Concerns about the direction of the club

[Royston.]

1 hour ago, whoareyaaa said:

No point in worrying about it as you can't change anything.

Agree, the club is a joke but all that really concerns me is what happens in the actual football matches

[wardyfox86]

36 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Find it a bit frustrating that Top and Susan rarely say much to the supporters, and only really in the matchday magazine.

I'm genuinely interested how many DoF actually engage with fans.

 

Not a dig at you, it's just never been an issue of mine as I don't feel it's somebody we need to hear.

 

A little like when Top wrote a message to the fans, I feel anything they said would be dismissed by most anyway.

[Tommy G]

1 minute ago, wardyfox86 said:

I'm genuinely interested how many DoF actually engage with fans.

 

Not a dig at you, it's just never been an issue of mine as I don't feel it's somebody we need to hear.

 

A little like when Top wrote a message to the fans, I feel anything they said would be dismissed by most anyway.

I don’t think many do, and Rudkin is so deeply unpopular he is on a lose lose whatever was said in a statement publicly - it would be like Boris doing a speech at the Labour party conference - utterly pointless.
 

If you do it once, there is then an expectation for another - and before you know it he’ll be having to do weekly engagement with fans to sign off on what underpants to put on. 
 

The club needs to improve on fan engagement, no doubt - but Rudkin’s sell by date is well past. 

[CosbehFox]

Ultimately the club now have a fan liaison officer or engagement whatever, she’s been in post for nearly three months. There’s been no engagement with any fan groups etc. 

 

The Comms director is one of the biggest obstacles at LCFC currently 

[Lambert09]

2 hours ago, mozartfox said:

Do you stand in the Kitchen at Parties?  

well the party in this situation is fyre festival 

Edited 8 July by Lambert09

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Foxin_Mad said:

I mean if anyone thinks any of this is going to improve for example under American ownership, well it wont. Also I don't think the ownership has changed since Vichai was here, in reality he got lucky, I am not actually sure much difference would have occurred were he still alive, they've always done one or 2 bizarre things, and generally always been terrible at communication. The people in place had been around since he was here also. 

 

Sadly its modern football. Unless the fans buy the club and run it, there's not many clubs who are that bothered by 'fans' anymore.

 

Football is really broken at the top level. 

Not necessarily the case. Ask Bournemouth fans what they think of Bill Foley. He’s moved them on significantly on and off the pitch. 

[Dan LCFC]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

Going into this season is probably the first time in my life I haven't been bothered about it starting.

Bizarrely I think I'm more up for this than 2022/23. I had a proper sense of doom in 2022/23. At least this time the manager is actually going to do his best - even if we are likely to drop.

[westernpark]

Ultimately I am more concerned about the club’s identity and heritage off the pitch, rather than on it. If we’re rubbish, we’re rubbish and I’ll still go along every week as it is Leicester City. But the changes to the club, the worshipping of a business that owns the club, are putting me off.

 

I mitigate some of these issues, with the notion that Leicester City would never be the same club that I started supporting as a 7 year old in 2002 because of the success we’ve had, and the general globalisation of the sport during this time.

I want to continue actively supporting a Leicester based club and have decided to get a Tigers season ticket for this upcoming season. I have hated Leicester Tigers in the past, the fan base demographic is not representative of this city and supporters are more likely to be found in rural Norfolk, than Saffron Lane. However, I’ve decided to give it a go, simply because the team has Leicester in the name and is seemingly grateful for my 400 quid.

 

Apart from joining a fans group, unfortunately I have no motivation in helping to pressure this football club at the moment. Football is broken and I think I need a break from really caring at the moment(I will keep my season ticket for the upcoming season, hypocritical yes). Kudos and respect to all those who are doing so at the moment. 

[hackneyfox]

3 hours ago, Lambert09 said:

Im not keen on negativity in pre-season, particularly not when we have just been promoted but I have some thoughts that I just can’t seem to shake off.

 

My main concern is that the club is undoing a lot of excellent work to get us back where we belong.

 

Now I understand that we are in an unusual position with psr and i’m not going to get into that. This post isn’t about a points deduction, it isn’t about the manager and it’s not about having to sell our best player 

 

The concern is that we’ve not seemed to have learnt anything from all of this. 

 

Relegation for many was actually a bit of a relief. It granted us the ability for a big reset. Yes we didn’t manage to get rid of he who shall not be named, but we did clear out those that didn’t want to be here ( for the most part).

