Ric Flair Live & Direct on BSLB Podcast

[filbertway]

11 minutes ago, Noahfence said:

Did I just mishear him or did he say unfortunately we might see more academy players playing in the championship next season? Surely I’ve misheard that?! 
 

Or did he just mean unfortunately we’d be in the championship 

Yeah I thought the same but then about a minute later my brain clicked and had the same realisation you did. He meant unfortunately we'd be in the championship. But he said it in a really weird way

 

[Noahfence]

9 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Yeah I thought the same but then about a minute later my brain clicked and had the same realisation you did. He meant unfortunately we'd be in the championship. But he said it in a really weird way

 

I was very confused for a few minutes haha 

[Bilo]

I also think there'd be a lot more affection for a team with several academy products.

 

Kingy, KDH and Barnes all enjoyed the affections of the fanbase in part because of the fact they'd literally grown from boys into men with the club. It's easy to mock the 'one of our own' mentality, but it does help to build affinity with the fans and give them a bit more leeway for the odd poor performance or mistake you'd expect from lads learning the game. And to see a bit of effort as well would be magic.

 

The current team hasn't any academy products in it most weeks, hasn't any identity and doesn't feel in any way like any Leicester City side we've come to love watching over the years. The only player I'll be sad to see leave is Vardy, but that's obviously a very different case. 

[Gamble92]

After hearing those views, probably the first time I won't be listening to a pod. Did everyone manage to keep a straight face?

 

[filbertway]

57 minutes ago, niyaminski said:

Anticipate this being an unpopular opinion.
 

Reading through some of the comments, I find it a bit odd that people turn a podcast off simply because they hear an opinion they don’t like.

 

Whoever this Guy is, he’s come through our academy, played professional football, and has worked for the club in developing young players. More knowledge of the industry than most on here I’d assume. 
 

Also has Louis Page in his agency I think, so clearly still has an eye on us. 
 

If someone who’s spent their whole career bringing through young players says playing 6 boys straight from the academy in a game won’t work (not only for the club, but for the development of the players), he’s probably right. As supposed to some FT poster who’s probably never been involved in professional football suggesting we should shove 6 of them straight into the starting 11 for the remaining games.

 

Even if you think he’s saying some of what he’s saying for personal PR reasons (which probably is true) there would still be elements of truth/genuine opinion in what he’s saying. Not worth turning it off imo.

If that it the mindset that most of the club staff has then it's really not a surprise to see we're regressing to a level where old school thinking and a "jobs for the boys" way of working is rife.

 

6 17-20 year old from the academy straight into a starting line up is clearly insane. However have 5 or 6 quality academy prospects regularly involved in squads and getting minutes should absolutely be the goal.  This is why everyone was bigging up moving to a million subs. All we do is fill it with painfully overpaid dross (relative the our current level)

 

I'm not talking about lads in their mid 20s that happen to still be here as well, I'm talking about harnessing young talent to either sell or play and benefit the club.

[Noahfence]

Always good to have someone on who’ll offer a different opinion even if I don’t particularly agree but he completely lost me when he said we need to remember “we’re Leicester city” 

 

He clearly knows way more than me because he actually works in football but I don’t get how a few guests now can say how great Rudkin is but the footballing decisions for the last few years have been so dreadful? 

[Lionator]

7 minutes ago, Noahfence said:

Always good to have someone on who’ll offer a different opinion even if I don’t particularly agree but he completely lost me when he said we need to remember “we’re Leicester city” 

 

He clearly knows way more than me because he actually works in football but I don’t get how a few guests now can say how great Rudkin is but the footballing decisions for the last few years have been so dreadful? 

At which point you have to start seeing it through him either having vested interests or it being a huge and dangerous echo chamber. It does happen. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

I thought it was really interesting insight and gave a very different viewpoint, I also take some of what was said with a pinch of salt and fully respect the fact that given Guy Branston’s role as a intermediary and his connections with the club, then he is going to be very careful and diplomatic with what he says. He has a deep rooted relationship with Rudkin, the club and some players so he isn’t going to go in all guns blazing. He has professional working relationships that he has to maintain.
 

still thought it was a cracking pod and refreshing to get a different perspective and viewpoint.

[Bilo]

45 minutes ago, Noahfence said:

Always good to have someone on who’ll offer a different opinion even if I don’t particularly agree but he completely lost me when he said we need to remember “we’re Leicester city” 

 

He clearly knows way more than me because he actually works in football but I don’t get how a few guests now can say how great Rudkin is but the footballing decisions for the last few years have been so dreadful? 

But that statement works against his logic.

 

Saying 'we're Leicester City' in 2010 would have been a reasonable excuse for us going up (say that night in Cardiff had gone differently and we'd gone on to beat Blackpool for the third time that season) and then failing to compete. We were largely composed of free and cheap signings, hadn't won anything for a decade and aspirations were far lower.

 

Since 2010, the club is very different. Huge amounts of money spent, incredible success, big investment into facilities and a generation of fans accustomed to seeing the club as, at least, a decent Premier League side. 

Edited 14 April by Bilo

[Fox on the Rox]

When you know some of the stuff someone comes out with is total b*****ks, it's hard to take anything they say seriously. 

