Summer 2022 priorities (and realistic options)

[AjcW]

I'd love us to be smarter in the loan market, but doesn't seme to be Brendans style

 

Obviously we had success with Youri down this route.

I just feel like we're maybe a bit snobby about it, look at Spurs with Romero and Kulusevski last season, brilliant for them. Just because you're competing for top 6 doesn't mean you can't get a loan or two in!

[Blanchflower78]

Sell before buy means we'll likely do any biz late in the window, possibly with little Pre-season time to integrate and arguably not our "preferred" targets. Not quite the summer frshen up Rodgers was anticipating I'd guess! 

[MadsEmil]

48 minutes ago, Blanchflower78 said:

Sell before buy means we'll likely do any biz late in the window, possibly with little Pre-season time to integrate and arguably not our "preferred" targets. Not quite the summer frshen up Rodgers was anticipating I'd guess! 

I see you've had your weekly tea sit-down with Rudders who was willing to let you into our transfer plans.

 

We're not bound by actually needing our outgoings to be confirmed to make any signings. Transfer business is something that gets done over the entire year, not just the two windows, so we'll have a good idea on who's leaving, who's actually likely to get picked up and for how much and we can accordingly make signings already.

[AjcW]

1 hour ago, pmcla26 said:

Lookman? And then obviously we tried with Under, too. 

Sorry i wasn't specific, I sort of meant we need to aim a bit higher, e.g. why can't we loan players from Juve/Barca/Real/PSG etc  

We've got the set up to satisfy any team of that ilk, arguably our facilities rival if not better some of the top teams! 

[Stadt]

I was listening to a podcast a while ago where the owner of a football consulting company said transfer fees rise between 1-2% per week until the end of the window on average. Getting business done early makes so much sense.

 

We're not going to be doing much very early without a HoR and a HoA in place yet.

 

18/19 was our best ever window and we acted quickly

 

Pereira - 20th May (!!!!)

Evans - 8th June

Maddison -  20th June

[Ric Flair]

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

[LFox99]

9 minutes ago, Stadt said:

We're not going to be doing much very early without a HoR and a HoA in place yet.

This doesnt matter. We're a Premier League club with enough ressources to move on with our business anyway.

Tanner said in an article the other week that Congerton (or our analytics guy) departing won't make a difference because the work for this upcoming summer has been finished already and now it's just about executing it and that's what Rudders and Susan are there for.

[Stadt]

10 minutes ago, LFox99 said:

This doesnt matter. We're a Premier League club with enough ressources to move on with our business anyway.

Tanner said in an article the other week that Congerton (or our analytics guy) departing won't make a difference because the work for this upcoming summer has been finished already and now it's just about executing it and that's what Rudders and Susan are there for.

There's always complications and issues even with a full set of staff in place. In theory, it shouldn't make a difference but we'll soon find out

[Blanchflower78]

42 minutes ago, MadsEmil said:

I see you've had your weekly tea sit-down with Rudders who was willing to let you into our transfer plans.

 

We're not bound by actually needing our outgoings to be confirmed to make any signings. Transfer business is something that gets done over the entire year, not just the two windows, so we'll have a good idea on who's leaving, who's actually likely to get picked up and for how much and we can accordingly make signings already.

I see you've sat down with Rudders then, marvellous stuff! 👏👍

[Sol thewall Bamba]

19 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

Careful mate, all this sensible analysis of facts will get you cancelled on here! 

[MadsEmil]

2 minutes ago, Blanchflower78 said:

I see you've sat down with Rudders then, marvellous stuff! 👏👍

No, it's just common sense that you'll see if you read some of the articles Tanner/ Blackwell/ Percy have published over the last weeks or months regarding our staff situation

[Shane]

22 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

Great post @Ric Flair!

 

I think we need to utilise the academy to help us navigate through some of the issues you mentioned.

 

For example, we can replace Schmeichel and Ward with Iversen and Stolarczyk.

 

When Vardy retires, we could promote Popov and have CDK, Daka and Popov as our attacking options. 

Braybrooke and Alves will surely break through within the next 12-18 months. 
 

