?ITO=newsnow

 

Leicester has become a deeply unappealing job – Maddison and Barnes cannot save them
SPORT ANALYSISFrom a blunted Jamie Vardy to a stunted Wilfred Ndidi, there is very little about this Leicester team that works anymore
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: James Maddison of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on April 4, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via 
By Daniel Storey
Chief Football Writer
April 5, 2023 7:00 am
Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa (Barnes 35, Dewsbury-Hall sent off 70′ | Watkins 24′, Traore 87′)

If sacking Brendan Rodgers was done purely to stop a run of defeats, Leicester City’s owners may feel a little sheepish. If they hoped that Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell might be the change that was as good as a rest, the jury is still out but reaching a decision. On a night when Leicester stared their own flaws in the face, as they have so often during this horrible season, the glimmer of resilience they displayed was snuffed out by Bertrand Traore and their own individual mistakes.

They left the King Power stadium furious with the referee – isn’t that always the way these days? But the officials, with the help of VAR, got the big decisions right, most significantly when reversing a late penalty decision that would have been a travesty. It was a desperate fall to the ground in the vain search of a port in the storm. Anyone in need of a metaphor for this Leicester season as a whole?

There is no injustice, only a team of apparently capable footballers who haven’t even reached mediocrity for too long. The honourable exceptions, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, cannot do it alone. Barnes’ goal was a masterpiece of inverted winger-ing and he celebrated raucously. But this crowd are used to watching the away end bounce. Those who travelled from Aston and beyond are getting used to the good times again.

Even in the good moments, the signs of a struggling blue soul were hardly covered in a heavy disguise – think wispy fake moustache and thin spectacles. Leicester were third to the ball more often than they were first before the break. Too often players wait for someone else to grab the hose and put out the fire, rather than deal with the emergency themselves. The groans that greet misplaced passes are still audible every minute.

Rodgers does not strike as a manager who would lose a dressing room, far more likely to smother players in love than he is to cover them in angry spittle. Leicester did not want to sack him, because they deeply hoped that things would sort themselves out as they have before. This is a club that sleepwalked under the last manager and is still at slumber now.

But Rodgers had categorically given up on Jamie Vardy. Vardy had not started a Premier League game since 21 January and scored once in the league all season, age and a lack of service rounding off some of the sharp edges.

Sadler, thrust into unexpected spotlight, reasoned that Leicester could do with some of Vardy’s other qualities: grit, bite, the pluck of a lightweight intent on bruising noses and breaking hearts. Vardy touched the ball 14 times in 76 minutes – that tells you all you need to know.

Leicester’s principal recent issue, a desperate lack of energy and control in midfield, was still apparent because there are no in-house solutions if Wilfred Ndidi is struggling to find his rhythm – it was alarming how often a Villa player was able to carry the ball 20 yards forward. But they did at least work for a foothold and then a lifeline after falling behind. That’s an upgrade of the recent iteration of this team.

But it is a fine line between exuberance and foolishness. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, at this club since he was eight years old and so more entrenched than most in the mire of their relegation, eventually got sick of the enforced patience when Villa had the ball. His clattering challenge earned him a second yellow card. As the grim realisation hit, Dewsbury-Hall looked broken in two.

Aston Villa made their change several months earlier and it was a far easier call. In managerial terms, swapping Steven Gerrard for Unai Emery appears to be like trading in rhinestones for diamonds. They will spend the last two months of this league season watching the relegation battle unfold with glee. Pull up a deck chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold – it’s not us this time.

Leicester had their own days in the sun, when they looked down on the rest of the Premier League as if it were their own fiefdom. Now the only way to look is up and nobody around these parts really feels like optimism is an option. Leicester have no manager, they have the worst form of any team in the division and they seem incapable of avoiding the mistakes that have tied heavy rocks to their legs. Good luck to whoever considers this an appealing gig.