[narboroughblue]

Found it an interesting listen but boy did Guy wind me up at times with his opinions. I certainly came away with the view that he was trying to keep in the good books with the club rather than give a balanced view on some of the questions. Didn't really understand some of his stories either as they seemed to drift into nowhere like his KDH one. Enjoyable pod as always though guys, keep up the good work.

[ClaphamFox]

7 minutes ago, narboroughblue said:

Found it an interesting listen but boy did Guy wind me up at times with his opinions. I certainly came away with the view that he was trying to keep in the good books with the club rather than give a balanced view on some of the questions. Didn't really understand some of his stories either as they seemed to drift into nowhere like his KDH one. Enjoyable pod as always though guys, keep up the good work.

Given how secretive our club is known to be, Branston offered the closest thing to an official line that we're likely to get. He had some interesting things to share about the process of loaning players out and the way different players develop at different times (which is the kind of thing you'd expect him to speak well about), but his comments about the club in general were so onside they could have been drafted for him by the club's PR department.

[Langston]

"As a Director of Football he's one of the best in the business," the club is on its arse mate..

[evil jack]

Agree with the majority of opinions above - thought he came across dreadfully.

A man so 100% cocksure of his own opinions, even when they are so obviously complete bollocks.

I'm also glad I don't have a young son involved at youth level -  when his future would be so dependent on guys like that...

 

 

Edited 14 April by evil jack

[Levi Port]

I’m not backing Rudkin, but it is interesting that anybody with any knowledge first hand of the man does speak highly of him. 
 

I know a few people who know him averagely well socially and they also speak very well of him. 
 

As mentioned on the pod, we are in this mess for a reason though and somebody is accountable. 

Edited 14 April by Levi Port

[VLC86]

I found it all pretty interesting and took it for what it was, someone’s view of what’s happening having worked for the club during a time when things were going well, and is now an agent not wanting to burn bridges.

 

I’ll probably get pelters for what I’m about to say, but our situation is much more nuanced than just saying Top and Rudkin are out of their depth. Both have been thrust into roles and situations that have led to them taking on much more than what was expected and that’s where they have been proven to be out of their depth. Where as what he said was objectively, Rudkin is hard working and good at his job.

 

In my opinion, we are up shit creek because Top is unexpectedly running KP, Us and Leuven and delegated Rudkin with multiple jobs and this is why Rudkin is shafting the club.

 

Put more layers and make the whole thing more functional and they could maybe do their job, another failing is not identifying that sooner.

[AKCJ]

It's apparent that Rudkin is a nice bloke to work for/with seeing as all these former employees refuse to dig him out but ****ing hell we can't just keep pretending he's doing a good job when we're about to go down again with a squad whose wages surpass the annual turnover without many (if any) saleable assets.

 

We're absolutely ****ed and he's got to take a massive part of the blame for that.

[Bilo]

The problem is that Top is too passive and stretched too thin between KP, his other sporting ventures beyond football, a young family, Leuven and Leicester City. 

 

Rudkin has too much to do. If he's not going to be sacked, move him upstairs to an oversight role of both clubs and get dedicated DoFs to work under him at each club. This would enable Top to manage KP and other sporting ventures, Rudkin to oversee the football side and both clubs to have a dedicated DoF who only focuses on that team. 

[Jimmy]

why did no one counter that claim about Rudkin with a simple question. If Rudkin is so good and we have had multiple heads of recruitment poached, why have none of the giants of football poached Rudkin from us too?

[Haywood_6]

'I'm amazed how people can question John Rudkin'... amazed? Mate, we're about to be relegated for the second time in three years. We've setting new records for how bad we are.

 

How does this guy deliver his takes with the confidence of a man who's never been wrong – absolutely wild. And that bit about nice cars and 'shagging nice birds'? Especially crass. Worst guest I've listened to on the BSLB pod

[Electric Yetis]

My ancestry DNA result recently showed that I was related to Guy Branston. Possibly the worst claim to fame ever.

[CosbehFox]

Too much skin in the game. Rudkin’s worked a superb role in keeping a circle of people around him that he’s put into good positions. There is a whole set of youth coaches which will defend him to the tilt and he’s happy to give ex Academy players a start in coaching to keep the good faith coming (seeing Beaglehole with Adi Yussef at Seagrave last week just very evident of that). 
 

The opinion of Rudkin is know to be toilet by some outside of LCFC circles and it gave an insight into the delusion which exists around the place. 

[BenTheFox]

I listened to the podcast whilst out on run. I'm not gonna lie, the 'so called' guy made me want to rip my ear buds out and throw them at a bus. I don't blame the lads for having him on, but he was a very frustrating listen. I'm glad that Jake offered atleast some pushback and I get that he had to do it in the most polite way possible. 

[Noahfence]

15 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

I listened to the podcast whilst out on run. I'm not gonna lie, the 'so called' guy made me want to rip my ear buds out and throw them at a bus. I don't blame the lads for having him on, but he was a very frustrating listen. I'm glad that Jake offered atleast some pushback and I get that he had to do it in the most polite way possible. 

He did seem like a guy that if any of them made a serious counter point things could get very awkward 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

3 hours ago, Electric Yetis said:

My ancestry DNA result recently showed that I was related to Guy Branston. Possibly the worst claim to fame ever.

Your so called DNA you mean?