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Reply | Four minutes of madness – Report
at 06:54 27 Jan 2026
Yes they are but managed to bring in Oli McBurnie on a free (4 year contract though on a big salary I’m guessing so it’s a gamble on a 29 year old) and Joe Gelherdt from Leeds on loan. The former has got 11 goals and six assists and the latter ten goals and two assists. They also spent £31 million last season (largely funded by selling Philogene and Greaves) and £11 million the season before so not exactly bare bones.
Transfer embargoes are not always the punishment they first appear. |
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Reply | Frey
at 06:11 27 Jan 2026
Always trust what David Mc says. Pretty sure it must be true. |
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Reply | Frey
at 06:07 27 Jan 2026
Spot on Myke. I think he’s been pretty much the model professional and the right sort whatever his limitations for the kind of football we want to play in the Championship. He trained on his own to get fit for pre-season, never caused trouble when he wasn’t picked and absolutely did his best on the pitch. Always noticed him celebrating our goals and wins even when on the bench and then he is happy to go when it suits the club and we even get a fee for him.
Similar to Lyndon Dykes who gets similar stick despite a similar profile of limited but whole hearted contributions to the club. Always have a soft spot for Lyndon too.
He also scored some vital goals for us last season despite being injured for quite a lot of it. [Post edited 27 Jan 6:14]
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Reply | Marti gone...
at 20:41 25 Jan 2026
For me he did a decent job with us. He kept us in the league which was fantastic given the previous useless three managers without surpassing our potential.
He is probably better than many Leicester fans think but not as good as many QPR fans think he is (tippy tappy at the back and delayed subs too).
Given the choice I’d rather keep Stephan than have Marti back even if it was an option. I think he will develop players more over time. |
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Reply | Just back
at 02:33 25 Jan 2026
Very disappointing but I’m not devastated in one way. I thought we played much better in the first half than we have since before Christmas. Madsen was unplayable for the first half hence them practically beating him up a couple of times (no card of course), same with Mbengue nearly having his leg chopped off.
How the f*ck did they only end up with two yellow cards though? Absolutely disgraceful performance from another ref. And Kabore could have murdered someone and not got even a yellow card.
That aside it was largely naivety that lost us that match. Probably down to them having an average age of 27 and us 24. They played us basically in that second half (and Mbengue and Smyth were targeted all match). That’s why they’ve got older players - more expensive but huge amount of guile in Moore, Windass and Rathbone. We had a 19 year old and 20 year old to bring on up front in contrast.
Lots of lessons need to be learned of course but I’m encouraged that we can play really well despite not having a lot of our first team available against a side near us in the table on a good run. Absolutely don’t get why we’d want to sack the manager. Are our memories of Beale, Ainsworth, Critchley et al fading so quickly. Yes he’s got some much better players than we had last season but many of them are raw and atm injured. He’s not perfect but we’ve made progress and really don’t want to tear that up and start again halfway through the season. |
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Reply | Would a newby be a booby ? Match thread
at 10:22 24 Jan 2026
Like that idea but doesn’t get round the issue of the CDs playing so deeply but does add am extra ball playing DM who can bring the ball out from deep.
Moore may not start as Smith has scored quite a few goals too.
I’m going for 2-2. Can’t see them not scoring but at home with the crowd may spur us on a bit. |
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Reply | Sam field
at 09:56 23 Jan 2026
Except that Varane has done almost double the number of tackles, clearances and interceptions per 90 minutes compared to either of the other two (according to Sofascore). I’m sure that’s why he gets picked ahead of them.
We have to sell him if a decent offer comes in to keep up the plans to develop and build over time. But certainly defensively we would miss JV from the team. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 15:09 22 Jan 2026
Yes I agree we had a poor injury situation then too.
That would be a big downer. Having said that we’ve got a couple of players who’ve come in and with a bit of luck some players due to come back in well before April so hopefully we’ll steady the ship.
