Of course you are on a pedestal to be knocked off; you've spent big! I don't personally see a problem with it so long as you're owners can afford it. I actually popped over here to ask you a little about you're money men after you've been splashing the cash; who are they and what is their background? Obviously it could go either way for you on the pitch this season. I think you'll be up there, my prediction is play-offs and we both know they're a lottery! We took a lot of **** for signing Bellamy last season (from fans and pundits), but at the end of the day it doesn't matter what anybody says/thinks. Looking forward to playing you guys this season, been some of the best games over the last two years!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Power I think that they say the companies worth is about £4bn Leicester's actually owned by Thai-led consortia named Asian Football Investments (AFI) lead by Vichai Raksriaksorn (personal worth 180m) who is owner of King Power and Chaiman at LCFC Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn (son) is Vice Chairman of LCFC. Im hoping that this will be the difference between us and big spending failing clubs, the consortium already have the money, they wont need to take out loans to keep Leicester afloat. Lots of pressure, but Svens the right manager to deal with it, i think a top 6 finish is the minimum the owners want, but with this amount of spending, most supporters (LCFC and other) expect an automatic place, but you never know in football!
Hey, wel basically they own a airport n advertise us to the whole of thai football n airport. They also own the thai football league. Milan mandaric made the smartest move in our history! We are Real milionairz and have tvz at the kpstadium with a view to make it 50,000. They want us in the prem so were going big. Its all thanks to our ambitious ownerz
Thanks! Sounds impressive and it's good that they've already got the cash. However, do you know if the money being spent is becoming a liability on the club's balance sheet in the way of directors loans? The situation sounds fairly similar to our situation at the moment with our Malaysian backers, although clearly they are less willing to put their hands in their pockets at the moment! Either way, it should be an exciting season for you guys!
No loans involved Ninian, all cash invested by the owners. It has been specifically stipulated by our new CEO that 'all debt is being completely absorbed by the owners'. I think this is what some of the media are struggling to understand (or haven't bothered to check out).
Na, they have made it clear its a long term plan and Aiyawatt actually suggested bringing in premleague playerz simply on the basis of logic. Ye timez are great for us. Weve earnt everythin we have lcfc has alwayz been a 5 star club in wembley history. P.s nugent will prove vital at critical timez
Burley is obviously a bitter cynic. He thinks Sven is only following the money - which he does to an extent - but nobody would touch him if he couldn't do the job. The comment Sven made about it not being fair to sign Prem was misconstrued. Sven does at times ramble on incoherently a little, but he said himself it was difficult to get Prem players into the Championship - there was no need for Burley to ram the message home. This just reminded me of a school bully picking on a a foreign kid for speaking broken English! Claridge on the otherhand, changes with the wind. This is even stated on the problem, when back in February, he said we would go up, then a few weeks later said we had no chance. He is said we spend too much last season and failed to get promoted - presumably he's referring to loan wages as I can't think of any big money signings. He of course forgot to mention that we had the disastrous Sousa for 1/4 of the season. Then he is criticising the signings we have made this summer. A list was read out - but of course, only the Mills price tag was mentioned. No mention of the free signings. If Liverpool had signed Mills for £5, no-one would bat an eyelid. He refuses to back us on the odds that were given, but Steveo, why do I think if we top of the league for most of the season your opinion will change? Overall, Burley and Claridge came across as being ill informed of the situation. The owners are using their money - if things go tits up, it'll be there loss, not the clubs. Claridge thinks things should be like the O'Neill days, when he put together teams with next to no funds, but things have changed - Just look at QPR. And don't go on about Blackpool - they sneaked in through the back door and got relegated in their first season - hardly a major achievement. I like to think Claridge's tirade come from concern for his beloved ex-club, but concern emanating from misunderstanding of the situation.