As quick as it has been to unravel, it can quickly turn around again. The right appointment, the right approach, the right players and proper buy-in from all involved. Sounds difficult but it can be done.

 

Look at Forest (I know, I know). They were relegation fodder in the Championship. Cooper comes in they achieve promotion in that same season. They may even survive this one in the Prem.

 

If we make the right appointment now, we survive. Then we make the right decisions in the summer and this time next year we could be in cup semi-finals, we could've won the League Cup again. Hell, we may even be challenging top 4 or top 6.

 

Things can change in the blink of an eye.

Edited 5 April 2023 by ALC Fox

[Fox92]

2 minutes ago, ALC Fox said:

As quick as it has been to unravel, it can quickly turn around again. The right appointment, the right approach, the right players and proper buy-in from all involved. Sounds difficult but it can be done.

 

Look at Forest (I know, I know). They were relegation fodder in the Championship. Cooper comes in they achieve promotion in that same season. They may even survive this one in the Prem.

 

If we make the right appointment now, we survive. Then we make the right decisions in the summer and this time next year we could be in cup semi-finals, we could've won the League Cup again. Hell, we may even be challenging top 4 or top 6.

 

Things can change in the blink of an eye.

The 9 games left we have is different to half a season.

 

The board have left it far too late now.

 

Even if a new manager comes in he'll need 2 or 3 games to sort everything.

[egg_fried_rice]

5 hours ago, davieG said:

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/leicester-unappealing-job-maddison-barnes-2255198?ITO=newsnow

 

Leicester has become a deeply unappealing job – Maddison and Barnes cannot save them
SPORT ANALYSISFrom a blunted Jamie Vardy to a stunted Wilfred Ndidi, there is very little about this Leicester team that works anymore
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: James Maddison of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on April 4, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via 
By Daniel Storey
Chief Football Writer
April 5, 2023 7:00 am
Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa (Barnes 35, Dewsbury-Hall sent off 70′ | Watkins 24′, Traore 87′)

If sacking Brendan Rodgers was done purely to stop a run of defeats, Leicester City’s owners may feel a little sheepish. If they hoped that Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell might be the change that was as good as a rest, the jury is still out but reaching a decision. On a night when Leicester stared their own flaws in the face, as they have so often during this horrible season, the glimmer of resilience they displayed was snuffed out by Bertrand Traore and their own individual mistakes.

They left the King Power stadium furious with the referee – isn’t that always the way these days? But the officials, with the help of VAR, got the big decisions right, most significantly when reversing a late penalty decision that would have been a travesty. It was a desperate fall to the ground in the vain search of a port in the storm. Anyone in need of a metaphor for this Leicester season as a whole?

There is no injustice, only a team of apparently capable footballers who haven’t even reached mediocrity for too long. The honourable exceptions, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, cannot do it alone. Barnes’ goal was a masterpiece of inverted winger-ing and he celebrated raucously. But this crowd are used to watching the away end bounce. Those who travelled from Aston and beyond are getting used to the good times again.

Even in the good moments, the signs of a struggling blue soul were hardly covered in a heavy disguise – think wispy fake moustache and thin spectacles. Leicester were third to the ball more often than they were first before the break. Too often players wait for someone else to grab the hose and put out the fire, rather than deal with the emergency themselves. The groans that greet misplaced passes are still audible every minute.

Rodgers does not strike as a manager who would lose a dressing room, far more likely to smother players in love than he is to cover them in angry spittle. Leicester did not want to sack him, because they deeply hoped that things would sort themselves out as they have before. This is a club that sleepwalked under the last manager and is still at slumber now.

But Rodgers had categorically given up on Jamie Vardy. Vardy had not started a Premier League game since 21 January and scored once in the league all season, age and a lack of service rounding off some of the sharp edges.

Sadler, thrust into unexpected spotlight, reasoned that Leicester could do with some of Vardy’s other qualities: grit, bite, the pluck of a lightweight intent on bruising noses and breaking hearts. Vardy touched the ball 14 times in 76 minutes – that tells you all you need to know.

