They're talking about us

[pork pie fox]

Almost definitely. If we don't, some woke bastard will come along and point out how badly we've affected DW's mental health and probably sue 30,000 people for 'deformation of character'

He's deformed now? ****, we really have damaged him.

 

[HFox]

It's like a repeating story this club.

There are similarities to the culture that Vichai first built when he let Sven build a team high on arrogance and wages but little on effort. Nige saw it and was afforded time to rid the club of the bad eggs.

Remains to be seen if RvN or anyone can do similar.

The difference this time is that the now chairman is very friendly with a number of the squad.

 

[Blue Maniac]

WTF?

Yank name for Chicken Licken

 

[homer]

The interesting thing about all this is how heavily anti-club, anti-Rudkin and even anti-Ruud stories are being leaked from the inside

Somebody isn’t happy….

 

[Feidlimid]

We're a club in turmoil. Never a good time for such a thing but it's certainly not what we need right now.

Let's hope Cody's words are more than just that and this smashing bunch of lads are all together. The task ahead is hard enough without them all becoming bed wetters.

 

[Miles Away]

Here’s the whole thing in case it’s behind a paywall:​

​

Leicester locked in cycle of turmoil as Ruud van Nistelrooy fights drift to relegation​

Dressing-room dissension and fan unrest have left under-fire Dutchman cornered as he tries to avoid spectre of relegation​

John Percy24 January 2025 8:34am GMT

Ruud van Nistelrooy is struggling to arrest Leicester’s losing spiral Credit: Getty Images/Plumb Images
As a Premier League great and one of the finest Dutch players of his era, Ruud van Nistelrooy will have known that his name would open doors in management. But Leicester City are proving a very tricky assignment.

As a relatively untried manager, Van Nistelrooy had never lost seven league matches in a row until now and his club’s alarming sequence may get even worse over the next few weeks. Welcome to the world of Leicester, where nothing seems to change but the manager – or, more recently, the division the club operates in.

After an unprecedented period as a stable Premier League club, Leicester now appear locked in permanent crisis. Supporters have been frustrated for years, and that anger is now reaching boiling point as the club slide towards a possible second relegation in three seasons.

Pressure is building, and after last weekend’s home defeat by Fulham there were heated confrontations in the dressing room between Van Nistelrooy and some players.

Outside of Leicester, many observers accuse the club’s supporters of being entitled and living off the back of previous successes. However, those Leicester fans feel the club is gripped by a malaise, from the hierarchy down. The disconnect between those supporters and the players continues to widen, as Van Nistelrooy struggles to pick up results.

The bleak reality is that even if Van Nistelrooy was to be sacked next week it would make little difference. Leicester’s issues run far deeper.

It is now the club’s ownership who are under scrutiny, with chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha and director of football Jon Rudkin the two key figures in the spotlight.

Jon Rudkin (left) and club chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha have distanced themselves from the media and supporters Credit: Getty Images/Michael Regan
Srivaddhanaprabha and Rudkin have a close relationship and neither have spoken publicly to UK media since the 2015-16 season, when Leicester stunned the world by winning the league.

Since the summer of 2021, when Leicester spent more than £50 million on signings and veered away from the club’s model of selling a star player, the decline has been gradual and painful.

Average players have earned lucrative contracts and become almost impossible to move on. One player who was not a regular starter saw his salary rise to £100,000 a week from around £70,000, following promotion from the Championship.
Players appear comfortable and unchallenged, with some allegedly having a direct line to Srivaddhanaprabha. This is a club which allows at least two first-team players to commute every day from over 90 miles away.

In late November, some players were filmed enjoying their Christmas party in Copenhagen on the same day they had lost 2-1 to Chelsea – and this is threatening to become the image of the season. A perceived lack of accountability has riled the fanbase even further, as questions over strategy and direction go unanswered.

On the long list of questions, here are a few of the most pertinent:

• How worrying is the financial situation, as the club battle to comply with profitability and sustainability rules?
• Did an internal review into Leicester’s relegation to the Championship in 2023 ever happen?
• Does Rudkin oversee player contracts and recruitment? What is his exact role as director of football?

