2023 Summer transfers

We managed with Keinan ok.

To be fair, before leaping to any conclusions we should check with Russ how much worse than Ederson Benfica fans who can speak english and post on internet forums think he is.

Maybe. He was injured for a while (remember Sam S played quite a few games in the run-in, scoring that hat-trick)

I'll just quote this bit but I disagree fairly fundamentally with the majority of your post, TBH. Fans don't just suddenly start saying "he's crap and we never wanted him anyway" about players because they're linked with moves away. There are and have been since long before yesterday significant concerns among Leicester fans about how he has fallen off a cliff, and simply because you don't look outside the immediate red and white world doesn't mean that anything said there isn't accurate or of relevance. It is entirely reasonable to take into account a player's prior performances and form, and the opinions of fans who actually watch him every week - in fact it's sensible to do so, I think. You're entirely within your rights to not pay attention until and unless they're in a red shirt, but dismissing everything that isn't shiny optimistic happy clappy as simply the bitter rantings of "a few disgruntled Borgmongs" is somewhat disingenuous.

If I'd posted a bunch of quotes saying "oh my god he's wonderful and I'm distraught that he's going" you wouldn't have objected, so your issue isn't that the opinions of others aren't to be believed, it's that you don't want to consider any that don't suit a rose tinted view of the world.

Leicester fans were pretty down on Maddison at the end of last season (maybe not in the same way as Ndidi) and his move to spurs hasn’t gone too badly so far.

Leicester fans were expecting 80M for Maddison. He was the jewel in their crown. In what way were they down on him?

A certain faction of them certainly did round on Maddison and Tielmans last year labelling Maddison a show pony / performing seal and suggesting he had lost it. But that's probably because Leicestershire were generally shit last year, and our fans do the same. I heard plenty of people slamming Awoniyi, Johnson and MGW at various points last year, for example.

Leicester fans were down on the whole team with the odd exception. And rightfully so as there was enough quality for them to stay up. Ndidi seems to have been a particular surprise, though.

The overwhelming view is that the player he was two years ago fell off a cliff, and that possibly injuries have taken their toll. He's out of contract end of this season and the Bayern rumour was mostly laughed off.

I understand our desire for a player in that role, although TBF I think that at this level midfielders should be able to play with the ball as well as without it. I hope we aren't paying a lot for Ndidi though.

Not for the first time, I don’t think I expressed myself well. I am not saying that Leicester fans are having a downer on Ndidi because he’s being linked with us - maybe the odd 12-year-old might be, but even Leicester have a few grown-ups (though as you know, my antipathy for that club significantly exceeds that for Derby). However, their entire club has declined very significantly over the last 2 seasons, and football fans of all persuasions tend to find scapegoats; rather than blame the manager or the fact that (for whatever reason - and it’s generally a whole host of reasons that conspire to add up to disaster, rather than one or two individual players suddenly becoming bad) the team as a whole just isn’t getting it right any more.

As Jamesob & Guru have said, a section of their fan base turned on their own as things went pear-shaped (see also Leeds Utd); Madison is a Grade A tosser, but he can undeniably play football bloody well… yet some of them even turned on him towards the end. We’ve seen it often enough with our own fans & players when things aren’t going well; it’s certainly not unique to Leicester.

I am firmly of the opinion that good players don’t turn into bad players unless their entire games is based in a physical attribute (especially pace) that is compromised by serious injury. Ndidi certainly was a good player a season or so back, so I don’t find it very plausible that he suddenly turned into a bad one.

Besides, in the end the question comes down to a) is he better than what we have; b) do we need a player of his type; c) is he the best available / who we can afford / who is prepared to sign for us? The answer to a) & b) is a definite “yes” from me; only the recruitment guys could really answer c) accurately.

I think we could all identify defensive midfield players who’d be ahead of Ndidi in the dreamsheet of signings. But if the Sangares of this world won’t come…

Missed half of last season with a knee injury that required surgery. Miss half of the previous season with a torn adductor. I have no idea what if any toll those injuries have taken on his ability to perform at the highest level. Maybe none. Maybe a lot.

I think a and b are far from definite, in my mind. Even at his best he was Petit, not Vieira. Maybe that suits the way Steve wants us to play, maybe it frees up Danilo to play higher up where he's best.

The flaw in that analysis is his injuries do not have an impact on his ability to play the ball. At his best, he was clearly good enough which is why he was in teams of the season an Chelsea and the like were after him. He is a Kante/Rice a-like. He isn't going to spray balls around, but he will break up play and not give possession away. That can be very valuable. If we can get him fit and back to where he was a couple of seasons ago that is and yes that clearly is a gamble but we have Santos now too as a bit of a hedge.

Romano says we’ve rejected £43m plus add ons plus sell on from Brentford for Brennan.

The world is a very weird place if we end up selling him to Brentford and you'd think he would be pretty disappointed by that outcome and playing in front of 17k fans every week. Good team, currently. But still a shitty, small club in a nasty part of London. They must really like him though to offer that much.

Good. I can begrudgingly live with him going to Spurs but that two bob outfit can fuck off.