20 Oct 2021 22:19:15
How do Leicester continually find solid players? Seriously its got to reflect terribly on someone well known to all of us here.


1.) 20 Oct 2021
20 Oct 2021 23:37:33
Obviously 🙄 I mean the fact Leicester do it and not many other clubs if any do it must mean it reflects badly on one person at our club OR NOT.


2.) 20 Oct 2021
20 Oct 2021 23:41:55
yeah 4 goals in one European match for Daka at just £22 milion ( cost less than Rodrigo and DJ )

I feel a tad envious of Leicester impressive recruitment ( a very good DoF? and / or they have a brilliant extensive scouting network? )


3.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 06:36:08
Lesser European leagues need scouting 100% agree
Noah Afator Swiss international playing for Salzburg for instance
Or do we poach leicesters chief scout.


4.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 07:29:32
Maybe they actually scout players instead of just adopting a 'hit and hope' scatter gun approach?


5.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 09:00:30
Alf - on what basis do you think Leeds have a hit and hope scatter gun approach?

I presume in your world, and maybe Baz’s, reports that based in Leeds we have the Head of recruitment, three senior scouts and seven part-time scouts, and that we have five further full time scouting staff based in Europe - and that we use a wide range of analytical software to complement and help streamline the scouting on the ground - is just some PR bulls#*t put about by the Club, whereas in reality presumably it’s just Uncle Victor sitting in his office playing an old version football manager bought for him while he was at Middlesbrough.


6.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 09:37:53
And presumably reports that Orta’s team have tracked/ scouted some of our players for two years or more before actually signing them are also PR fiction or the exception that proves that as a general rule we don’t actually scout players, but sign them on some kind of whim, and hope that whoever we sign enough we might have a couple of successes from time to time.


7.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 10:27:32
Clue if that's correct, then there are a lot of poor talent scouts employed by Andrea .

Go back over the transfers of say the last 3-4 years and the amount of dross we have signed is scary .

It really is, no words can hide that and it shows you can have all the science/ software you want but there's no substitute for a good old fashioned eye for talent scout who knows a future solid player when he sees 1.


8.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 13:24:41
Proof is in the pudding. Our signings have been terrible.


9.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 13:27:48
My only question would be, if we use so much computer power and human expertize in our due diligence. Why do we sign, Rodrigo, JKA .
As for the scattergun approach that was clearly evident in the past, at the time of Grot, Cibicki. I will grant you not as much these days but we still manage to find a square peg, the jury is still out on Firpo. No, we clearly need to spread our net a lot further and track unknown stars from far off lands and when we do pounce before the big boys find out what we are doing.


10.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 13:29:36
The salesman probably told Orta it was top of the range software but it probably actually is and old Champ manager. The fool is naive enough to fall for that 🤣. Rumour has it our January targets are wonderkids Dean Ashton, Cherno Samba and Kennedy Bakircioglu. 🤣🤣🤣.


11.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 13:49:45
There’s probably a number of folk on here wishing we had the genius DoF currently pulling the strings at Leicester. However, it’s also probable that had those folk been Leicester City fans, they would have been calling for him to be sacked a number of years ago, even after their amazing Premier League winning season.

John Ruskin was appointed DoF in December 2014, around 18 months before they lifted the title. but the anti-Rudkin feelings would have been running high probably less than 12 months after the excitement of the bus-top trophy parade. The narrative would have run as follows.

While Rudkin did sign DM N’Golo Kante, plus fellow starters Shinji Okazaki and Christian Fuchs, and back-up striker Leonardo Ulloa, the rest of the title winning squad, including Jamie Vardy, Rihad Mahrez, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan, Danny Drinkwater, Marc Albrighton, Robert Huth, had been brought into the Club before his appointment. Meanwhile, he had also signed, Andrej Kramaric, Yohan Benalouane, Gokhan Inler, Daniel Amartey and Demarai Gray for a combined transfer cost of £31.2m - and they had played a combined total of 558 minutes in the title winning season.

Emboldened by the title success Rudkin splashed a little cash the following season, bringing in Wilfred Ndidi (who has been a success) for £15.8m, but also Nampalys Mendy, Islam Slimani, Ahmed Musa, Bartosz Kapusta and Ron-Robert Zeiler for a combined cost of around £67m. None on that list did anything to live up to their respective cost that season - and even Mendy, who is still there has not exactly enthused Leicester fans with many of his performances. Such apparently poor scouting and wasted money would have certainly fomented some very strong anti-Rudkin feelings and, as said above it’s likely some would have been wanting him out of the door.


12.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 14:00:45
its staggering the bs that Clueless comes up with in defence of VO.


13.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 14:26:37
Clueless, thank you for using a reasoned, unemotive argument with verifiable statistics as opposed to the pitchfork and angry mob version of converstaion.

Truly enlightening.


14.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 14:41:31
Baz

It's staggering how little hard facts you come up with to justify your position

Nope, keep on going with you "I believe I am right" attitude. It well thought out and could land you a journalist position somewhere

When you say "bs", is that short for "I am too lazy to research up anything that will justify my stance"?

Still surprised that you haven't been mentioning Steve Bruce to replace Bielsa. that would be your choice wouldn't it?


