Ostrich

there are some similarities to how he left leicester first time around - he was back 18 months later with unfinished business once everyone realised the mistake

A real shame this - I genuinely thought when he joined this was a real opportunity for both parties. Nige would get the chance to really shape something again after a few difficult years and Bristol City might finally push on and stop being known as perenial underachievers - from the outside you always seemed a bit like Boro. Over the last couple of years, I've come to see it a little differently but still thought you could go places. Reading some things over the last couple of weeks I realised maybe there is just something in the water there, a determination to meddle and stop good things happening and when you piece it together with some of the other things I've read on here over the lat couple of years, it just suggests dysfunction (a dysfunction that got us relegated last year albeit in circumstances where someone was given too much time and loyalty). No surprise the players current and former also seem disappointed. The fact staff and players wanted to work with him again + the things said about him by Kasper et al shows the environment he will create with the right people on board. You all seem like a decent bunch so I wish you well with whoever comes in to build on what Nigel has done (albeit as with Birmingham, a part of me wants the decision makers to end up smeared in proverbial shit) and I wonder if that is it for Nigel - think he'd actually do well in the media and might be better for him with his health. I'm now interested to see how it transpires next - see you on March 29th.

Absolutely mad seeing Andy King at CB, given there was a time with us when he was the Championship Frank Lampard, actually thought he did alright though. Knight looks a useful little player for you. Thought it was a fair result really. Ipswich are having an unbelievable season tbf, any other year and they’re top. So direct and quick - was hoping you’d win tonight but with a small squad that’s got lots of injuries against a rested team that’s flying, it was a decent effort.

B*****n ******* R*****s

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I think there probably was that feeling through last season and certainly at the end. If we were currently performing as Southampton are then it would have carried over. Recent success possibly meant relegation felt about 10x worse sure and I doubt this season will ever feel as good as Nige’s promotion year. But now we’ve had a reset and we’ve got a new era starting so there’s excitement around where that can go. We know we’re probably not winning the PL again but there’s still the chance to go up, be competitive like Brighton rn, go on another European tour etc. Things we’ve done in the recent past were great but that doesn’t diminish the possibilities for the future.

Great reception for Nige, just as good if not better than when Ranieri first came back. It was tough like I expected - very solid defensively and great commitment to get back in, block shots etc. I also haven’t seen a team swarm us as well as you did first half. Well coached and resolute but just lacked quality to get up the pitch consistently. I was trying to compare it to Hull who were very similar in their stout defence. They were probably that touch braver which meant they got themselves a goal to defend but idk whether it was a lack of bravery vs the fine margins of Hull just managing to knit a few things together for a bit whereas you weren’t quite able to. Your making it difficult aside, I was a bit disappointed with us first half, letting ourselves down in key moments and it’s obvious we’ve still got plenty of improving to do - everything could be a bit crisper and bit more fluid. Better second half & again we make teams suffer so they tire. Although when you changed the press after Cornick came on we looked a little unsettled at times, I fully expected you’d wilt completely after the goal. I see another set of fans happy to give Vardy some stick but can’t back him giving any back. He’s done it for years to numerous fans and you love it when he’s yours. I remember you started well last season and fell off in the middle but that shouldn’t happen this year. Are goals the concern? Should be up around the top 10 and challenging for better but wonder if that will be what stops you?

Looking forward to seeing Nige back (plus James & King), hopefully in his shiny white trainers, will be disappointed if he’s ditched them. It will be the first time he’s brought a team back and the only other time he’s been publicly back was after the helicopter crash I think. Expect a typically tough Championship game like they’ve mostly been so far. In terms of fluency and authority, we’ve not yet hit the heights but the extra quality and the energy teams have to expend to match us have ended up deciding all the games apart from Southampton, hence we’ve scored so many after 75 mins. It’s a new idea of football for the squad so it’s been great to be getting results and building performances as we go. I expected a start similar to Southampton or Leeds. We lack a bit of pace at the back and that’s an obvious place to hurt us if you can get it right. That being said, you can see as the team gets more used to Enzo ball, it’s harder to get it right. We struggle a bit more down the left side which Rosenior noted and where Hull’s goal came from. I think the Hull game, they struggled first 10, came into it for a few mins as we struggled with the press and they got their goal. After that they played really well for 25 mins and then second half defended well, really narrow, threw their bodies at everything and got a win. Hull went man to man with us, as most temas have so far and I don’t think we quite know how to unlock it yet. But on the flip side, as I said, they tire and mostly we come out on top. Enough gets said about the squad quality and depth and some names seem to always be mentioned. But it is a joke that Harry Winks is playing in the Championship. Wish he’d stop getting yellow cards but he’s too good for this level. I mean now I’ve said that, Matty James will probably spend 90 mins giving him a masterclass himself ? Unfortunately, only really seen extended highlights of your game against Hull (how have you not won that) so not entirely sure what to expect but results have been ticking over nicely and we know what a Pearson team should be like. Fair play on selling out too, always adds to the game. It sure why we still give teams over 3k when we don’t need to and could sell it ourselves but should add to what I expect will be a competitive match.

