Thoughts on Transfer business ?

filthyfox · 12 July 2023

Does anyone else think that we need more than 2 players?

What the **** are they waiting for? Did they not learn from last season?

Golden Fox · 12 July 2023

Its a bit frightening looking at those line-ups against Peterborough.

11 players in 1st half

11 completely different in 2nd half

Albrighton, Barnes & Faes on the sidelines

Thomas just finished with England

Ward not involved

Doyle about to come in

Talk of other signing

I may be missing others, but that is currently at least 28 players for a matchday squad of 18.

Given our financial problems stem from too high a wage bill, we can't be paying 10 or more players to be sitting around (or paying part of their wages to play for someone else to then come back again).

Rumours of transfers out are Barnes, Castagne, Nacho, but we need to shift a lot more than that to get the right sized squad, so I'd like to be seeing a lot more activity on the Outs...

Ric Flair · 12 July 2023

56 minutes ago, Golden Fox said:

Its a bit frightening looking at those line-ups against Peterborough.

11 players in 1st half

11 completely different in 2nd half

Albrighton, Barnes & Faes on the sidelines

Thomas just finished with England

Ward not involved

Doyle about to come in

Talk of other signing

I may be missing others, but that is currently at least 28 players for a matchday squad of 18.

Given our financial problems stem from too high a wage bill, we can't be paying 10 or more players to be sitting around (or paying part of their wages to play for someone else to then come back again).

Rumours of transfers out are Barnes, Castagne, Nacho, but we need to shift a lot more than that to get the right sized squad, so I'd like to be seeing a lot more activity on the Outs...

Matchday squad is 20, they've extended the number of subs to 9.

I expect us to have a full.squad of 25 + a number of academy players.

I think 6 players will leave + academy loans and we'll get 5 new players in.

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

I wish morons would stop with the skint narrative. Our owners have always only ever spent what our transfer sales have generated. Bar the times where Europe freed up more cash for a bigger wage budget.

Not spending last year had NOTHING to do with King Power's loss of income. Literally nothing.

moore_94 · 12 July 2023

Our squad rebuild was never going to be done quickly, clubs will want to drag out taking players off our hands until as late in the transfer window as possible to try and get them cheaper which just puts delays on us bringing players in

I reckon our squad ends up something like this

GK: Steffen, Ward, Smithies

RB: Ricardo, Justin

CB: Coady, Souttar, Doyle, Faes, Nelson (if not loaned out)

LB: Kristiansen, Thomas

DM/CM: Winks, KDH, Soumare, Choudhury, NEW CM (Casadei?)

RW: NEW RW, Albrighton

ST: Piroe, Vardy, Daka

LW: Mavididi (or hopefully Chair)

Then unless they are loaned out potentially one or two of McAteer, Madivadua, Maswanhise kept as forward options if Enzo likes them

Meaning the following still need to go, which I have no doubt will end up going all the way to deadline day:

Iversen - will be the one to leave when we get Steffen () as no one will touch Ward

Castagne - Juventus

Vestergaard - deadline day loan move

Ndidi - Saudi / Turkey

Praet - Torino

Barnes - Newcastle

Iheanacho - Prem, hopefully not Forest

Hirst - Ipswich

Ric Flair · 12 July 2023

13 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Our squad rebuild was never going to be done quickly, clubs will want to drag out taking players off our hands until as late in the transfer window as possible to try and get them cheaper which just puts delays on us bringing players in

I reckon our squad ends up something like this

GK: Steffen, Ward, Smithies

RB: Ricardo, Justin

CB: Coady, Souttar, Doyle, Faes, Nelson (if not loaned out)

LB: Kristiansen, Thomas

DM/CM: Winks, KDH, Soumare, Choudhury, NEW CM (Casadei?)

RW: NEW RW, Albrighton

ST: Piroe, Vardy, Daka

LW: Mavididi (or hopefully Chair)

Then unless they are loaned out potentially one or two of McAteer, Madivadua, Maswanhise kept as forward options if Enzo likes them

Meaning the following still need to go, which I have no doubt will end up going all the way to deadline day:

Iversen - will be the one to leave when we get Steffen () as no one will touch Ward

Castagne - Juventus

Vestergaard - deadline day loan move

Ndidi - Saudi / Turkey

Praet - Torino

Barnes - Newcastle

Iheanacho - Prem, hopefully not Forest

Hirst - Ipswich

That's about what I can make out too. I do think we're still at least 1 ACM and 1-2 wingers short though and our right backs are extremely injury prone. Not promising that Joe Wormleighton hasn't been involved in pre-season training with the 1st team yet, wonder if he's injured. If he's not then it would be surprising.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

We're massively short in attacking talent at the minute. Especially when Harvey and Kel go. That leaves us with 2 strikers that like to play on the last line of defence and no players capable of doing anything to get the ball to them.