Also we’ve got no midweek matches until February 24th now so we’ve got more time on the training pitch and more rest in between matches for our players that have been flogged like Kone, Madsen, Dunne and Cook. We’ve got a couple of tough matches at home with Wrexham and Cov but then hopefully a bit easier/players coming back with Charlton and Blackburn. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 10:40 22 Jan 2026
Yes just checked Dave we had 35 points after 27 matches last season having had a really good run from November until January and 38 points after 28 - spot on. We then went into a big slump and lost eight out of the next twelve from the 25th January until April. We only won two matches and drew two.
Let’s hope we don’t go into one of those spirals. [Post edited 22 Jan 10:42]
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Reply | Hoopsa on Oxford point and Wrexham preview
at 09:56 22 Jan 2026
Yes that’s my theory. Largely based on the difference it made when JCS was able to play for us for a few matches. It definitely seemed to me that we were less hemmed into in and around our box. I also think it was similar with RE last season. Other teams press us because we struggle with Cook and Jimmy to get past the first press and because our DMs have to drop back further because of the CDs lack of pace.
Will be interesting to see whether this comes to pass! |
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Reply | Hoopsa on Oxford point and Wrexham preview
at 08:33 22 Jan 2026
I think part of the answer is Ronnie. Not sure how whether at CD paired with JD or defensive mid with Madsen but I think he’s going to improve our passing and mobility out of our own third. |
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Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 23:58 21 Jan 2026
I never thought Madsen was lazy. I thought he was struggling to know what he should be doing, where he should be positioned, how he could affect the game.
I don’t think Dembele has any of that. As I say, I think he looks quite happy with how he’s playing and quite confident. That’s what worries me because I don’t think he thinks he needs to learn. Madsen always looked like he was concerned he wasn’t getting it right.
Of course I might be completely wrong and he might just be fronting up on the pitch and goes home and reflects on how to improve and is working massively hard in training. I hope so.
What frustrates me is because I can see he has the raw technical ability. Which is why he gets less of a free pass than say Paul Smyth. Saito gets one on the basis of the efforts he seemed to be making last season. I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t return to those levels of efforts. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 19:04 21 Jan 2026
Part of the reason they’re so deep is because our CDs haven’t got any pace. We tried it with Mbengue but he hasn’t got the defensive solidity and nous to play there yet and we also need him at RB to provide some pace. But you could see the difference when JCS played in a little cameo. Our whole team could move up at least ten metres.
The thing is you can’t leave massive gaps between your lines because teams will exploit them both across and lengthwise you need to keep them compact to a degree. That’s why I think we were so keen on signing Ronnie. His ability to carry the ball at least that significant ten metres will allow Madsen plus an other to be passing from the halfway line rather than just outside our penalty area. I think it will help with our possession figures for that reason. It’s a bit like when you’re taking a throw in from by your own penalty area compared to further up the pitch, you tend to get penned in.
They only move up when the rest of the opposition are already in their half as the danger is less and our defence can move up. [Post edited 22 Jan 8:13]
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Reply | Player Sales
at 16:08 21 Jan 2026
No I said both could see a pass but Madsen could see it quickly. But maybe that wasn’t clearly expressed. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 15:49 21 Jan 2026
Yes agree with all of this.
I do understand also people being upset cos we’ve spent a lot but the problem is so has nearly everyone else. Pretty much with the exception of Preston I think in the top half of the table. But quite a few in the bottom half too.
Wonder how Preston are managing it. They’re certainly over achieving for their spends. Pretty everyone else has spent as much although some have been able to fund it by selling other players. But it still means their squad is worth the same or more than ours and in many cases considerably more. |
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Reply | VAR in the EFL
at 15:35 21 Jan 2026
Absolutely effing no.
I naively thought it would at least cut out biases in the favour of bigger clubs. If anything it’s made it worse. Cos of course they don’t care if they get it wrong There’s no come back. They still get to faff around next week.
And it just ruins the game.
NO NO NO? |
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Reply | Player Sales
at 15:29 21 Jan 2026
I agree on Varane £5 million would be fine.
Still wouldn’t sell Madsen for that though. If we can’t get £7 million then we build the team around him for a few years like we did with Chair.
Also hope we can get a few hundred thousand here or there for players that are on the fringes like Murphy Cooper, Morrison. Maybe that’s too optimistic but then again never thought we’d get that much for Kelman, Armstrong and Dykes, |
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