General Football Thread

Was just about to post this:

 

Sounds like it might be true.

 

Club statement:
http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/20...and-claudio-ranieri-part-company-3591441.aspx

 

That's stupidly harsh and pretty out of order.

 

everything that is wrong with football in these modern times!, i think if you offered any football club the chance to be champions one season and get relegated the next season most would take it. Life is about excitement and thrills and living on the edge, it works at both ends of the scale the ups and the downs. Being greatful is the most important thing, greed is definitely not!

 

But when do you give someone the boot? Their results have been terrible for a while, he is showing no sign of turning it around. Relegation is starting to look like a very real threat. They have plenty enough talent in their squad to not be where they are. Can they, Leicester get a better gaffer? Unlikely but they're throwing the dice knowing they'll get little sympathy from the neutrals but could get a lift from their new gaffer bounce. Delia et all leave it too late everytime, I'm not going to Criticise a board that make a tough decision that they think will/could save then from relegation.

Bah!

 

GM i tried to apply this train of thought before posting but i just couldnt find any similarities in our clubs two situations, LCFC massively over achieved last season, they have one of the top managers of europe who IMO would get them over the line and avoid relegation and more so maybe even get them in the champions league quarters (who could have dreamt this scenario from the season before last?). Even if he didnt i dont think anyone is to blame, they are feeling a massive hang over from last years high, we see it all to often when small clubs win big the following season is a failure.

I hear what your saying about cutting the dead wood loose when it comes to it, im not one to hold back on what needs to be done and assertiveness and timing is critical in running a business but in this case i think LCFC setup is as good as it can be, from top to bottom and they could easily rebuild next season. In our case we have been suffering this merry go round for many many seasons, our problem is from our board room who are not going to sack themselves, its a massive gamble to upset such a near perfect setup which i fail to see how they could improve. In our case i dont think there is so much at stake and likely would improve our situation.

 

Spurs manager to give Gent a vital away goal, without them having a shot on target.

Now that's impressive!

 

Perfect set ups don't continue to lose as they currently are. This is the classic situ where outsiders all express surprise and disgust at their actions but a large number of the Leicester fans probably are glad or supportive of the decision. There's a couplease at my work and they have talked of the growing unrest. Because of last season they find it hard to say they want rid, But they were wondering if it was time.


Bah!

 

That decision is so darn cynical. Claudio deserved and earned the right to manage Leicester at least through the Champions League.

 

I've just got in and read the news and I have to say that I'm pretty shocked. I would have liked to have seen him given until the end of the season, but obviously the owner decided otherwise.
As has been said before, money is ruining football.

 

I heard a LCFC fan on radio 5 last night and he said the Thai owners paid off circa £100m of debt when they first took over the club. Obviously their generosity and belief was repaid (ten, twentyfold!) last season in the most unlikely title race for years and they were absolutely delighted.
However, the prospect of 'doing a Norwich', (my words, not the Leicester fan's) and getting relegated, with the pro-rata decrease in revenues as a result was not part of their business model so they felt compelled to act while they still see a chance to salvage the season.
(Shame our gutless lot didn't take similar action to get shot of Hughton
earlier and let the 'scouring' begin with more than 5 games left!)
Don't forget the club are 1 place and 1 point outside the dreaded dotted line
No room for sentiment - however well deserved, in business it seems.
Money talks, as JM said above.

 

I'm looking forward to reading RBF's comments

 

And his first match in charge is against the.......Canaries. (Hitchin Town for the uninitiated).

 

The way i see it is there is not to much wrong at the club, their fans seems to be conveniently forgetting the champions league run which is by no means over yet, the players seem to have some mental hangup on the PL as they can perform in europe. It comes across that LCFC fans now think they have a god given right to be competing at the top end of PL as do the owners (one swallow doesnt make a summer), i dont see them as anything more than bottom half premiership team at best which is exactly where they are right now. From the top down they have a great set up (NEAR perfect), right now the players are not playing which is similar to our bad run, a couple of extra players and a change of tactics with a little time would have corrected this imo.

I can fully understand their reasoning its a gamble to risk going down, but imo its a greater gamble to change managers and as you said before what half decent managers are available right now? I dont undertsand that they have now had to pay off CR why didnt they invest that in a couple of decent players in the transfer window? This sounds more like business mismanagement and poor timing, its a massive gamble imo. I guess we will find out soon enough which of the stick or twist scenario was the right option..

 

Agree with you about seeing the CL campaign out, but is it that cynical?
Any manager is only as good as his current season / set of results and Ranieri's, in the league have been catastrophic lately. It does seem incredibly harsh on the surface, but if I'd invested the sort of money these Thai owners have, I'd want to try and protect my 'investment' at any cost and if that means adios, Claudio, then so be it.
Our clowns would do well to learn from it, as to lurch repeatedly from peak to trough (more the latter under Neil) is surely unacceptable and unsustainable long-term?
It would be if I had anything to do with club affairs.

 

Holty scoring in the Edinburgh derby this week, he's travelling to Norwich straight after Hibernian's match against Dunfermline Saturday by car
(KO 5:15PM), attending the Norwich v Ipswich game Sunday, then travelling back straight after so he doesn't miss training Monday morning.

Wouldn't surprise me if he also laid a few bricks and did a bit of plumbing before turning up on time for training and he certainly won't be complaining to his manager that he's tired you can guarantee that !

Raheem Sterling take note

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