Saint86

Just seen Stephens' howler for the goal. FFS - surely he has to be more of a 4th-5th choice CB rather than a captain and starter?!?! Sanda is an absolute monster of a unit, and JQ looks good from what i've seen - lots of passion and effort for the friendlies as well.

This isn't the great argument you think it is. We conceded 17goals in that 22game unbeaten run, with 9 clean sheets... Only two games in that period entailed more than 1goal against, which we won 5-3 vs Huddersfield (home) and drew 2-2 with Preston away. A very significant portion of our goals against in the championship came at the start of the season when we were transitioning to Martin's style whilst simultaneously managing huge player turnover - We conceded 13 goals in just 3 of our first 6 league matches - 20% of our tally for the season, and 16 total over those first 6 matches (25%). A better argument would be to say that we lost automatic promotion either side of our unbeaten run - with the initial change and unsettled squad coinciding with the home defeats to Ipswich and Leicester early on, and the draw with Norwich. Its a warning if anything - we have Sheffield united, Ipswich and Boro all within the first 8 games so a fairly similar start - Hopefully something similar doesn't happen this time around (i.e., lost points to a fundamental change of style and lots of late window squad changes).

If we've genuinely had a chance to sign eduard spertsyan and missed out on it then its a real bugger. He's one of the best players we've been seriously linked with since the days of picking up the younger/lesser known VVD and Mane imo.

Not to go down this rabbit hole... but Blue Playstation controllers were made. Yellow ones weren't... https://console-test-universe.jimdoweb.com/sony/sony-playstation/sony-playstation-controller-variations/ Really is schoolboy stuff from the marketing team 😅

Good point MLG, its far more than 5-6 of our best 11 that could be on the way out... Ramsdale, THB, Bednarek, Fernandes, Edozie, Aribo, Dibling, Armstrong have all been linked with exits.

Those are both PlayStation ones? Shit job cropping the wires as well. All this time to announce a kit leak ages ago and this is the slop we get from the marketing team. Heads should roll IMHO...

Absolute bloody shambles from the club I'm afraid... They've had all this time to release the kit, they get a yellow controller for Fernandes (good move)... And then they don't also go and get a blue controller for the 2nd one. Schoolboy stuff, amateur hour 🤦🤣. Nice kit otherwise 😍

Whilst its a valid point ofc, the club will obviously be aware of it and you have to assume they've got strategies and options in place for those eventualities. It doesn't feel like we "have" to sell from a PSR perspective this year, so hopefully that puts us in a strong position re late sales.

No news is good news at this point - the reality is that it will most likely be centred around some of Ramsdale, THB, Dibling, and Fernandes leaving. If that doesn't happen then the starting 11 stays at it is and Dibling signs a new contract = cheat code activated.

Which should make little difference to a playoff charge with their current squad and new manager, and which therefore means they remain a serious threat to us next season. What i think we also need is for this year's PSR constraints to really impact they're player trading / squad quality.

When you look at our squad and likely "goings" - the only way i can see that being particularly busy is if we're losing the players we'd actually prefer to keep, which is a shame. Wonder if the strategy this year is to built a "best of" the (German) 2nd tier.

Got to give the big clubs every chance possible to hoover them up on the cheap...

Can't see him leaving the Portuguese top flight to play in the French non league.

Just another example of SR pissing about with Strikers and refusing to just stump up the required amount to get the deal done!!! And now look, gazumped by the dippers!! 😡

Whilst i understand the analogy, i would say offering Stephens that contract extension would be more akin to flushing a fishing lure and then reeling it back in...

For me, it implies THB is off if we sign another CB.

Current CBs: Bednarek ABK THB Edwards Quarshie Woods Sanda We clearly have too many cbs at the moment. My working assumption has always been that ABK and Bednarek will both be off, leaving us with 5. If bednarek doesn't leave then I think we have to assume that THB is off.

Keiran Maguire recently described QPR as the best run club in the championship - because they've been ticking a long with "f'all" spend. It seems pretty obvious Leicester have money issues given the delayed sacking of rvn, and the fact that the new manager has to pay his own release clause at QPR. He would be the perfect fit for a club who have no money to spend... Proven track record of delivering on a shoestring at this level. None of that paints a picture of Leicester being able to afford our players if we want to hold on to them.

