Greatness;

Let's just take a look at these players that Pearson has signed;

Matt James - played a total of 12 games in 2 years after suffering an injury, no promotions. Has looked promising at times and is well regarded, but has made nowhere near enough appearances to be thought of as anything other than a player with potential.

de Laet - 57 appearances since 2006. Total of 5 loan spells, including 3 in one season. Only 7 appearances last season. No promotions. I have to wonder why none of the clubs he went on loan to have tried to sign him? From what I've seen he's no better than Peltier, who we supposedly want to sell for less than half what we paid for him.

Vardy - Never played a game in the football league. 3 years ago he was nowhere. The step up from non-league to Championship is enormous. Would anyone say there was nobody better we could have spent £1m-£1.7m on?

They might well turn out to be decent players. But the fact is between them they have played very little first team football and have not one promotion in the FL between them. For me, these are players being signed with promotion planned for 2 or 3 years time, when what we need is players with proven Championship records and experience of promotion.

I suppose you can look at it like that. But, I think, based on his/Walsh's track record of spotting talent, we have a right to think that these lads probably have something about them.

They're young, hungry and have a point to prove. It's a formula, like I mentioned, that has proved successful in the past. I just feel these kids should be given a chance before we write them off.

I'm sort of reminded of a famous quote by Alan Hansen at this point.

Foxello - you could say just let's have a look at these players MON signed
Muzzy Izzet
Neil Lennon
Robbie Savage
Matt Elliott
Steve Guppy

Hardly household names - all from lower league football or reserves - they didn't do too bad. I'd rather reserve judgement on our signings until after I've seen them play. Walsh's track record is pretty decent at finding young, gifted footballers.

Well Foxello -just back from extended Asian trip to see you are still trying to bring some sanity and cohesion to the Leicester City board with the usual collection of Nelsons trying to turn a blind eye to reality.
Having proved last season to be one of the worst man managers in all leagues with a total inability tactically to even get into the play offs with a squad professionally recognised as one of the divisions best one thought it couldn't get worse.
Now doctrinally dismantling the squad -a project he embraced from the moment he stepped through the door he is selling talented players for a pittance whilst signing non league nobodies for twice the price of Bamba - an established member of an internantional team full of world class footballers.This ridichulous car boot sale of talented players will continue.
Meanwhile he trawls the reject skips of premiership teams in the hope of someone worthwhile may fall out.

This is the manager who unearhed such gems of footballers last time round - who can forget our ball playing defence with players like Morrison, Nielsen, Brown with his protege Hobbs proving Liverpools' view that he would never make a Premiership player- another from the skip.
Who can forget his inspired signings like Nicky Adams, Asrid Ajdarevic, Verma and of course was responsible for originally bringing that talented striker and natural footballer Waghorn to the club .....
Yes we are in safe hands...

It's easy to look at the glass and see it as half empty - Wellens, Dyer, Cleverley, Davies and Spearing have all represented Leicester and have made significant contributions over the last three or 4 seasons. Granted some of these were only on loan, but they gave their all whilst here. You could look at some of Sven's signings and say they never played for the shirt - Ball, Pantsill, Johnson, etc and if anyone can convince me that Bamba is a quality defender, I'm open to being won over.
I'd like to think Leicester supporters will do just this at the beginning of the season, support their team. Perhaps the players will play more like a team without all the big name charlie's who just don't care about the club.

Is it just me, or is anyone else beginning to miss those cheerful, flippant articles from Trev predicting Mandaric going to prison for tax fraud and the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse if something isn't done about the scoreboard?

foxello
again im sorry but when you state your reliable sources as 'sky' and 'twitter' it does not look good. i totally agree with you that with our backing last year we could and defiantly should have done a whole lot better.
of course you totally intitled to your opinion but your opinion in my view is always very negative, knocking players we have and even knocking players that havent kicked a ball for us yet. and to make it even worse you slate our manager and his staff for players that we havent even signed yet that some binky on sky sports news says we are after!!
i am certainly not happy with last season nor do i go down the route of chassing or hoofing. i get very encouraged seeing the likes of drinkwater and marshall playing in our colours and a feel a few well coached young played mixed with a few more established players we have a good mixture for the season ahead!

fatfox.....




