Midfield_General

What, surely not Alan “When you’re the king you can do what you like” Pardew?

No way are they paying the compo for Rohl. They’ll get a free agent or stick with RVN. They’re skint.

Yep, or it’s the same ruse but to soften up their fans for the news that after careful consideration they’ve decided to keep van Nistelrooy, which wouldn’t surprise me, given their fans backlash against Martin.

Weird. Rosenior only signed a new 3 year contract at Strasbourg 6 weeks ago, so it would be very unlikely that he’d bail immediately after doing that, and even if he wanted to, by all accounts Leicester are in no financial position to be buying him out of that. Chansiri’s also playing hardball with anyone approaching Rohl, demanding a lot of compensation as he’s still under contract. That’s why Saints, Leipzig and Werder Bremen have all passed on him. Again, I’d be very surprised if Leicester were willing or able to pay what’s being demanded.

He stands at over six foot five Quarshie, Quarshie In a three he's bound to thrive Quarshie, Quarshie He gets the ball and takes the piss Runs as fast as John Regis* Joshua Quarshie Southampton's...errr... defending... machine (* One for the kids there)

Man Utd's open top bus parade in Malaysia is absolutely incredible - best with sound turned up to hear the guy videoing it pissing himself laughing

“… then shagged that Dani Behr like”

Werder Bremen reported to have pulled out of an approach for Danny Rohl: https://eflanalysis.com/news/werder-bremen-have-just-pulled-out-of-danny-rohl-pursuit-as-sheffield-wednesday-handed-major-problem/ If Leicester pass on him too in favour of Martin, then if reports are true that will be Saints, Leicester, Werder and Leipzig who've all been interested in him but decided against it. Sounds like Chansiri is being an absolute nightmare to deal with on it, basically as a fuck you to Rohl for trying to walk out when he's under contract. I've got nothing against the bloke but after he so spectacularly burned his bridges at his current club, it would be hilarious if he ended up still there for the new season because no-one else ended up taking him.

Yeah, or THB when we signed him. Capped at every international youth level by his country, but still got some development to do so has been getting some experience of playing regularly out on loan.

Yeah with Spors I was thinking it's more likely that he's still got good connections at the club as he worked there for 8 years. He obviously knows Lederer well from there, as he's just hired him. And Lederer will have recommended Quarshie as he's been overseeing youth development at Hoffenheim, where Quarshie has been a youth player. My point is that our new head scout will have had a very good 'proper' look at him and will have used the eye test to form an educated view of his strengths and the areas he needs to develop, rather than him being a 'spreadsheet' signing.

Sorry to come over all MLG (ew), but - Quarshie is being signed from Hoffenheim. Spors was an analyst, head scout and head of recruitment at Hoffenheim from 2007 - 2015. A week ago we announced that our new head scout was going to be Tim Lederer, who is/ was Hoffenheim's youth squad planner. I think it's fair to say that this is a player that our new scouting and recruitment team know pretty well, and that he will have been properly (e.g. traditionally) scouted and those people will have had eyes on him for some time. He's also been picked for Germany at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level (though he hasn't got into the side for the under-21s yet). So we may not have heard of him, but he's got a pretty decent pedigree for a young player in Germany.

Cool. I find it weird that some people only ever relentlessly trot out the club's party line, and attack anyone who challenges it, almost like they have some sort of vested interest in doing so. But hey, isn't it nice that we can agree to disagree like grown-ups. Have a great day.

You're picking one game as if that ends the discussion with a slam dunk. I'm talking about a pattern over the course of half a season or more. I get that he's 19 and is not the finished article yet. I get that he's not a box-to-box, all energy player. I get that he's been playing in a poor side and there has been upheaval. However, I think there have been numerous occasions this season where he has looked disinterested or could have done more to help the team. You clearly disagree, and that's fine.

Yes, because working hard off the ball is exactly the same as running around like a headless chicken or being Brett Ormerod. That's exactly what I said. Good one. 👍

All very fair points. Another question of course is generally how he would fit into a high-energy, high-pressing style of the sort that Still will apparently demand. The manager is going to need to see a lot of work off the ball from any player in that set-up. It's all probably moot though tbh, because the club seem to see him as their quickest and easiest way of raising funds this summer, so I think if he wants to go, then if someone comes in with anything £50/55m+ then he'll be straight off. I'm not entirely clear who would be ready to spend even that sort of money on him though, let alone the silly £100m figure that the club put out there. On the surface there's not an obvious club who would leap at his languid style + what he's proven so far + what it would be likely to cost them, and who also have an obvious need for a player like him. Especially considering he's already been burned by the 'squad player at a big club' experience at Chelsea which didn't work for him at all.

I think the jury's very much out on Dibling's mentality, based on the second half of the season when he didn't seem to putting anywhere near as much work in. Yes he was in a poor side blah blah but he's only 19 and is still making his way in the game - at the very least he should be putting in maximum effort at all times. If he's not prepared to properly bust a gut for the team when he's still only 19, that raises question marks for me. Talent is worthless if you're too arrogant to think you have to work hard as well.