 

We were able to fully refresh the squad with players that had something to prove and brought in an excellent coach with new ideas and a no nonsense attitude. 

 

The owner gave the fans what they wanted and went back to King Power on the shirt. A sign that they realised we didn’t want a dirty sponsor for financial gain. 

 

The scouting network seemed to focus on young upcoming stars, from leagues where we could strike a bargain, who would have upward selling potential… a return to the dortmund model.

 

The siege mentality came back and a bit of togetherness was found (yeah we were all surprised that good atmospheres were possible again). I guess champions league football wasn’t needed for that. 

 

But then now that we’ve been promoted, I feel like we are back making the same mistakes we did before. 

 

Long contracts for players who may not be good enough and have no resale value. A focus back on domestic talent.  a sheer disregard for the fans (season cards, shirt price increases, ticket price hike). Ignoring the fan groups. A competition open only to uk or thai fans. (yeah that’s going to annoy the guy in canada who’s spent his life following the club, might be a personal one but why are thai fans more important than me?)

 

Then of course the shirt sponsor. 

 

 Now I know we have to play the game that everyone’s playing. But the more this stuff drags on, the more I and many others feel pushed away and question if it’s even a game we want to be part of any more. Where’s the line as a fan? leicester completed football, there’s not that one thing I need to see before we die, so as fans of a club like ours, be careful how hard you push us to the side.

 

I’m sure i’m dramatic and the optimists will point out why all the things make sense and there’s always going to be some logic to these things. The club are trying to be successful, I know that. 

 

I just think that we are moving away from what just worked and the old mistakes are creeping back in (or just never left). Am I the only one getting the sense that the club feel vindicated and that they are free to continue as they did before?  

 

I just don’t feel that the values of the fans are a thought and in what will be the toughest season in a very long time, possibly our history, we could have used a siege mentality. A bit of good will towards the fans would have gone a long way in creating that all so needed 12th man! 

Hoe many more people are doing a dissertation on ‘Leicester are going in the wrong direction’?

Then the same people are making the same comments over and over again.

New manager, New league, new players, why don’t we we just stop moaning about the last 3 seasons and have a bit of faith, hope and positivity for next season.

I didn’t read it all, did you mention how negative our fans are? Is it a surprise after having spent the summer reading about how awful it all is and I’ll probably give up if we sell X, buy Y and have Z as our sponsors.

Edited 8 July by hackneyfox

[Dan LCFC]

2 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

You say excellent work but they had an unbelievably good squad through circumstance of the worst relegation in history. That was the main reason we went up.

 

Admittedly good decisions were made but this wasn't a time to brag about some strategic masterclass. They got away with one big time.

 

It was about rebuilding the almost irreparable damage of the relegation season and all they continue to do is show us they don't have a clue and actually have genuine contempt for the fanbase. 

 

I think Top's days are numbered regardless now. 

They got away with one but have they? I think if we stay up this season they have. But we are relegation favourites for pretty good reason.

[Dan LCFC]

3 hours ago, Foxin_Mad said:

I mean if anyone thinks any of this is going to improve for example under American ownership, well it wont. Also I don't think the ownership has changed since Vichai was here, in reality he got lucky, I am not actually sure much difference would have occurred were he still alive, they've always done one or 2 bizarre things, and generally always been terrible at communication. The people in place had been around since he was here also. 

 

Sadly its modern football. Unless the fans buy the club and run it, there's not many clubs who are that bothered by 'fans' anymore.

 

Football is really broken at the top level. 

For my strong scepticism of this ownership, I do find myself agreeing with this. But then who knows - it's not a guarantee. I think we're approaching a level of ineptness where rolling the dice wouldn't be that big a risk.

 

The Vichai point is interesting. I agree with you and I think it's quite an unpopular view, but that being said, I do think he'd have made some sort of changes before now. Even if Rudkin and Whelan survived I fail to believe without his business sense he'd have tweaked something. Top looks very fish out of water to me. I could forgive it somewhat if there wasn't such a hypocritical tone about it all, shake your head at the banners (which were proven totally correct), put out a statement playing the victim after overseeing relegation, but happy to be front and centre of promotion. I don't think these issues are going away.

[Lineker's Left Foot]

2 hours ago, mozartfox said:

Do you stand in the Kitchen at Parties?  

I am even worse.  I am the bloke sitting on his own, in a single armchair, perusing the cd collection - shaking his head at the various Robbie Williams or Pink cds

[coolhandfox]

48 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Not necessarily the case. Ask Bournemouth fans what they think of Bill Foley. He’s moved them on significantly on and off the pitch. 