....yes

I'm with Foxello and Johngee.

Sven's approach was to look for players of known ability and experience. Some clearly did not deliver but many ended the year rated as the fans top performers.

Where Sven (and Sousa) went wrong is by trying to impose a more continental approach and neither had long enough to see it through. Surprisingly Pearson has been given plenty of time to fail.

In many ways, Grumpy's approach is somewhat like England's has been in the Euros. A group of players who work hard, are of average ability and who have probably gone as far as they can.

Oh God, John Gee's back...

You still don't understand. Nobody's debating that many of the apparent-ex-squad-to-be have recognised ability. Mills, Konchesky, etc. while not being world-beaters were all thought of as being among the best in the division. Some are considered to have Premiership ability or potential. What some appear to need is a personality transplant. You still say Pearson is a bad man manager, but his record throughout the clubs he's been at /proves/ otherwise. And yet you blame him for players not being interested. He's tried out the squad, seen who is likely to form a team and is now (if the rumours are to be believed) ruthlessly shipping out those who are incapable in this league (because they think they're better than it). And yet you're happier with the conclusion that the manager is clueless and these players are heroes in waiting who just need pointing in the right direction.

Have you not worked with people in life who are moderately talented but cause more trouble than they're worth through a bad attitude? People who you think: "I just don't want you here any more because I think you're a t...er."

The big-spending experiment was tried and failed. Why do I say it failed? Because of that old adage: "There are no bad ideas; only good ideas that didn't get enough funding."

Still, to John Gee in particular (Foxello to a lesser extent) I don't think you're even interested in these arguments. You're not analysing the situation, you're just taking every bit of news coming out of the club, finding a way to interpret it negatively against the manager, and telling us all that we're just showing blind loyalty for not agreeing. You think we're being incapable of being objective about the situation when the opposite is true.

I guess not many agree with Laurel and Hardy, I understand LCFC have sold the most season tickets in the Championship so far with over 14000.

I for one can't wait for this season to start, a great manager and we all know we'll have a team bursting at the seams to play for LCFC, long live Pearson!

Dung
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

I used to think JG's contributions were just polemic – trying to create a debate (which tbf they did) – but now he's like a stuck record and a stranger to objectivity.

"Foxello - you could say just let's have a look at these players MON signed

Muzzy Izzet
Neil Lennon
Robbie Savage
Matt Elliott
Steve Guppy"

I expected the MON model to be pointed to, and I can understand why. After all, the MON years are the only successful years some fans, myself included, can recall having witnessed. But for every Muzzy Izzet, there's 10 Joe Hammill's.

The following players have all either come through the academy, or been signed from other clubs, within the last decade, all with the tag of 'potential future City player'; Delaney, Stevenson, Ellison, Reeves, Wright, Logan, Priet, Brooker, Canero, Williams, Gilbert, Hammill, Stearman, Mattock, Welsh, Hayes, Chambers, Morrison, Hobbs, Adams, Adjarevic and Verma. And how many of these have gone on to achieve anything? One or two. That's the problem with signing young players - the likelyhood is that they won't make it, rather than they will. What MON did was miraculous and hugely impressive, but also very rare and very special. If 1 of the 3 players NP has so far signed turns out to be anything more than OK, we will have done well.

"of course you totally intitled to your opinion but your opinion in my view is always very negative, knocking players we have and even knocking players that havent kicked a ball for us yet"

Well you clearly haven't been reading my comments that well. Or you'd know that I have said time and time again that I feel the squad we have (or had, at least) is very strong, more than capable of promotion, but have been let down by their manager. Whilst the pro-NP brigade have criticised players for everything from lack of effort to being a liabilty, I have defended those players. I'm one of few who thinks Bamba is a quality player who should have been moulded into a defensive midfielder. I'm one of a very small number who thinks Mills should be given a chance. And I'm probably the only City fan that defended Ricardo when he was here! Granted, I have my reservations about the new signings, which I have aired, as I do with Peltier and Morgan, and there are 4 players who I don't feel contribute anything to the club or the team - Wellens, Gallagher, King and Waghorn. But I support the vast majority of the squad and value the talent they clearly have.