There’s a big chunk of the reason. Man turns toxic as soon as things stop going his way and it infected the whole club. Then there’s the folk that let him keep cucking them until it was too late cos they didn’t believe relegation was possible. And then a group of players that also thought they were too good to go down and a subset who wanted out/thought they’d be leaving either way so didn’t give a stuff. Alas its done now, shouldn’t have happened and I think most of us are just glad for the refresh of pretty much everything. The start to the season, at least results wise, has been a welcome bonus.

Why do you think there’s any issue for us up to 22/23. I think the extension of the accounting period got Maddison into last year so we should be fine. Your calculations above suggest we’re likely fine if flying a little close. Villa report near enough 15m in youth development costs - imagine we’re looking at similar which shows how much adjustment probs needs making from headline figures.

Yes they seem to be applying the new UEFA rules because I’m pretty sure the Premier League hasn’t changed yet to come into line with them. I don’t doubt we needed to do something for existing PL rules but the complete lack of activity last summer from us seemed to be about coming in line with UEFA rules/getting us ready for a PL rule change. The reason this was believed was because before the UEFA rule change came about, there was talk about a big rebuild in the summer, then come pre-season after the full details had been released in April/May it very clearly changed. But it didn’t end well so I’m not sure Wolves need to worry about UEFA rules right now too much.

Maybe I spend too much time around fellow Leicester fans/reading what our fans say and you’d find many a happier funeral but I’m surprised so many of these predictions put us up at the top. I always think Southampton currently look stronger, they spent last couple of summers building a Championship squad. I don’t really see that the league is particularly strong and expect much of it to turn out to be dogshit which gives me some hope but right now we’ll at least be slow to start I think. We’re pissing around playing pub sides in Thailand ffs, week late on pre-season, fewer pre-season games, have no wide players, a lack of creativity, uncertainty over a ton of players that didn’t want to be here anyway, a relatively expensive CB injured for the first time in his career, a multi-season history of piling up injuries. We will see but there’s so much still to do in the transfer market in and out that I’ll have no idea on us until September

It’s just our fans being in denial and also just not getting it. I think what our fans aren’t getting is that there’s choices to be made about how we allocate our budget and that’s the FFP factor here - we could have signed Doyle permanently but that would mean not signing someone else etc. They spent all last summer in denial about it and that’s just going to be repeated this summer along with the smattering of people who think everyone but us is just ignoring it (an irony for one of few clubs to actually pay a penalty for breaking it). It’s clear we need outgoings to do what we want and need to do. That seems too slow atm.

It’s how they smoothed over the cash flow issue ever since we got promoted - there’s plenty of reasons why you would choose to finance it this way rather than yourself but also realise that in a downturn scenario you might have to step in. In that same time they have loaned 200m+ and converted most of it to equity. As I say they cover the working capital requirements too anyway, they could just extend that facility. Im not saying they will definitely step in to cover it but if they’re serious about ‘getting back’ and having said they’re not selling up despite some fans telling them to (sad but that’s football fans) it would make the most sense to if it’s needed because as you say it would be harder to refinance commercially now.

His performances announced it at least 18 months ago

The owners will probably end up refinancing it themselves by extending the existing facility they have to cover working capital needs to cover the Macquarie loan. I see, a bit of a falsehood has developed with this 19m a quarter that stemmed from a typically financially illiterate journo. 19m was the interest cost in the last accounts - a chunk of this was on loans from parent company (mostly for the training ground & Covid costs) which 194m were converted to equity in December. The Macquarie loan stands at 80m to be paid off until 2026 with 6.63% interest - last accounts interest cost on bank loans and overdrafts was 9m total. Not pretty but different to how it’s been reported. Not easy going down with such a huge wage bill, clearly will be helped by players being out of contract, clauses, Rodgers’ departure (was, after bonuses, on 10m a year himself) and still plenty of sellable assets but the wage bill being so high in the first place and the sleepwalk to relegation over the last 12 months doesn’t give many Leicester fans too much hope that they’ll make the calls to put us in a position to go back up. If we don’t go straight back up I’m sure there’s big problems on the horizon.