We're basically going to lose the 4 players that were capable of getting us a goal out of nothing and so far the closest we've come in terms of targets appears to be the Swansea fella. It's gonna be long old season if we don't bring in at least 4 creative players.

Golden Fox · 12 July 2023

52 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

I wish morons would stop with the skint narrative. Our owners have always only ever spent what our transfer sales have generated. Bar the times where Europe freed up more cash for a bigger wage budget.

Not spending last year had NOTHING to do with King Power's loss of income. Literally nothing.

Not sure if you are referring to me here as I can't see other comments talking about belt-tightening?

Financial Fair Play rules are assessed on the accounts of the club and not the wealth of the owners - so as you say, not spending last year had nothing to do with King Power.

The club made a pre-tax loss of £31.2m in 2021 and a loss of £92.5m in 2022. In those 2022 accounts, the club had a wage bill of £182m on a turnover of £215m - which was £130m broadcasting from being in the Premier League and £21.5m from European competitions, so further losses will really hit any analysis of fair play metrics. (The financial year to May 2012 has already ended, so these figures are a year out of date & its possible after a summer without buying anyone and with the Fofana money in, that there may be a nice profit from 2023 to add in).

So plenty of caveats in those numbers, but we are cutting out £150m of turnover from competitions we aren't in (even allowing for parachute payments of around £35m), so there is a need for quite a haircut to get back to a sensible wage bill - from what I can make out, the highest spenders in last year's Championship were Watford at £26.8m, so we'd need to shed a staggering £155m of wages to get back in the right ballpark.

I get we have released a few players, there may be some relegation clauses built in, and a net £20m profit from transfers so far, possibly a deal for Barnes on the table, but I can't reconcile those finances with the current business as usual approach from the club - unless they are gambling big time on an immediate return.

The point remains though - its lunacy to be paying big wages to players who aren't in the matchday squad, and as per the current squad makeup, we will have quite a few.

Can't disagree with this list of 8... but I have less confidence in them all being shifted before deadline day...

54 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Meaning the following still need to go, which I have no doubt will end up going all the way to deadline day:

Iversen - will be the one to leave when we get Steffen () as no one will touch Ward

Castagne - Juventus

Vestergaard - deadline day loan move

Ndidi - Saudi / Turkey

Praet - Torino

Barnes - Newcastle

Iheanacho - Prem, hopefully not Forest

Hirst - Ipswich

Bluearmyfox28 · 12 July 2023

1 hour ago, moore_94 said:

Our squad rebuild was never going to be done quickly, clubs will want to drag out taking players off our hands until as late in the transfer window as possible to try and get them cheaper which just puts delays on us bringing players in

I reckon our squad ends up something like this

GK: Steffen, Ward, Smithies

RB: Ricardo, Justin

CB: Coady, Souttar, Doyle, Faes, Nelson (if not loaned out)

LB: Kristiansen, Thomas

DM/CM: Winks, KDH, Soumare, Choudhury, NEW CM (Casadei?)

RW: NEW RW, Albrighton

ST: Piroe, Vardy, Daka

LW: Mavididi (or hopefully Chair)

Then unless they are loaned out potentially one or two of McAteer, Madivadua, Maswanhise kept as forward options if Enzo likes them

Meaning the following still need to go, which I have no doubt will end up going all the way to deadline day:

Iversen - will be the one to leave when we get Steffen () as no one will touch Ward

Castagne - Juventus

Vestergaard - deadline day loan move

Ndidi - Saudi / Turkey

Praet - Torino

Barnes - Newcastle

Iheanacho - Prem, hopefully not Forest

Hirst - Ipswich

I think your right other than I think we will need another centre mid and left winger (unless an academy lad can step up).

This style is so dependent on high press and rotation to keep players fresh. I think Enzo will want 2 players capable for a constant rotation.

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

6 minutes ago, Golden Fox said:

Not sure if you are referring to me here as I can't see other comments talking about belt-tightening?

Financial Fair Play rules are assessed on the accounts of the club and not the wealth of the owners - so as you say, not spending last year had nothing to do with King Power.

The club made a pre-tax loss of £31.2m in 2021 and a loss of £92.5m in 2022. In those 2022 accounts, the club had a wage bill of £182m on a turnover of £215m - which was £130m broadcasting from being in the Premier League and £21.5m from European competitions, so further losses will really hit any analysis of fair play metrics. (The financial year to May 2012 has already ended, so these figures are a year out of date & its possible after a summer without buying anyone and with the Fofana money in, that there may be a nice profit from 2023 to add in).