That’s already 5 academy players who could save us millions in the transfer market. So if we do end up losing some players for cheap it won’t hurt as much.
 

I would like one of our local journalists to ask Brendan what the plan is for some of our best talents. He’s talked highly of Braybrooke & Alves, but I would be interested to hear his thoughts on players like Wormleighton, Popov, etc. 
 

We’ve got even more talents coming through from the u16s/18s. I think promoting from within could be a good strategy for us. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

48 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

It's like a slow moving car crash.  Maybe we need to sell Tielemans and Soyunchu this summer and if Ndidi and Madison don't sign new deals they should be sold off too.  We can't afford to let all that cash walk out the door too cheap it's not sustainable for a club our size.  No one is bigger than the club and everyone has a price.

[Ric Flair]

18 minutes ago, Shane said:

Great post @Ric Flair!

 

I think we need to utilise the academy to help us navigate through some of the issues you mentioned.

 

For example, we can replace Schmeichel and Ward with Iversen and Stolarczyk.

 

When Vardy retires, we could promote Popov and have CDK, Daka and Popov as our attacking options. 

Braybrooke and Alves will surely break through within the next 12-18 months. 
 

That’s already 5 academy players who could save us millions in the transfer market. So if we do end up losing some players for cheap it won’t hurt as much.
 

I would like one of our local journalists to ask Brendan what the plan is for some of our best talents. He’s talked highly of Braybrooke & Alves, but I would be interested to hear his thoughts on players like Wormleighton, Popov, etc. 
 

We’ve got even more talents coming through from the u16s/18s. I think promoting from within could be a good strategy for us. 

I am as eager to see our academy prosper and get given repeated opportunities in the 1st team but I'm also pragmatic enough to know that the chances of any of our academy players being capable of replacing our top players as quickly as we'd need them to is pretty low and for a few of them to do so even lower.

 

It would be a risk and maybe we have to take a few, but the most logical move we need to make is straight ro fast track their exposure in the 1st team more whilst we have these players still with us and not be afraid to sell some of our key players more so than we have done.

[Clarkey123]

6 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I am as eager to see our academy prosper and get given repeated opportunities in the 1st team but I'm also pragmatic enough to know that the chances of any of our academy players being capable of replacing our top players as quickly as we'd need them to is pretty low and for a few of them to do so even lower.

 

It would be a risk and maybe we have to take a few, but the most logical move we need to make is straight ro fast track their exposure in the 1st team more whilst we have these players still with us and not be afraid to sell some of our key players more so than we have done.

I’d love to see us pluck a few gems from within the English leagues, much like palace have done with Guehi, Eze and Olise. We seem to have done quite well from it in the past with Justin and Maddison ( even if he did cost us a fair bit). West Ham with Bowen has ended up a steal too. 

[Ric Flair]

13 minutes ago, Clarkey123 said:

I’d love to see us pluck a few gems from within the English leagues, much like palace have done with Guehi, Eze and Olise. We seem to have done quite well from it in the past with Justin and Maddison ( even if he did cost us a fair bit). West Ham with Bowen has ended up a steal too. 

The annoying thing is we are often heavily linked with them (Bowen and Olise) and yet don't get them.

[SafewayFox]

17 minutes ago, Clarkey123 said:

I’d love to see us pluck a few gems from within the English leagues, much like palace have done with Guehi, Eze and Olise. We seem to have done quite well from it in the past with Justin and Maddison ( even if he did cost us a fair bit). West Ham with Bowen has ended up a steal too. 

So true.

 

You could even add that Barnes and KDH were first team ready after successful Championship loan deals.

 

What hasn’t worked for us has been “experienced Prem players signed” can’t remember the last one since Evans and before that Huth that improved us.

[An Sionnach]

1 minute ago, Ric Flair said:

The annoying thing is we are often heavily linked with them (Bowen and Olise) and yet don't get them.

Every PL club scouts promising lower league players , very few go under the radar. We have to compete and offer a better package than the others and that can be difficult and expensive. The more of our academy players that are fast tracked the more attractive it becomes to young players who have choices between clubs. However if they see players drifting from one unconvincing loan to another and being in their early twenties before they get a chance they are unlikely to join us.