Hang on a sec... Turki... @Turkish ... could it be true? Are we seeing the beginnings of the ultimate CoT coup, with Turki(sh) Al-Sheikh using the exclusive intel gained from his extensive network of contacts to sweep in and buy the club?

True, but what is inarguable is that he has come up the hard way with no previous reputation or contacts in the game to give him a leg up, and no head start as a 'name' from a starry playing career to fall back on. He has come from being an absolute nobody, sat in his bedroom in his mum's house writing off to clubs asking to be given a chance, to going toe-to-toe with Mbappe's PSG, through sheer determination, hard work and by consistently delivering results when he's been given the opportunity. The hundreds of comments below each video from fans of his previous clubs, almost unanimously positive, wishing him well and tipping him for the very top, are also a bit different to the way that some of our former managers are talked about! Or maybe French / Belgian supporters are just nicer than we are... Anyway, it's definitely another step up for him, and time will tell, but for me, just having a gut reaction that isn't 'oh god, they've obviously found another muppet' feels like a nice step back in the right direction after the horror show of the last 12 months.

I've now watched and listened to every video that has been posted of him talking and working and I'm so much more excited. I certainly feel like I know a bit more about him than I did a week ago, and it's good to see beyond the silly headlines about how he only got jobs by being good at Football Manager, which is complete bollocks. The behind the scenes one of him working with the players and the High Performance one of him talking about his career to date are the most interesting two. He is incredibly blunt. He is searingly honest, extremely self-deprecating and completely transparent about things that working football managers almost never talk about, like self-doubt and what he struggles with. At the same time, he is obviously spectacularly driven and has great faith in what he is able to deliver if he is allowed to work with the freedom that he needs to build the working environment he wants. The grounded way he speaks when compared to a loon like Jones or a smoothie like Martin is like he's from a different planet. No platitudes or cliches, just answering questions honestly. It will be very interesting to see if the players take to him and his demeanour. I'm sure some will look down on him, and he's certainly not going to be turning up with a glamour model on his arm and being best banteriffic mates with them. For the ones that don't, I hope the club back him to the hilt to do whatever he feels is necessary to let him create the group dynamic that he needs. I hope he gets off to a good start, but if he doesn't, I hope that both the club and the fans treat it as a long-term project and give him time to do his work. This will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge of his career so far, and I have no idea if it will work out or not, but to me his brutally honest, 'anti-managerspeak-bullshit' demeanour comes across incredibly well, and the almost unanimous praise from the fans of the clubs he has worked with in the past has to be a very good sign. The comments sections below each video are basically just hundreds of fans of his previous clubs saying what a fantastic person and manager he is. Compare and contrast that with the feedback that most past managers get. It's not a traditional appointment for sure, but for me it's a very exciting one, and who knows whether it will be a success, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun finding out. If I had to stick my neck out I think our fans generally tend to appreciate a grafter who doesn't take any shit from the players, and in that respect I think he's got the potential to become something of a cult hero, in the vein of Strachan.

Talksport (yes, I know) reporting this morning that van Nistelrooy's sacking is imminent with Martin lined up to take over straight away: https://talksport.com/football/3238564/ruud-van-nistelrooy-leicester-sacked-russell-martin/ Caveat: It's Crook

Yeah a lot of their fans seem understandably utterly bemused at their club's 'obsession' with us, especially with taking our cast-offs. I have to say I don't really get it myself either, hilarious though it is. They're already chanting against him and he hasn't even joined yet. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/rare-chant-gives-leicester-city-10214101 "But there was also a chant about Russell Martin, the man at the centre of rife speculation around the City job and the favourite to succeed Ruud van Nistelrooy. While the chant – “Russell Martin, what a ******” – was unnecessarily harsh towards the former Southampton manager, it was at least effective in showing the fans’ thoughts on his possible arrival, especially with Jon Rudkin at the Vitality Stadium to hear them. For lots of fans, appointing Martin is akin to signing Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand despite their involvement in the 9-0 game at St Mary’s. Last season in the Championship, City won their two games against Martin’s Saints 9-1 on aggregate. Plus, in the Premier League, he took just five points from 16 matches before being sacked. To many, it feels like a backwards step."

Blimey - they really don't want him do they 🤣 https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/137307-russell-martin/#comments If he does go there then he'd better start well, because if he doesn't then that could turn extremely toxic, extremely quickly. '#WelcomeRylan' and 'Poundland Ant Middleton' made me laugh

Love the fact that he got his squad together and said "Lads, I'm going to be honest, we're really, really, really shit." I'm starting to see why they think he's right for this particular job. That was a really interesting listen. He's not a traditional football manager by any means, but I'm excited to see what he can do.

He's a puff of pink mist wafting about where a midfielder should be

The Japanese one is fun. It’s showing the game with English commentary but it’s got some random Japanese bloke talking over it who sounds like he’s sat in his bedroom