Championship seasons are a lot more interesting when you’re not involved in them. This one looks pretty grim

Performances weren't terrible in that we weren't ever being beaten comfortably like many teams that sit at the bottom of the league, we were often in games and losing by a goal, I don't think we ever lost by more than 2 that season. But I can't remember if the narrative at the time was that performances were good and we were unfortunate or if that came afterwards - even if it was at the time I think it was a bit of copium. Would you think the run of results below was really being unfortunate despite good performances? Palace 2-0 Leicester Leicester 2-2 Burnley Newcastle 1-0 Leicester Leicester 0-1 WBA Southampton 2-0 Leicester Leicester 0-0 Sunderland QPR 3-2 Leicester Between the Burnley game listed above and going to Anfield on NYD, we scored 6 goals in 11 games, 2 of which came against QPR who ended up bottom and conceding 73 goals.Maybe performances improved just before results (Arsenal away for example) improved but the winter was pretty bleak for me apart from when we played Liverpool on NYD. Winning 2 in 24 or whatever it was, can't just be put down to being unfortunate despite good performances. A change in formation was key to the change around & and it's often rumoured that Cambiasso sort of grabbed everyone by the scruff of the neck to pull it around. A bit of good fortune was necessary and then momentum took over. Bottom line for me is that you can talk about the odd performance meriting more but over time you get what you trend to what you deserve so it's a bit desperate. Not saying Expected Points based on xG is ideal but it seems you've slightly underperformed what you'd expect. Having not seen the games, I lack the necessary context to put xG number in. However, looking at the original tweet, and using just raw numbers there's only really the Stoke game you can make a case for. 0.5xG v 0.1xG in your game against Watford doesn't appear a game you deserved to win and doesn't read as a good performance. In fact, it appears like an atrocious game of football for which both teams should be deducted 10 points for crimes against football.

What went wrong? Last time I was on here you were doing well after about 8 games and I remember watching you and thinking you were probably going to be a solid top half team. Now Cov are flying and you’re looking in a bit of a pickle and I’m thinking Nige has bitten of more than he can chew and if he can’t sort it out he might be done as a manager.

No it is on the balance sheet and being Depreciated as you would expect. This is what happens when you balloon your wages to near enough 100% of turnover and then have an amortisation charge of 80m on top. In years past, player trading profit has made it respectable but we sold nobody last year. Though when you download the report, it’s clear it’s likely an overestimate. John Percy, usually the only decent journo source for us, has suggested the loss will be a much more healthy 90m?

Yes. If he was out of work and they needed an interim, then they might go back there (like Watford did), but that's not going to be the case. It's 8 games into the Championship season, having finished 17th last year - anyone who is slightly in the loop or looks at this forum will know there's reasons for that but it's not quite what gets you a Premier League job at a club that, at least longer term, still aims to challenge a bit further up even if we're not going to be doing that this year. I think there's also question marks over his PL record too. The relationship is there still that makes it a possibility which it wouldn't be for anyone else in the league, it'd also probably be quite cheap and I'm not sure of the viable alternatives. I think Rodgers is here much longer than the fans hope.

Depends on the individual - if you value the project, seeing things through, and not upsetting the apple cart once you're in the groove then stick with it. I do think that is Pearson. Certainly think as his years progress with not perfect health, he will value things other than climbing the ladder so to speak. The only question is whether he thinks he has unfinished business again. Immaterial because I doubt he'd be under consideration anyway.

The West Ham goal is an awful decision - it makes no sense as a decision, it makes even less sense as a decision based on the PL's high bar, it makes no sense for VAR to be used like that.

What's interesting about our fans and Pearson, and I say this as someone who would swap Rodgers for Pearson in a heartbeat, is many of them seem to be forgetting that exactly what they say about Rodgers now is what they were saying about Pearson at times after he came back in 11/12 and certainly when we collapsed in the second half of 12/13 - they certainly weren't saying "you just knew they were going to turn up week in week out and give absolutely everything" after Barnsley away that year for example. The tendency of selective memory.

I don't think he's a serious contender, no. Clearly he's working with severe constraints and has helped shift the mentality in and around your club but it's 8 games of a Championship season, which isn't really going to get a club that still thinks it has ambitions of something much loftier to take note even with the past in mind. Misty-eyed fans will want Pearson back for nostalgia (and because almost anyone but Rodgers seems attractive rn) but I doubt the club would think like that. I think Rodgers gets longer than fans think he will and certainly hope he will (he's had too long as it is). The club has lost its way (I say this not as a proper itk but with greater inside insight of what's gone on than most fans), Rodgers bares the brunt of it but others should be taking on parts of that and given Nige was instrumental in setting up the good stuff in the first place, him coming back to knock some heads together would be great but as I say I'm sure that's not what the club is thinking. That he came back to work at Leuven suggests he would take it, the only reason he wouldn't would have been because how it ended in 2015 (clearly that's fine now) or at Leuven (well he got far longer than he should have and he knows that). But then if he thinks he's on to a good thing and he's in a good place, why would he want to alter that?