Sections of the media, including the Daily Telegraph, have made frequent requests to speak to either Rudkin or Susan Whelan, the club’s chief executive, for many years.

Nothing has ever materialised at what is a very private club. It creates a vacuum and then a situation where Leicester’s senior officials feel they are unfairly criticised for decisions that do not come under their remit.

Leicester insist the club’s set-up is collaborative and relies on many different departments, but beyond that there is little knowledge made public.

Their stance is that actions speak louder than words. The club never spoke publicly when winning the league and FA Cup, so why change now?

Paying for challenging ‘Big Six’​

There is acknowledgement that Leicester may now be paying the price for daring to show ambition by challenging the ‘Big Six’.

Spending high on wages and signings, the vision was to annually compete in Europe and become contenders to at least challenge for a title again.

Faced with the vast resources and commercial revenue of their rivals, Leicester have had a bump back to reality. Many supporters, however, allege that mismanagement is the reason behind the club’s current cycle of errors.

With this as the backdrop, Van Nistelrooy is scrapping to pull Leicester out of the bottom three.

Van Nistelrooy is facing an uphill struggle to steer his side away from relegation trouble Credit: PA/Mike Egerton
It already appears a grim situation for the legendary striker, who faced the first signs of mutiny from supporters during the home defeat by Fulham last weekend. This is a man who arrived in late November with his reputation bolstered after an impressive four-game spell as caretaker at Manchester United – which included beating Leicester twice.

Interviewed yet overlooked by Norwich and Birmingham last summer, Van Nistelrooy excelled in talks with Srivaddhanaprabha and Rudkin in Knightsbridge. Despite offers from other clubs at that time, including Hamburg, Leicester was his No 1 choice.

Following his appointment, he quickly imposed his own rules by introducing a new match-day routine for home games where players would meet at the training ground before travelling to King Power Stadium for a pre-match meal.

Personable and down to earth, despite that stellar career as a player, he has also been blunt with his squad.

‘There are no Christmas presents at Leicester City’​

For the FA Cup game against QPR this month, he opted not to select many fringe players. Some of those came to him privately to ask why they were not in the team. At a subsequent squad meeting he allegedly explained: “there are no Christmas presents at Leicester City.”

Some of those team selections in other matches have not had the desired effect. Goalkeeper Danny Ward was picked against Wolves and then endured a nightmare afternoon, asking Van Nistelrooy if he could be taken out of the firing line.

Conor Coady, an England international, has been in and out. Van Nistelrooy has stuck with Jannik Vestergaard despite major concerns about the Dane’s suitability for the league, and previous fall-outs with Brendan Rodgers and Steve Cooper.

Most surprising is perhaps the lack of recent starts for Facundo Buonanotte, the Brighton loanee and arguably Leicester’s best player this season.

After the Fulham defeat, Van Nistelrooy clashed with Buonanotte over his performance as a substitute but the most alarming row was with defender Caleb Okoli, who did not play at all.

It is understood that Van Nistelrooy turned on Okoli, a £13 million summer signing from Atalanta, over his choice of football boots and insisted they made him frequently slip over.

Okoli was so stunned by the confrontation that he demanded a meeting with Rudkin and now appears certain to leave before the window closes.

After a falling out with Van Nistelrooy, Caleb Okoli is not expected to stay at Leicester this month Credit: Getty Images/Plumb Images
Now 48, Van Nistelrooy’s management career may only have started quite recently but so far it has been a smooth ride, after relative success with PSV Eindhoven.

Indeed, he has not lost seven consecutive matches since the start of his playing career in the Netherlands with Den Bosch, in an abysmal 1994-95 season.

This is a new experience for Van Nistelrooy. Financial restrictions ensured he has only been able to bring in a few members of backroom staff. One of them, Brian Barry-Murphy, is a former manager but it is first-team coach Ben Dawson who takes most of the daily training sessions.