Based on what metrics? 

[gurru991]

I think a good Manager can strongly influence how a club is run & I think Cooper is that manager.

 

[jerry]

3 hours ago, phoneticerror said:

Personally I like to use football as the one place to switch off and enjoy the matches. Seems like everybody has opinions about everything these days and it’s starting to get a bit exhausting.

Bill Shankley was quoted as saying some people think football is life and death but it's more important than that. Is a sport that unfortunately has been turned into a multi pound business. All this agonising over it , maybe we all need to get a sense of perspective.

[Gamble92]

38 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

They got away with one but have they? I think if we stay up this season they have. But we are relegation favourites for pretty good reason.

I think the ramifications of not going up would have been even more horrendous. 

 

I agree though they're far from out of it, especially with the fanbase who they seem to not care about. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Based on what metrics? 

On pitch - highest ever top-flight points total and joint-second best league finish (pretty remarkable given they went nine winless at the start of the season and didn't win a game until late October) while playing very good football, Iraola a manager of the season nominee and has signed a new contract, invested in promising young talents like Kerkez, Scott and Zabarnyi, if they lose someone like Solanke or Kerkez they will make a huge profit in the process

 

Off pitch - new training ground in development ready for use early next year, plans for a new stadium with potentially double the capacity of the current one, academy upgraded to Cat 2 status

[ramboacdc]

Your first mistake was believing there was a direction in the first place!

[CosbehFox]

45 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Based on what metrics? 

Their fans think that they have a manager whom has a forward thinking style (from the days of Scott Parker) and signings have improved. 
 

He’s successfully sorted out a new training ground after years of frustration. They are progressing with a stadium extension and got the land to the ownership of the club. He’s been very vocal that they need to get their wider fanbase watching live football. 

[Poznan34]

1 hour ago, wardyfox86 said:

I'm genuinely interested how many DoF actually engage with fans.

 

Not a dig at you, it's just never been an issue of mine as I don't feel it's somebody we need to hear.

 

A little like when Top wrote a message to the fans, I feel anything they said would be dismissed by most anyway.

A quick google gives, in no particular order:

 

Everton - Kevin Thelwell 

Norwich - Ben Knapper - Norwich previously had Stuart Webber, who was never off the TV (probably went too far tbh)

Brighton - Dan Ashworth on prime time TV (now moved on to Newcastle)

Spurs - Johan Lange

Wolves - Matt Hobbs

Brentford - Phil Giles - gives an interview after every window

West Ham - Tim Steidten (albeit a joint interview with new manager)

Aston Villa - Monchi

Fulham - Tony Khan interview with fan podcast (can you see Rudkin going on BSLB?)

Arsenal - Edu

Brighton - David Weir on a 40 min club podcast on new manager - forty minutes!

 

Meanwhile...if you google "Jon Rudkin interview Leicester", the first interview is a reaction to an FA Youth Cup quarter final win from nine years ago. 

 

No interviews for 10 years is fine when we are doing well but he's been in charge for the worst relegation in Premier League history - people are right to question him. A bit of info on the general plan from the man running the club day-to-day would be a good step to rebuilding the relationship with the fans. 

 

Sidenote:

Not a DoF, but one of the best football club comms imo is the Plymouth Chairman, who does regular interviews:

E.g. Launching a five year plan with actual detail about how they were planning to run the club - can you imagine?

A 20 min interview upon latest managerial appointment, going into great detail on the recruitment process

[Stadt]

This thread is quite illuminating in a way because there’s fans just totally at peace with us being shit off the pitch 

[Pliskin]

The games dead. 

[Viva]

19 minutes ago, Stadt said:

This thread is quite illuminating in a way because there’s fans just totally at peace with us being shit off the pitch 

How about the fact that some fans just want to look forward to the season ahead after winning the Championship, rather than have endless negative posts before a ball has even been kicked? 

[Izzy]

11 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

The games dead. 

Yet season after season after season we all keep coming back for more.

 

Football fans are addicts.

[coolhandfox]

26 minutes ago, Stadt said:

This thread is quite illuminating in a way because there’s fans just totally at peace with us being shit off the pitch 

As illuminating as people thinking moaning on a forum is going to change anything.

 

Unless we get unified and organised and ready to take actual action nothing is going to change.

 

The average football fan is being driven away from the game.

 

Edited 8 July by coolhandfox