[AjcW]

1 hour ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Careful mate, all this sensible analysis of facts will get you cancelled on here! 

@Ric Flair will never get cancelled! Who else is going to tell us all these wonderful players we should sign, who ultimately end up as far away from Leicester as they can possibly manage? 

[Ric Flair]

49 minutes ago, AjcW said:

@Ric Flair will never get cancelled! Who else is going to tell us all these wonderful players we should sign, who ultimately end up as far away from Leicester as they can possibly manage? 

Too damn right

[Sankey93]

Isaak Toure going to Man City by the looks of it. Le Havre player only costing 5 million! We would of been all over tbis few years ago.

[sdb]

6 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

It certainly does feel like a very 'make or break' year coming up.

 

Shift the worst 4 or 5 squad players and replace with a few canny signings, whilst replacing Cags and Youri, and we'll look like a top 6-7 banker.

 

Lose Youri, Cags, anyone else decent and perhaps needing to reluctantly promote Vestergaard, Bertrand, Hamza et.al to the fringes and our wider squad looks poor and very expensive. 

 

We need to work minor miracles I'd imagine, with the club's finances not hugely pretty.

Edited 13 June 2022 by sdb

[Guest Col city fan]

7 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I think we've got a huge storm brewing that makes or breaks us. Right now we are still a hugely promising PL club but we're on a bit of a knife edge due to a number of reasons and most of them are the price of success that we've achieved.

 

1) the training ground and stadium expansion rely on us being in the PL and prospering, it would be a disaster to see us flirt with relegation when these are to be repaid over a number of years where the impact is less of a burden whilst we're pulling in good money

 

2) we've a changing of the guard of 2 of our most legendary and important players we've ever had in Kasper and Vardy, that alone is a scary prospect and enough to see a regression but couple it with some other squad uncertainties and it's a real headache

 

3) we've a number of players running their contracts down which becomes a nightmare to deal with. Tielemans and Soyuncu are this years concern and we'll be lucky to fetch half of what we'd perceive their value to us if a club had come sniffing a year ago but more worryingly is Maddison and Ndidi who with only 2 years left become a massive problem if they don't sign new deals in the coming months. Both have been hugely successful here and been here a long time that in their mid twenties they might think its time for a new challenge. Reduced fees for those 2 next year, plus reduced fees for Tielemans and Soyuncu + Vardy and Schmeichel can quickly rip us apart and there's no guarantee we won't be significantly weaker as a result when we replace them. 

 

There's been very little flexibility in our finances to change our approach like we might have been able to do before, we continue to push it to the maximum and I do wonder if Top needs to make some brave calls in his investment, because although my post might seem dramatical, we could run in to a lot of trouble in the next 12-18 months and it's a long road back to where we've been these last 6-7 years.

 

Our recruitment and decision making has to be nigh on faultless in these next few transfer windows, I'm not seeing enough succession planning yet to be confident we've got plenty of angles covered for the future.

 

I agree Ric that the club seems to be on a knife-edge.

However, regarding succession planning, to be fair, how do you know what’s going on? Or do you know what’s happening at the club? Genuine question.

If you don’t, your just surmising like we all are really. 
We all have to hope we’ve got the angles covered, unless you know we haven’t?

[Ric Flair]

41 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

I agree Ric that the club seems to be on a knife-edge.

However, regarding succession planning, to be fair, how do you know what’s going on? Or do you know what’s happening at the club? Genuine question.

If you don’t, your just surmising like we all are really. 
We all have to hope we’ve got the angles covered, unless you know we haven’t?

What I mean is, I've seen precious little unpolished diamonds being signed who aren't yet ready for our 1st team but are calculated punts on being capable of doing so or moving on for a profit, sadly we seem to have very little financial flexibility to do anything but immediate 1st team. 

[Stadt]

Idly browsing football stats because it's a vice, Morato at Benfica is a left footed 20 year old CB, looks aerially dominant.