Hes just jealous that he wasn't on the new investors wages when he was here Aiyawatt has said in how Claridges goal at Wembley was his first experience at a football match, so in some ways we haveto thank Steve for getting him interested in Leicester
Just listened to it, according to Claridge we signed Bendtner last season so I wouldn't take him too seriously. So basically they're just 'not convinced by Sven'. Fine if they feel that way but they don't really give any evidence as to why. They haven't really slated any of the signings, just the fees, which isn't a concern for us, they haven't said to why he doesn't convince them, they haven't really said anything. Theyve just whinged that we've spent money. Why is that a bad thing? They're just poor pundits who don't really know what they think or why they think it. They may as well be any of the opposition fans that have spoken about us this summer. They 'just have a feeling' that we'l 'crash and burn' without any real reasoning. We're making good progress in the transfer market, we are short in a couple of areas at this moment in timee but Sven is clearly trying to rectify them. If Sven was bringing in nobodies for cheap prices like Claridge and Burley want him to do I'd be absolutely bricking it now. If he was just bringing in loans I'd be disappointed. But we've got money and Sven is spending it on either good Championship players who are at their peak, or young up and coming players who have something to prove and are around the time that they will start to develop all the way. I must finish this by saying Craig Burley is an utter ****, all he does is talk **** and snobbishly take the piss out of people in the game. Horrible guy. **** the haters, we know we've got a good thing going here and if it all goes wrong and we get relegated so be it. I know I'd rather be in our shoes than any others' in the Championship right now. UP THE FOXES
Lets face it, Chelsea, Man City and QPR last season, no-one likes it when a club gets a glut of cash and they start flashing their nobs about in public by writing checks, we will be unpopular this season for the same reason. Everyone wants us to fail because it will make us look stupid and prove that their is still "romance" left in the game and that "you can't just buy a team, it takes time and good management". My answer to that would be Sven is a proven manager, having won titles and plaudits all over the world and he spent last season looking carefully at his squad and has identified the weaknesses and is attempting to build around the talent we already have eg: King, Wellens, Gallagher etc. Claridge went wax lyrical about QPR's ambition last season and it worked for them, it's just nay saying by so called experts because they want to look like they know what they are talking about and justify their jobs. Truth is, anything can happen in football, the poorest team can pull together and punch above their weight, Blackpool for example. Nothing is guaranteed, neither our promotion nor some pundits saying we will crash and burn.
I haven't heard the piece they did on us so can't comment on the precise comments. But from what I've read on this thread, it appears they've just fallen into the ignorance trap that WUMS and the Murdoch press have done/will do. It's funny that when ever someone mentions 'foreign takeovers', the automatic assumption is that they will fail like Pompey, Notts, Liverpool (H+G), QPR and to an extent Blackburn. Yet there have been lots of very successful takeovers from foreign firms - Man City, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Fulham and I'd even argue Birmingham. The added bonus we have is that it is a BUSINESS that has taken us over, not an oil barron or a consortia of unknown princes; our owners are real, are credible and are here for the long-term. As for remarks about Sven 'not being up for it' - utterly ridiculous. Sven is one of the most successful managers of the last 30 years, he has won trophies across the globe, the man built dynasties in Italy and would've done at Man City if he hadn't been improperly sacked. Sven also did a very good job at England - not brilliant I'll admit, but compare his record to the two managers before him and the two since him and you'll see his record is far more impressive. 'Super' Steve Claridge was a good player for us who scored two of our most important goals - he is, however, a truly awful pundit. Anyone who listens to his guff on TFLS will retify this. He is appalling. I respect him for what he did at the club and for being a decent enough footballer, but his pundit 'skills' are on a par with Goodman and Redknapp and should be treated as such. I know nothing about Burley as a pundit, but if he lives up to the thick Scot stereotype as well as Brazil and Gray do, then again his opinions are irrelevant to me. (I also note that the BBC has been told it has to be more 'right-wing' - maybe their OTT comments about us, mixed with some mild xenophobia about Sven is part of their new reactionary position? I'm surprised they didn't say our new chief exec. couldn't do the job because she 'doesn't understand business' and that he breasts would get in the way....) One last point; let's be under no illusions here, everybody will want us to fail; rivals, neutrals, pundits and commentators. They want to see Sven, Top, KP and ourselves fall flat on our face. They would be absolutely delighted if we were to fail this season. But do you remember those cold, lonely days in League One? When nobody gave a toss about us, when our match reports were two inch by three inch, when The Championship showed 22 seconds worth of our matches, when the only WUM around was Waccoe? Nobody showed one iota of interest in us. And now? We're talk of the league. Embrace it folks, it might not last long
I think the criticism comes from the fact that you've spent a lot of money, but not got a lot for it, ironically, your best signing was on a free. Danns is a good signing, Mills is a good player but never worth £5m, Schmeichel is a good shot stopper, but the rest of his game is ****, St.Legder is not as good as the player he's replaced, Nugent was brilliant for Preston five years ago, but has done **** all since, Peltier looked all right in League One, but he looked way out of his depth playing for us in the Championship and Konchesky just had a nightmare season, though he was decent before and probably will be again. The players you've signed aren't bad, but they're not great either and you're overpaying for them, I'm not surprised Sven's decisions are being questioned. I think we've made better signings and we've only spent £1.6m and all on players on half the wages of those you're signing. I think you'll be top six, but I don't think you'll get an automatic spot, though you never know, Sven might get to spend another £10m to spend next week.
I think we are signing the right players tbh, players that want to play in the Prem next season who will give 100% Cant say all our signings are of 1 type either, we have players from all backgrounds, prem players (Konchesky), league 1 players (Peltier), and the rest are proven championship quality. And before you say, yes, we are aware that Schmichaels only had 1 suspect season and St Ledger got relegated at PNE.