So plenty of caveats in those numbers, but we are cutting out £150m of turnover from competitions we aren't in (even allowing for parachute payments of around £35m), so there is a need for quite a haircut to get back to a sensible wage bill - from what I can make out, the highest spenders in last year's Championship were Watford at £26.8m, so we'd need to shed a staggering £155m of wages to get back in the right ballpark.

I get we have released a few players, there may be some relegation clauses built in, and a net £20m profit from transfers so far, possibly a deal for Barnes on the table, but I can't reconcile those finances with the current business as usual approach from the club - unless they are gambling big time on an immediate return.

The point remains though - its lunacy to be paying big wages to players who aren't in the matchday squad, and as per the current squad makeup, we will have quite a few.

Can't disagree with this list of 8... but I have less confidence in them all being shifted before deadline day...

I wasn't on about you because i haven't seen your posts. There's numerous posts around Foxestalk referring to us as "skint" after spending more than some Championship clubs will all season in one week..

Every player at the club has taken a wage cut. We have got rid of 7 first team players, and just sold a player for £40m plus add ons. We would not be spending money on Coady and Winks and their wages if we were skint. I think after the Barnes sale we are absolutely fine and that will be shown in what we do in the market.

You're right in all you say regarding the finances but that was exactly my point. None of it was to do with King Power. It was the club underperforming. We'd have had to do what we did last summer regardless of King power's finances. There's a media narrative that owners spend their pocket money on their clubs, and Top ran out of all of his. It's bullshit.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

9 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

I wasn't on about you because i haven't seen your posts. There's numerous posts around Foxestalk referring to us as "skint" after spending more than some Championship clubs will all season in one week..

Every player at the club has taken a wage cut. We have got rid of 7 first team players, and just sold a player for £40m plus add ons. We would not be spending money on Coady and Winks and their wages if we were skint. I think after the Barnes sale we are absolutely fine and that will be shown in what we do in the market.

You're right in all you say regarding the finances but that was exactly my point. None of it was to do with King Power. It was the club underperforming. We'd have had to do what we did last summer regardless of King power's finances. There's a media narrative that owners spend their pocket money on their clubs, and Top ran out of all of his. It's bullshit.

We've been consistently making a loss for a few seasons now haven't we. Our wages to turnover was 105%. If we don't go up at the first time of asking, I imagine we'll be treading very dangerous water and find that we slip into mid table mediocrity pretty quickly due to having to sell to balance the books.

I agree with your sentiment that our finances have nothing to do with King Power though. They've wanted us to be self-sufficient and we pretty much have been for a while now. As a club, financially we've been incredibly badly mismanaged. You don't spend more on wages than money coming in if you're operating well.

BTW I swear I am only replying to your posts at the minute mate I promise I'm not stalking you haha. I don't even read who has made the posts usually

Edited 12 July 2023 by filbertway

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

1 minute ago, filbertway said:

We've been consistently making a loss for a few seasons now haven't we. Our wages to turnover was 105%. If we don't go up at the first time of asking, I imagine we'll be treading very dangerous water and find that we slip into mid table mediocrity pretty quickly due to having to sell to balance the books.

I agree with your sentiment that our finances have nothing to do with King Power though. They've wanted us to be self-sufficient and we pretty much have been for a while now. As a club, financially we've been incredibly badly mismanaged. You don't spend more on wages than money coming in if you're operating well.

They fell for the Brendan charm and then some. How could we possibly ever go back to being the Leicester of old when we are 2nd and chasing Liverpool for the title at Christmas? Give him a 4 year deal and give him a nice big squad to compete in Europe where we will be forever.

When you read the way he threw MSG under the bus at Liverpool, it's hardly surprising he did the same to our owners once he failed to qualify for Europe. What is strange is how long they continued to back him.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

Just now, Gamble92 said:

They fell for the Brendan charm and then some. How could we possibly ever go back to being the Leicester of old when we are 2nd and chasing Liverpool for the title at Christmas? Give him a 4 year deal and give him a nice big squad to compete in Europe where we will be forever.

When you read the way he threw MSG under the bus at Liverpool, it's hardly surprising he did the same to our owners once he failed to qualify for Europe. What is strange is how long they continued to back him.

It has to come out one day right. The most obvious theory is that the cost to sack him would have been a lot and they were hoping to avoid relegation. Sacking him at the time they did was the worst possible time.

It gave us no time to right the wrongs and gave him a get out of jail free card. Looking back I wish we had called his bluff and let him remain at the club.