Haven't kept up with him as the russian league has totally and utterly dropped off my radar. But about 2-3 years ago he was a fantastic player in the russian league a very good prospect for bigger things - he was certainly one of those I was expecting to have made the move to a champions league / top Europa league club. Encouraging if that is at least the standard of player we're looking at, even if it's a shame we won't be getting him.

The hate for him certainly feels misplaced. Was incredible for us in the last promotion season.

Thoughts on Stephens. At this stage of his career, i cannot see him improving to ever be good enough to become a starting premier league CB. I hope this is considered within the wage he has been offered (i.e., wage promotion clause is smaller than for others for example). If not, i really don't understand the contract extension. Stephens is a good enough player for the championship in fairness to him. From a dressing room perspective, he is a character, and he does love the club - those are positives. Since 2023/24 season, we've played under Jones, Selles, Martin, Juric, and Rusk. That is either managers that can't set up a team to defend if their lives depended on it, or (and - lets be honest) terrible sides - of which Stephens has played his part. But we've been unsettled at the back throughout that whole period and i'm willing to accept that may have coloured my overall view of him as a player. Will Still though, is another proposition. His defensive setup is resilient - most clean sheets in the league last season with Lens (13), and that was despite losing a host of key players throughout the team. He also likes aggression, shithousery, and they had the most red cards (8😬😅)... Stephens will probably fit like a well worn glove. This may also be good for Bazunu in some ways - in that we won't be playing suicide football right in front of his goal, and we'll likely be limiting chances for sudden turnovers etc which is where so many of our goals against have come in previous years.

How often does a league 1 club "walk" the championship. We scraped 2nd, Ipswich scraped 2nd.

What do you mean the cycnic in you? Its fucking obvious that this is how all these rules have been designed. Started with Uefa getting concerned at the power of the premier league, then you've got a bunch of foreign owners in this country that want to protect their assets and try to stay at the top table. Whether by design or opportunity, all the big clubs / owners across europe have in parallel devised a system that entrenches existing financial disparities between clubs and gives increased competitive weight to commercial incomes for established brands - they then set about introducing more and more competitions aimed at shuffling funds away to only the select few clubs that qualify for them (world club cup, rejigged champions league, conference league etc), and if an upstart club dares to challenge the elites by qualifying for these, PSR and the increased fixture congestion essentially ensures that they cannot build a team to compete on multiple fronts for that season - and so they then drop off in the league and then have to gut their squad to meet the arbitrary 3year spending limits. Its a fucking brutal fixed game - and there is no point even crying about it in the premier league - if British clubs don't comply with UEFA rules they can't play in europe. If you wanted to design a system that protected the established rich clubs and limited competition - it would look pretty similar to this. One day though, it will all come crashing down, because it is unsustainable, and they're killing the goose that was competitive exciting football.

I think its quite unlikely all will leave, but in reality i think its up in the air as to whether any of them go individually. I think there is a reasonable chance we can keep any one of them as individuals if the club really commits to it. Ramsdale will want the right move (by all accounts seems keen to stay other than he wants england football) - not all moves will give him that chance of an England call up, and we seem to be intent on offering him a very good wage. THB - A long contract time remaining, key player for us last time out in the champ, one for the future re development, and not clear he's going to have suitors above other relegation scrap sides. Fernandes - class player, but has featured heavily in PR material and gave that interview where he made all the right noises about staying. Long contract time remaining. Tyler - i think he's the most likely to leave tbh, his contract situation means the club are in a weak spot - if he doesn't sign a new one then all it needs is a couple of clubs to start making offers at the right kind of level and we'll basically be forced to accept the best one. Its also pure "profit" from a PSR perspective (big clubs got to make sure the rest of us are incentivised to sell off our best prospects). There is another dynamic to it - in that if we start selling our best players. the rest of them will get jealous over moves, feel like they're being left behind, worry about a lack of serious ambition etc., and ultimately want out. Whereas staying firm on key player sales will galvanise a lot of the dressing room and demonstrate commitment and ambition from the club. Can we afford it though? Perhaps a more realistic scenario is that we lose 2 (Ramsdale loan/sale, Dibling sale etc).

Not all heroes wear capes etc etc. Don't suppose you fancy starting a dedicated rumours thread and keeping it updated until the window slams shut? 😄