Leicester’s principal recent issue, a desperate lack of energy and control in midfield, was still apparent because there are no in-house solutions if Wilfred Ndidi is struggling to find his rhythm – it was alarming how often a Villa player was able to carry the ball 20 yards forward. But they did at least work for a foothold and then a lifeline after falling behind. That’s an upgrade of the recent iteration of this team.

But it is a fine line between exuberance and foolishness. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, at this club since he was eight years old and so more entrenched than most in the mire of their relegation, eventually got sick of the enforced patience when Villa had the ball. His clattering challenge earned him a second yellow card. As the grim realisation hit, Dewsbury-Hall looked broken in two.

Aston Villa made their change several months earlier and it was a far easier call. In managerial terms, swapping Steven Gerrard for Unai Emery appears to be like trading in rhinestones for diamonds. They will spend the last two months of this league season watching the relegation battle unfold with glee. Pull up a deck chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold – it’s not us this time.

Leicester had their own days in the sun, when they looked down on the rest of the Premier League as if it were their own fiefdom. Now the only way to look is up and nobody around these parts really feels like optimism is an option. Leicester have no manager, they have the worst form of any team in the division and they seem incapable of avoiding the mistakes that have tied heavy rocks to their legs. Good luck to whoever considers this an appealing gig.

 Can’t argue with any of that. I hope Top and the board catch sight of it.

[davieG]

 

 

Leicester City close to needing gamble as new relegation gameplan hurts James Maddison
The big talking points from Leicester City's 2-1 home defeat by Aston Villa looking at the improvements made after Brendan Rodgers' departure, a new style of play and the bad habit that rolls on

ByJordan Blackwell
06:50, 6 APR 2023UPDATED06:56, 6 APR 2023
James Maddison received just 16 passes against Aston Villa, his lowest tally this season

Leicester City did get the bounce that usually comes with sacking a manager but given the depths they had plumbed with the loss to Crystal Palace, it was not big enough for them to leap to victory over Aston Villa.

The improvements, while small, were clear to see. It felt like there was a greater commitment in the 50-50 battles, there was more structure when they pressed and, importantly, there was greater organisation at the back. This was the area where an upturn was needed most, and they cut down the number of chances they gave up considerably.

At Selhurst Park, City not only let Palace have 31 shots, but 20 from inside the penalty area. Each of those numbers was cut at least in half against Villa, who had 15 efforts on goal, and only seven from inside the box.

 

In fact, City had more Opta-defined big chances in the game, at two to one. Harvey Barnes and Ollie Watkins converted their gilt-edged opportunities, but Harry Souttar only managed to hit the post with his.

But those improvements were not considerable, while many faults still remained. It could be argued that on the balance of chances, a draw would have been fair, but City are now in a position where that is not good enough.

Because as Tuesday’s game showed, it is still very easy to lose those even affairs. In fact, City are the masters of it. That’s now 13 Premier League matches they have lost by a single goal since they last won one.

The lack of a significant upturn lessens the chance of City being able to take the easy route. Since Sean Dyche was snapped up by Everton, the managerial options available to Premier League clubs looking for a quick fix have dwindled. Leeds took two weeks before settling for one of the many bosses sacked by Watford in Javi Gracia, while Southampton’s failed search saw them bank on their first-team coach Ruben Selles, with Crystal Palace bringing Roy Hodgson out of retirement.

City did not have a plan when they removed Brendan Rodgers, but they would have hoped that handing the reins to Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell, two well-liked members of the coaching team, would spark a big enough improvement to get home wins over Villa and Bournemouth. At that stage, City would then only need five or so points from their remaining eight fixtures, something they would have felt comfortable backing Sadler and Stowell to achieve.

In that scenario, they could focus their attention on lining up a manager for the summer and planning for the long term. But only minor improvements on Tuesday, and another defeat, throws doubt over the easy route.