But lots of those 'potential future City players' you mentioned there were brought in on the cheap, some as speculative signings. Some such signings have worked out, others haven't. (In particular, please stop mentioning Aman Verma as a weapon against Pearson. We got him for the price of a pack of peanuts and a donkey ride just in case he turned out to be good. There's nothing wrong in doing that with a few players.) Meanwhile, there have been some far more expensive signings that have not come up to the mark. You lose much more on these, not least because they're not pulling their weight within the squad with their performances on the pitch. If you end up with half a team full of these players, it's no wonder we didn't get success with them.

Dunge;

Here's where I think your argument falls a bit flat - you accuse me and John of making assumptions and generalisations, yet you then go on to make those same assumptions and generalisations yourself. You state that players don't care about the club when there is no evidence to suggest this, other than a tweet from the wife of a player who was signed by Nigel Pearson. You claim some 'need a personality transplant' when I assume you have never met them. You claim NP has an 'outstanding record' when the facts and percentages at this level show he is nothing more than slightly above ordinary. You say the players he is shipping out are not good enough for this level, even though the general feeling amongst most is that they are good enough for almost any team at this level (clearly Bolton and Trabzonspor, better teams, value Mills and Bamba). And you claim that the 'big spending experiment' only failed because of Sven, and don't seem to wish to point any responsibilty towards NP.

You also fail to take in to account Pearson's average record since returning, his poor tactics in many key games last season, the poor defensive and disciplinary records of last season, his inability to access the loan market and several other things that has blighted his return to the club.

If you're going to accuse others of jumping to inaccurate conclusions, you may need to start making accusations against players' integrity and commitment first.

Dunge; we have signed 3 players who, between them, have made fewer than 100 appearances in the football league. How can these signings be anything other than 'speculative'? And is £3m not a bit excessive?

I disagree Vulpes.

Johngee is being subjective (perhaps) in his belief that everything NP does is wrong but not (I think) in his conclusion.

If you replace experienced professionals who are generally accepted as having lower Premiership/upper-Championship pedigree (Mills, Konchesky and to a lesser extent Bamba) with un-tried and lower league players (Vardy, De Laet and James) an objective view would be that this is less likely to succeed.

In the long-term, Pearson may have it right. But looking at it as objectively as possible, I am not convinced he will be around to see it.

Foxello,

I claim that the players aren't interested enough because of their performances on the pitch. Many haven't played with the kind of pride in themselves that I want to see as a fan. That's not quite the same as saying they don't care about the club as you say; I'm saying they don't seem to care about each other enough to form a team, based on incidents from this year (e.g. St. Ledger's outburst) and lack of will to help each other out on the pitch. You can't always hammer that attitude into a player. Note that this is not all players and some are capable of changing. Others are not taking responsibility on the pitch and didn't all season. That is my evidence for this statement.
Note also that I'm not criticising al players for this. Bamba, Danns, Nugent and Schmeichel in particular are Sven signings who don't fall into this category, hence my disappointment at the sale of Bamba. But I do balance that out with Pearson believing, with good reason, that the defence requires a rebuild.

For Pearson himself, I acknowledge that he wasn't successful over the last season, but he has been successful (relative to his club's situation) throughout the rest of his career. Combined with the other issues at the club, I am happy to put this down to extenuating circumstances and fully believe he should have at least next season to impose himself upon the club. Given his previous record, I believe there is plenty of reason to believe that he has a good chance of succeeding next year - more chance that getting rid and bringing in someone new.

This is the evidence that I believe you and John Gee are willingly ignoring because you have an overriding issue with Pearson as a man. (From John Gee, this seems to stem from the way he left in the first place.)

