Midfield_General

I met him once to do a short interview when I was younger and he was England manager. He was an absolute gentleman. He could see I was nervous and went out of his way to put me at my ease. I never got to see him play but he was a genuinely lovely man - considerate, funny and kind. RIP.

Signs for Russ on a two-year deal at Leicester. Apparently had an offer to go to Chelsea as the obligatory ancient third choice to fill the English quota, but went to Leicester because he wants to start. Which would be odd, given how unsuited he is to playing out. Anyway. Best of luck Macca.

If Azon is statmaxxxing like that then Archer, Diaz and Downs are getting mogged

Leichampton, surely. Someone somewhere else pointed out that over time they've now recruited almost a quarter of the squad that they beat 9-0 (Bertrand, Vestergaard, Ings and McCarthy) plus the Head of Recruitment who helped build that squad (Glover), as well as the manager who they beat 9-1 on aggregate over the course of a season (Martin) and one of his players (Aribo). If you were a Leicester fan you would be within your rights to wonder quite what the appeal is.

Well it's looking increasingly likely that he's going to have to do it with a squad that's much more reliant on youth teamers stepping up and older risks/ bordering on has-beens like Ings and McCarthy, because they are so financially screwed. A lot of their current players are expected to leave in the coming weeks. Their entire squad is basically up for sale - today alone Winks left on a free and Vestergaard terminated his contract - and they don't have any obvious means of replacing them other than with kids and frees/ loans/ bargain bins. Throw the 'philosophy' into the mix and who knows what will happen. By the end of the window they aren't going to have the luxury of some amazing squad that's obviously too good for the division. I think it could be a lot harder for them than people may think. It's going to be interesting to watch it unfold.

Speaking prior to the heading to Memorial Stadium for a 7pm BST kick-off, City’s Manager spoke about the standards in training starting to pay off in the pre-season matches, which must reflect what he hopes to see when the competitive action comes into focus. “We need it to maintain what they’ve set so far,” the 40-year-old explained. “The level of the work they’ve done in terms of the intensity they’ve approached things at and the willingness to learn and work and be coached, they’ve been fantastic." Training Like Beasts: Level Completed ✅ Next Level: It's A Process, It Takes Time, And When It Works It's Going To Be So Beautiful

Any level of League One income is basically irrelevant when the overall finances of the club have been managed as badly as Leicester’s have. Since 2019 they’ve lost £375m and they’ve had to take out out a further £100m loan at 9% interest. League One TV revenue is £2m per year. Meanwhile they’re still paying for transfers they made when they were in the Premier League and they’ve still got players like Winks on £60k p/w contracts. Their owners aren’t putting any money in so I’m not sure what magical income streams you think they have that can offset that level of fiscal clusterfuck. If they can’t shift those high earners they are in enormous financial trouble. Their whole team is for sale, they haven’t got a pot to piss in and since when did anyone choose to ply their trade in league one over the championship because of the ‘facilities’ 🤣 If Martin had had any offers from the league above, he’d obviously have taken one. But he didn’t. He went there because it was the only offer he had.

Rumours gathering pace that Martin's first signing is going to be another former Saint https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/26265237.ings-reportedly-set-sign-former-southampton-boss-league-one/

That, and the threaded pass from the centre half into midfield are the ones that I'd be looking to jump on. Let them have the ball, wait for the CB to bring it out and try and make that pass into feet, then spring the press so that when you win possession you've got men over and can get straight in behind while the central defenders are still pushed up and isolated because the wing backs are miles up the pitch waiting for a ball that never comes.

'It's not a tactical issue' - delivered with a dismissive smirk after gifting two goals in a disappointing 0-2 home reverse to Wycombe

Assuming Ronaldo plays tonight he would have made history by becoming the first player ever to feature in six World Cups... had Messi not done it last night, thereby beating him to it by one day 🤣

If we're looking at Scotland / Rangers we could do a lot worse than have a look at Djeidi Gassama as well. Quick, direct, gives defenders all sorts of problems and has got a goal in him. He was often their standout player whenever I watched them last year. Can play on either wing and they picked him up for less than £2m a year ago, which was a great bit of business. Only 22 so YHGTI.

‘Not perfect at Rangers’ = sacked after 123 days with a 29% win percentage, by far the lowest ever in the club’s 154 year history. Lovely bit of trolling. It’s like saying the Titanic’s maiden voyage to New York ‘had a couple of hiccups’.

France have been brilliant going forward but their keeper Maignan has been dodgy. Bazzed out the way of it for the Senegal goal and was lucky to get away with two others.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/06/13/russell-martin-appointed-manager-of-leicester-city/ Three year deal, according to the Telegraph. Hope they’ve got some good ball-playing centre halves.