Van Nistelrooy started with a win over West Ham and then a dramatic draw with Brighton, but results have been steadily getting worse. The crowd turned during last weekend’s home defeat by Fulham, when he took off £19.5 million summer signing Bilal El Khannouss.

The substitution of Bilal El Khannouss against Fulham caused outrage among fans Credit: Reuters/David Klein
The Moroccan international has been the standout permanent signing, after another iffy summer of recruitment.

Despite those financial issues, Leicester still spent almost £35 million on Oliver Skipp and Okoli, who have barely figured in recent weeks.

Odsonne Édouard was also signed on loan from Crystal Palace in a deal which has proved a disaster. The Frenchman has not appeared since November 10 and Leicester are relying on other clubs to take him off their hands and free up another loan spot.

So far in January, Leicester have signed right-back Woyo Coulibaly for just under £2 million from Parma. A winger on loan is the next target, and Leicester’s funds could be boosted slightly by the £10 million sale of striker Tom Cannon to Sheffield United on Thursday.

Protests planned ahead of tough schedule​

Leicester face a tough upcoming run of games. With two away matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, they then travel to United in the FA Cup before facing Arsenal at home.

Protests are planned against the board before the visit of Arsenal.

Regardless of all the issues, Leicester were always likely to struggle this year. Finishing 17th at the end of a season of transition would be regarded as a success.

With these financial restrictions, we may never get to know how good Van Nistelrooy is in the next chapter of his career. Whoever the manager is, the club appears to be drifting – quietly – towards another Championship return.

 

[Miles Away]

The Danny Ward thing is remarkable. His contract should be paid up and he should be sent home.

 

[HFox]

The interesting thing about all this is how heavily anti-club, anti-Rudkin and even anti-Ruud stories are being leaked from the inside

Somebody isn’t happy….

The TV Series Succession is returning and based on LCFC

 

[Fox Fan]

The interesting thing about all this is how heavily anti-club, anti-Rudkin and even anti-Ruud stories are being leaked from the inside

Somebody isn’t happy….

And who has always been an excellent source for Percy, recently received a puff piece praising him and has a wife known for leaking stuff to the papers...

 

[SilverFox]

We are a ****ing mess. In a perfect world Ruud goes and no one takes the manager job forcing Rudkin to face the fire.

 

[SilverFox]

Okoli having a shit fit over his boots, going all Karen, and asking to speak to upper management is very funny indeed.

 

[Leigh]

'It creates a vacuum and then a situation where Leicester’s senior officials feel they are unfairly criticised for decisions that do not come under their remit.'

This bit surely points towards the source or one of the sources at least.

 

[Brown Nose]

'It creates a vacuum and then a situation where Leicester’s senior officials feel they are unfairly criticised for decisions that do not come under their remit.'

This bit surely points towards the source or one of the sources at least.

I've thought for a while that Whelan is a source for journalists.

 

[LoopisDeLupis]

I've thought for a while that Whelan is a source for journalists.

Well she sure as shit isn't a source for fans so she must be talking to someone

 

[Miles Away]

And who has always been an excellent source for Percy, recently received a puff piece praising him and has a wife known for leaking stuff to the papers...

Vards?

 

[Feidlimid]

Yank name for Chicken Licken

Elsewhere too. So many names.

 

[Feidlimid]

It is understood that Van Nistelrooy turned on Okoli, a £13 million summer signing from Atalanta, over his choice of football boots and insisted they made him frequently slip over.

Okoli was so stunned by the confrontation that he demanded a meeting with Rudkin and now appears certain to leave before the window closes.

Okali has called "fake news"

So henny penny turkey lurkey is all for nothing.... which is kinda apt. It was not even an acorn all along.

 

[popillius]

There seems to be a lot of people who are eager to believe (and get fairly cross about) everything they read in spurious newspaper articles by journalists who needs to make cash by writing things that may garner attention.

Given what we know about journalists and how they have behaved for the last fifty years, this is probably quite foolhardy.