"Dunge; we have signed 3 players who, between them, have made fewer than 100 appearances in the football league. How can these signings be anything other than 'speculative'? And is £3m not a bit excessive?"

---------------------------

It is and we should have looked to pay less. I do think they're good signings, but the risk/reward ratio isn't as good as I'd like. Still, at least the price tags aren't high enough to be millstones around their necks.

I actually do agree that if we are going to move on players like Mills, Bamba, Konchesky, etc, in addition to young prospects, we do need to bring in some experienced players already performing at this level and/or in their prime.

But I think there is perhaps an argument that these players are usually wanted by multiple clubs and therefore often transfers which are organised when the window is actually open. So I guess we'll be able to make more accurate judgements in August on Pearson's inclusions and prospective squad.

Incidentally, in the interests of fairness, I'm not intending to just have a pop and anti-Pearsonites on here - I recognise that lcfcprawnsandwich is consistently making good and thought-out points about the situation.

To be fair to Foxello, I think he has actually said in the past that he likes Pearson as a person so I don't think his views are being steered by a personal dislike.

The only thing I would point out is that at the start of November Foxello, you said Pearson was 'fantastic' during his last spell and whilst you weren't too optimistic at us being promoted, it was vital that the owners did NOT sack Pearson at the end of the season.

Around 10 weeks later you stated he SHOULD be sacked in the summer. We weren't great during this period granted, but I don't think we were God-awful enough to call for such drastic action (I think won 3, drew 4/5, lost 3), particular as you stated Pearson should stay irrelevant of whether we miss out on promotion.

I've never stated anything other than that I was initally very pleased to see NP return. I thought he would provide us with the defensive solidity, discipline and consistency that we lacked under Sven. But this did not happen and in fact the opposite is true - we became less solid defensively (14 goals conceded in 4 games), our discipline got worse and we had more red cards and we were just as inconsistent, if not more so, than under Sven.

It was around about the Christmas period when my first doubts about NP arose. We drew with Peterborough, Ipswich and Portsmouth at home, 3 points from 3 fixtures that should have yielded 7 points at least. In those games we played really poor, dour football, with little or no creativity or imagination. We then changed the team completely against Crystal Palace, won, and NP changed the team back for the next match! A few weeks later was the infamous Barnsley defeat - the single worst performance I have ever watched live from an LCFC team. A cold, horrible afternoon where the football was just as dire. The only highlight of that match was me and half a dozen other fans shouting 'SHOOOOOT' every time Tunchev had the ball 60 yards out. It was awful, and I went home with a sore head, half frozen and feeling desperately depressed with it all. Then I turned the radio on and heard his smug, depressing voice accusing us all of 'delusions of grandeur' - we'd just been beaten by Barnsley for heaven's sake, what are we suppose to do, celebrate? People have tried to say it was a comment aimed at the players - either way it was totally the wrong message to send to players, fans and owners alike - that our expectation was somehow overgrown due to thoughts above our station. That's when I realised the job was too big for him.

From about February onwards we just the epitomee of the word inconsistency. Winning matches we should lose, losing matches we should win, going nowhere in the process. Early March time I gave up on promotion and admtted defeat. That was when I lost faith in Pearson.

I know what I said about keeping Pearson, but since I made those comments my view of him as a manager has deteriorated quickly. I no longer have any faith or belief in him, I think he has far too many flaws and negatives to be anything other than a middle-of-the-road manager. There have been a glutony of jobs available this pre-season, yet NP has not been linked to any of them. Why? Because no chairman other than ours and Mandy gives him the time of day.

I have nothing against him personally - I'm sure he's a good, hard working family man like me and most others on here. I don't think I'd want to work for him, and I don't think I could be friends with him. But I wish him no ill on a personal record.

For the record, I think it's irrelevant whether we sack him this season or wait until it finishes. If we sack him mid-way through, unless we get in a proven manager with a proven track record (which is what I have been screaming out for since the season ended) there's just no point. With Pearson in charge we will be comfortable in mid-table. If we sack him, we could end up in a relegation scrap. The time to replace him has come and gone.