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

So do i. At the time i was just glad to see him gone, but to have had a relegation officially on his record would have been one of few things i could actually stomach about it all. No one at the club, including Susan Whelan, Top and Rudkin deserved anything less than what they got with relegation.

Like you say, finance seems the most logical explanation. Nothing about that seems logical now. I genuinely think he just managed to convince them that it was their own fault and he was doing the best with what he had. He had too much power in the end.

I have had my faith restored a lot by the way no Premier League owners have fell for the absolute PR guff that his media stooges like Lennon and Merson have been spouting. That does make me think that there's been enough voices from our club warning other clubs just how responsible he was.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

38 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

So do i. At the time i was just glad to see him gone, but to have had a relegation officially on his record would have been one of few things i could actually stomach about it all. No one at the club, including Susan Whelan, Top and Rudkin deserved anything less than what they got with relegation.

Like you say, finance seems the most logical explanation. Nothing about that seems logical now. I genuinely think he just managed to convince them that it was their own fault and he was doing the best with what he had. He had too much power in the end.

I have had my faith restored a lot by the way no Premier League owners have fell for the absolute PR guff that his media stooges like Lennon and Merson have been spouting. That does make me think that there's been enough voices from our club warning other clubs just how responsible he was.

What do you think would be the benefit of that out of interest?

I just assumed all the other clubs had competent board/directors who could clearly see it

Stadt · 12 July 2023

We should press on with loans, I'm sure parent clubs would rather they were sorted quickly. We seem to take an age to do anything ad we can't do transfer business concurrently.

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

13 minutes ago, filbertway said:

What do you think would be the benefit of that out of interest?

I just assumed all the other clubs had competent board/directors who could clearly see it

I think in the same way managers talk between themselves about players, Owners and Directors etc do the same for managers.

Hopefully they do clearly see it. I still think he is going to win everything in Scotland and walk into a top 6 job off the back of it. Only reason he's gone back there.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

Just now, Gamble92 said:

I think in the same way managers talk between themselves about players, Owners and Directors etc do the same for managers.

Hopefully they do clearly see it. I still think he is going to win everything in Scotland and walk into a top 6 job off the back of it. Only reason he's gone back there.

They actually have competition this time. His only competition was a weak rangers and Aberdeen.

I think he's stitched himself up here and it's going to finally be clear what an absolute fraud the bloke is. I can't wait to see his career and reputation among the wider world absolutely disintegrate

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

Just now, filbertway said:

They actually have competition this time. His only competition was a weak rangers and Aberdeen.

I think he's stitched himself up here and it's going to finally be clear what an absolute fraud the bloke is. I can't wait to see his career and reputation among the wider world absolutely disintegrate

He banned English media from the first press conference and clearly made sure in his little golf round with Tubes that no questions about Leicester are asked. It's sickening to those of us who know what he's like to see him play more of his PR bullshit.

filbertway · 12 July 2023

1 minute ago, Gamble92 said:

He banned English media from the first press conference and clearly made sure in his little golf round with Tubes that no questions about Leicester are asked. It's sickening to those of us who know what he's like to see him play more of his PR bullshit.

Haha aye, I'm still getting used to the majority of Leicester fans seeing it to be fair.

I felt like I was in a group of about 0.05% of people that saw it for so long

Ric Flair · 12 July 2023

I'd not be surprised if the club had some fears of financial compliance now we are back in the EFL. The requirements are different to FFP when in the PL and we must be mindful of the reputation we have after the settlement we made with the EFL for breaches from 2013/14.

I hope we are able to juggle concerns on compliance and being able to rebuild a squad that can challenge for promotion. I'd rather we risk not going straight back up but have a squad that could develop in to being good enough both to get up and stay up in a year or two than risk everything to get up but be a complete mess in the PL.

Gamble92 · 12 July 2023

1 minute ago, filbertway said:

Haha aye, I'm still getting used to the majority of Leicester fans seeing it to be fair.

I felt like I was in a group of about 0.05% of people that saw it for so long

For me it was a case of noticing it but not caring as long as we were winning. I see through bullshitters straight away. We all see them every day at work. He is one of them. I didn't mind the cringey David Brent stuff when we were playing some of the best football we ever have.

It was when he told us all to basically shut the **** and know our place after the 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea that i started to quickly be against him being here. From then on it has all been a case of highlighting any little empty achievement he could to show how good he is and none of the issues are his fault. The way he listed off the 8th place finish and first ever Euro Semi final was literally like watching a bloke you work with list off all his bullshit achievements as he writes up his CV, when you've just watched him do **** all.