It looks increasingly likely that Sadler and Stowell will be in charge for Bournemouth but failure to win there and City will be forced to gamble on bringing in an outsider – with no guarantee over how they will connect with the squad – and hope they can produce an eight-game turnaround. They would have one chance to get that decision right.

City can't shake off Rodgers habit
City showed on Tuesday that parting with a manager does not eradicate all problems. Old habits die hard.

That’s back-to-back games in which City have conceded a late winner, both times to out-of-sorts finishers. While Jean-Philippe Mateta’s Premier League goal drought seemed long, the Palace forward scoring for the first time since August to net the Eagles’ winner, it was nothing compared to Bertrand Traore’s, whose last strike came in May 2021.

Conceding late has been a huge problem for City. That’s now seven points they have dropped after the 75th minute of games, the joint-most in the Premier League. Making matters worse is that they are one of only two sides who haven’t gained any points in the final 15 minutes.

There are a number of potential causes: an inability to sustain concentration for a full match; a tendency to sit too deep in an attempt to hang onto a result, rather than build on it; or a mental scarring from the disastrous Spurs game of 15 months ago.

Since Steven Bergwijn’s injury-time brace inflicted the most dramatic of defeats on City in January last year, there have been nine separate games where they have conceded a game-changing goal in the last quarter of an hour. Only once have they scored such a goal themselves, in the win at Burnley last March.

Failure to correct this issue could be hugely costly. If City do go down this season, they are unlikely to be more than seven points off safety, meaning their late-in-the-day fragility could be looked at as a principal reason for their relegation.

New relegation gameplan not a total success
It is perhaps natural that City were sat deeper for the end of the game on Tuesday night, having had Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall sent off. But they were already quite deep anyway in what was the most notable change made by the caretaker bosses.

It’s clear that City’s defence has been their downfall, so Sadler and Stowell looked to tighten up. They brought Papy Mendy into the midfield alongside Wilfred Ndidi, while they also had the players drop much deeper than usual in the moments where Villa established comfortable possession. When the visitors were loose, City still looked to press, but they weren’t gung-ho with it.

On the ball, City tried to play on the counter, and so played a higher proportion of longer, more direct balls. It worked for the tremendous equaliser they scored, but not often enough to say it was totally a success.

City had such little possession, their lowest of the season, that they didn’t get the opportunities to play the ball into attacking areas. Supporters have wanted to see more forward passes and fewer square balls across the back-line, but they didn’t get that. In no game this season have they completed fewer progressive passes, nor fewer passes into the final third.

It wasn’t the case that they were choosing to dribble the ball forward instead. They completed five carries into the final third, having only done so less often in the 5-2 loss at Brighton and 1-0 defeat to Man City.

In the caretakers’ other big change, Jamie Vardy was recalled to the side, and he did set the tone with some big tackles early on. But as an attacking threat, or even somebody to hold up the ball, he didn’t have an impact. He had 13 touches and one shot in his 75 minutes on the pitch, with Patson Daka managing six touches and one shot in his quarter of an hour.

In short, this set-up felt like an acknowledgement of the relegation battle City are in. At Palace, they played like a side that was heading for the drop but didn’t know it. On Tuesday, their gameplan was that of a side who had finally realised they weren’t as good as they previously thought they were. It was more defensive and less expansive.

City need to find a way to marry improvements at the back with the attacking quality it’s known they possess. This performance didn’t entirely do that.

Maddison out of sorts – is it him or the style of play?
One player the gameplan didn’t help was James Maddison. He was shuffled over to the right-hand side, which is not necessarily moving him out of the limelight considering the excellent performances he produced there earlier in the season, but in this set-up, it meant he wasn’t involved.

He received just 16 passes in the game, the fewest in any game he has played more than 45 minutes this season. For comparison, the day he ran Everton ragged from the right wing, he received 50 passes. On the opening day against Brentford, City got the ball into his feet 72 times. It’s not helpful for City if they can’t get their best player involved.