15.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 15:19:53
Hottub Axey

clu and I have had many a post on these issues before, we both think we are right; no need to elaborate any more on this other than say the following :

the proof of the pudding and the accurate barometer will be Leeds final position this season and next

VO was judged definitively and conclusively at Boro by the final league positions ; and likewise the same here at LUFC.


16.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 16:53:19
Baz - that was not b/ s - just hard facts on the early stages under the current DoF at Leicester, who’s approach to scouting and recruitment has been lauded by those, including yourself who sought at the start of this particular chain of posts to compare the excellent approach at Leicester to that followed at our Club under Orta - a comparison that has been made a number of times previously by you and others. And, as usual when inconvenient FACTS fail to support your argument, you seek to dismiss them as another poor attempt to defend Orta, rather than acknowledging that perhaps things are not as black and white as you thought.


17.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 18:15:18
Clu come back to us at the end of the season and the end of the following season for Leeds United s final league positions on a definitive VO appraisal

as for Leicester they appear more than fine : indeed their performances, results, player recruitment and sales, european and final EPL league positions are what Radz himself claimed he is trying to emulate.


18.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 19:05:22
Yes, Baz, I know Leicester are fine, and that Radz is trying to emulate what they are doing. I was just pointing out that the recruitment under their current DoF didn’t start off well, and the apparent bad recruitment and waste of money in the first 18 months of his watch are exactly the kind of things you and others are saying VO should be shown the door for. And yet that DoF remained in post and is being lauded by you now.

And just in case you were wondering, the catalogue of failed and underwhelming signings at Leicester didn’t stop after those first 18 months. The point is that early in this thread you professed to be envious of Leicester’s recruitment, and wondered whether they were so good at it because they had a very good DoF and or a brilliant extensive scouting network - your suggestion being that we had the very opposite. I’m merely pointing out that some of the very best signings they made came in before the current DoF was in post, and whilst some of the signings made under him have been definite hits, there have also been rather a lot of misses, a number of which came in for signicant fees. Yes, they do have good scouting network, but it hasn’t prevented them making a significant number of what hindsight shows were unsuccessful signings.


19.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 19:38:18
So, Baz, it’s OK for you or anyone else to slag off Orta any time you want, with whatever comparisons to other clubs you wish, but anyone who might wish to give a little balance, or challenge the assumptions you may be making about your comparator shouldn’t do so, but rather wait until the end of the season? I don’t think so.

It looks rather more like you can start a discussion, but as soon as the particular argument you’re making is shown not to hold water, you seek to close the discussion down and pretend it never happened.


20.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 21:16:21
Clueless, a little bit of egg on your face here on this 1

The list of players you listed out above were in The whole all scouted by STEVE WALSH, the then Leicester city head of recruitment, the same Steve Walsh who then became Everton DOF under Koeman,

So you didn't do your homework correctly on that 1 pal 🤣,


21.) 21 Oct 2021
21 Oct 2021 22:31:27
No Chris - Steve Walsh worked under the direction of their DoF, who is still there, and it was Baz who suggested they had a very good DoF. And Slimani came in more than a month after Walsh had left, so plenty of time to double check his homework before splashing out almost £28m on a player who was allowed to go for free this January after being loaned out three times. And Walsh had no part in the scouting of Adrien Silva (£18.5m) , Vicente Iborra (£13.5m) , Rachid Ghezzal (£12.6m) or Ayoze Perez (£30.0m) in later seasons. Perez is interesting, as he’s scored 12 and assisted 8 in 82 matches - about the same rate of goal involvement as Rodrigo so far.

Oh, and by the way we too have a Chief Scout/ Head of Recruitment who works under Orta, and yes, it’s Orta who takes all the flak on here.

The thing is, Slimani looked an excellent signing when he was brought into Leicester, and doubtless the others did too. It’s just that sometimes/ quite often things don’t work out - there are very few certainties in football.


22.) 22 Oct 2021
22 Oct 2021 08:26:39
Well clue what I read last contradicts a lot of what you have just said, now I know the internet ain't a totally bona fide place for factual points but it clearly stated it was Walsh who scouted and brought the like of Vardy, Kanté etc etc to Leicester, the site also said at that time Walsh was basically top dog at Leicester for recruitment, as Rudkin wasn't totally embedded into the signings side of things at that time

Hence when he did begin to lay down his way of recruitment that was why Walsh wanted to move on, obviously that and a rise in wages probably.

But as I said that site might not be 100% correct?


23.) 22 Oct 2021
22 Oct 2021 10:31:12
When Jon Rudkin was appointed on a permanent basis in February 2015, the Leicester owner said he had been very pleased by the way he had handled the role on the eight weeks of his temporary appointment - including all the demands of the January transfer window. Rudkin was ultimately responsible for and signed off on the signings.

Yes, as I said, Rudkin can certainly not take any credit at all for Vardy, Mahrez and the majority of the Prem winning team as they signed before he was DoF. And, as I said Walsh had well and truly left the building before Slimani was signed. Likewise, Kapusta, Silva, Ibarra, Diabate, Ghezzal and Perez, or Filip Benkovic - a £13m signing in 2018/ 19 who has still not played in the Prem, and has played a total of 29 league games over three seasons in the Scottish Prem (19) , Championship (10) and in Belgium (0) and is now apparently valued at around £2.5m.

Yes, Rudkin has overseen some great signings, but also some not so great - not suggesting their supporters should go an throw eggs at his house again, just that it shows things are not nearly as black and white as some like to suggest.