BristolFox

I think the women’s team costs were quoted at close to £5 million for 2022, so you can imagine a full blown youth academy could invite annual costs of anywhere between £10 - £20 million with creative accounting. The club still owns its previous training ground which the women currently use I believe, so potentially a further saleable asset and get out of jail card if needed? It doesn’t, however own the stadium directly - that’s on Hire Purchase via King Power according to the accounts - but that at least show they know that trick They may even be banking on promotion so that they can immediately bring forward the Prem TV monies via Macquaire before the reporting period ends. Other potential income - beating Chelsea in the Quarters would be worth a few million and there’s a tribunal for the young lad that went to Liverpool which would be pure transfer profit - so there’s income scope but I bet the club would have had liked more dead wood off the books to be sure.

You make some interesting posts @Mr Popodopolous. As a Leicester fan that’s been studying the clubs accounts I thought I’d add some spots of my own. The May 2021 accounts quoted covid losses of £50 million across the two related years in question. Now I believe for those two years the Premier League accepted average losses for the overall reporting AND allowed the Covid losses as additional to the £105 limit? I therefore believe there may be a chunk of around £35 million of ‘allowable’ Covid losses still in play for the 22/23 PS&R calculation. There may also be infrastructure spending (Seagrave training complex) of around £25 million alongside spend on the woman’s team and Youth Academy - which along with the Forfana transfer fee - would probably prove enough to stay within limits for that 3-year reporting period. BUT - I do suspect the club is very tight with the 23/24 PS&R calculation given that the 2021 year drops off, whilst the heavy £92m loss year remains, plus reduced overall limit and Championship level income. That said - Leicester are a regular user of Macquaire to expensively bring forward funds due to it and it’s notable the relating loan charge for the Maddison transfer was placed in September 2023, potentially placing those funds within the 23/24 accounting year.

I know all about Crayon boy, I’ve seen the memes I was just trying to give you a semblance of hope, because I can feel things are pretty shit right now.

Back when I was playing the role of a student journalist, I remember being in a press conference with Gary Monk when he was Middlesbrough manager just prior to getting sacked. Now you could tell he knew he was getting sacked because his answers lacked energy or any form of belief - he was beaten. Watching that Manning interview, he came across in a similar vein - that’s not good. Can’t imagine what the feeling will be like on the 2-3 hour coach journey back / training tomorrow morning.

Thanks As a side, I was intrigued to see who Manning had alongside him as coaches and it is worrying for you guys. There is no significant grade of playing or coaching experience across them. The guy you got from Arsenal never played it seems, I don’t think Manning played much, so it’s only your GK coach that played in Europe for Barry Town that’s had anything near high level ! So you’ve gone from older ex-pro’s that have seen it, done it, won stuff… to guys fresh out of college, in what is probably the most competitive league there is - so in fairness Manning probably has done ok, but he’s been chucked in the deep end, but he’s going to need some help and quickly.

You should be worried. It’s not only Manning that lacks in experience (didn’t play much at any level), his coaching team lack it too. The comparison of the current setup compared to the likes of solid ex-pro’s like Jason Euell and Curtis Woodhouse who have seen and done it at this level is stark! I take it you at least still have Andy King there?!?

Leicester fan (originally from Bristol) so had a great interest in what’s happened with Pearson and felt the need to pass on my condolences for what a shitty decision your board has made (not the first one either, huh). Now I think there’s a couple of obvious points to make here as to why this has gone badly so far. In terms of Pearson’s style of management, he tends to build a family type atmosphere, with the project not just being about him, but about his coaches, the players, the fans all being as one - almost making him like a father figure (and I have no doubt that is why a lot of you liked him despite treading water in terms of league position for 3 seasons running). Now I don’t know much about Manning, but he is certainly a lot younger and nowhere near as imposing in terms of character when compared to Pearson, so that is straight away a big and unbalancing change to have in the dressing room (especially as Pearson has always been very shrewd when it comes to appointing his coaches and some of those left too). But that aside, Manning was doing alright at Oxford, did ok at MK too and got a great result in his first game for you against the Boro, so I figured ok - maybe he’ll do alright with you. However, alarm bells did start to chime when I heard about Manning’s desire to shift in style of play, because whilst it’s commendable to want to play progressive passing football - if you had the calibre of players to pull that off it’s unlikely Manning would have been getting the job in the first place (you’d have attracted much more experienced and qualified managers to the job). Add in the fact it is mid-season (where training time is scarce) and you had god knows how many players out injured to begin with anyway, trying to make changes to a style of play that clearly requires a lot of coaching before you’ve even had time to asses your squad, seems silly. To properly pull that off and embed the team structure, the patterns of play, the way you want to press, how you want to defend, etc, etc, etc - you need a pre-season. It’s not something that can be done in 3/4 training sessions inbetween playing 2 to 3 games in a week. This is the worst point in the season to try and pull something like that off. There’s a reason chairman hit the Allardyce button when a season becomes desperate! So in summary (TL/DL) • The board has compounded it’s bad decision in sacking a manager that seemed to have the players on board by appointing a manager with such a stark deficit in character. • Manning has then added to this issue by attempting to change to a footballing philosophy he doesn’t have the coaching time to implement. One final point Pearson had two spells with us. He got unfairly treated when booted out for Sven BUT our owners clearly realised they had made a mistake and he came back - and that was the beginning of the fairy tail, so who knows… but you would probably need to get rid of Tinnion first!