But also, it may be Maddison himself. In the past two games he has seemed out of sorts. He didn’t really get on the ball at Crystal Palace either. While he needs players to give him the ball, he also needs to find the space to receive it.

On the ball, he completed just 12 of 22 passes, his worst ratio this season. He did still set up three chances, but all of those came from dead balls.

If City go down, it will be in no way because of Maddison. He has been their player of the season. But when he said the club “would be absolutely fine” after Southampton, he had prefaced it with “if we play like that”. The last two games, he has not reached the levels he has this term.

With Dewsbury-Hall now suspended, it may be better to put him back in the middle and bring in either Tete, Ricardo Pereira, or Dennis Praet to play on the right wing. Having Maddison is one of the biggest positives for City in this relegation battle. They need to get the most out of him, and they need him to play well.

Season-defining game to come
The defeat only piles more pressure on this weekend’s game against Bournemouth. More than any other game, it feels decisive in where City will end up this season.

Prediction models suggested City had around a 10 per cent chance of being relegated after their draw at Brentford. Two defeats later and that is up to 30 per cent. Lose to the Cherries, and that number could hit 50 per cent. While some fans have deemed them as such for some time, by the end of the weekend, they could become one of the three favourites to go down.

They have had the worst set of results since the World Cup, and so they desperately need something positive to cling on to. Psychologically, going into the remainder of the season, it feels as close to a must-win match without mathematically being so.

[cruzFOX]

Phew that was a really tough read tbh. All honest articles that go in depth chapter by chapter. So what can we conclude from this? It all feels so depressing. Like a dream that came true and slowly turned into a nightmare. Neither of which we ever thought would have been possible if we go back just a decade ago. I said it before and I’ll say it again someone needs to make a god damn movie about us. The script is write there.

 

Very interesting the analysis of seagrave which has become like a curse for us. Should they all come back to belvoir drive and give seagrave to the ladies?

 

anyway so many things have gone wrong it’s hard to pin it on one person or one thing. Everything that could go wrong did and it became the perfect storm that has been our own undoing. God help us going forewards. The club needs major surgery from Top to bottom. Forget about lofty stadium plans for now need to fix the here and now or like the article says ‘get back on track’ as its been going off the rails and turning into an almighty train wreck!

[NZ_Foxile]

45 minutes ago, cruzFOX said:

Phew that was a really tough read tbh. All honest articles that go in depth chapter by chapter. So what can we conclude from this? It all feels so depressing. Like a dream that came true and slowly turned into a nightmare. Neither of which we ever thought would have been possible if we go back just a decade ago. I said it before and I’ll say it again someone needs to make a god damn movie about us. The script is write there.

 

Very interesting the analysis of seagrave which has become like a curse for us. Should they all come back to belvoir drive and give seagrave to the ladies?

 

anyway so many things have gone wrong it’s hard to pin it on one person or one thing. Everything that could go wrong did and it became the perfect storm that has been our own undoing. God help us going forewards. The club needs major surgery from Top to bottom. Forget about lofty stadium plans for now need to fix the here and now or like the article says ‘get back on track’ as its been going off the rails and turning into an almighty train wreck!

Weird, my post with the article seems to have been removed 🤔 anyway was going to say so much seems to have declined. The dismantling of the medical team has seemingly been a disaster. And so sad that some staff have become demoralised and have left  our amazing recruitment team (even worse that Rob Mackenzie has now gone to Villa to implement our old methods)

[davieG]

33 minutes ago, NZ_Foxile said:

Weird, my post with the article seems to have been removed 🤔 anyway was going to say so much seems to have declined. The dismantling of the medical team has seemingly been a disaster. And so sad that some staff have become demoralised and have left  our amazing recruitment team (even worse that Rob Mackenzie has now gone to Villa to implement our old methods)

I'd guess it was because it was owned by the Athletic which you can't legally post.