Top 5 finish is the aim.....!!

And this is why I'm so glad we have a manager as sensible and pragmatic as Nigel in charge of that budget.

I love our owners, they really are great but statements like this do not help the cause. Nigel will ensure we spend that cash sensibly but without him there is a genuine risk we'll over invest and cause the club longer term issues if we're relegated.

However, what's fantastic to hear is that they are still happy and willing to inset and for this I thank them. I just hope they are sensible with their expectations and we dot start any managerial merry-go-round shenanigans seen in the prem this year.

They are Mersey as shown by their faith in Nigel last season. They understand serious investment levels are required but sensibly understand its a gradual process therefore next seasons target is a foothold in the prem.

The funds are there for Nigel, if he doesn't invest in the squad enough and we are in danger of relegation then I've no doubt he will be gone

As harsh as that seems, look what it's done for Southampton who are the model we need to follow.

Good old Blacky...

Agree Blackstarr - although let's hope we don't have to resort to the manager sacking bit to get there!!

We know we're starting next season with Pearson so let's hope he makes it a big success. Building slowly, and sensibly, but hopefully successfully.

Up the City!

Ironic really that due to the nature of modern football NP is probably closer to the sack than he's ever been.

True Blue true.
But he will know that and he will make it next season.
Hopefully the owners won't think they have get a big name in again like my mate Sven.

More of a concern for me was the anouncement of 11 thai players coming to LCFC and will play for us if they are good enough? More pressure on Nigel.

Post seniably BS and we will all join in but stuff like this leave it in the playground

"Good to see Nev cowering behind JG in the playground, occasionally popping his head out to shout "yeah" after every insult.

Everyone needs a follower I guess. Nev have you thought about embracing the sheep as your animal of choice?"

This is incredibly ambitious, although I believe it's taken from an interview with a Thai newspaper. Hopefully they'll be happy to continue seeing this as a gradual process rather than returning to the s... or bust technique that we had when he first arrived.

I believe he also put it that the aim would be to establish ourselves over two or three seasons and then look to progress to the top 5, so I think his words are being misreported a little. Even so, the statement that he doesn't wish to just settle for mid-table in the Premiership in the long term is bold.

As for the Thai players coming to our academy, my recollection is that connections have been made for years and there is a very strict proviso that they /have/ to be good enough - that it would be great if they were but there's nothing absolutely expected. This, along with he whole article in fact, should also take into account the fact that he was speaking to Thai media at the time, so that media was probably playing to the crowd somewhat.

It was a press conference with NP as well saw photos yesterday

comment by Nevsaysagoal2city (U5194)
posted 45 minutes ago
True Blue true.
But he will know that and he will make it next season.
Hopefully the owners won't think they have get a big name in again like my mate Sven.

More of a concern for me was the anouncement of 11 thai players coming to LCFC and will play for us if they are good enough? More pressure on Nigel.

Post seniably BS and we will all join in but stuff like this leave it in the playground

"Good to see Nev cowering behind JG in the playground, occasionally popping his head out to shout "yeah" after every insult.

Everyone needs a follower I guess. Nev have you thought about embracing the sheep as your animal of choice?"


----------------------------------------------------------------------
And your preceding post to TB that 'JG owns him' was sensible was it?? Play in he dirt Nev and you're gonna get mucky. As you love to say, when you dish it out you need to take it in turn

I must admit, my first reaction when I saw this was "Uh-oh!" rapidly followed by "Ridsdale" and "O'Leary".

But I expect the devil is in the detail – and the detail may well be in the finer points of translation. While the sentences may look superficially rather similar, there's a world of difference between saying:

"We're ready to spend £180m to see if it will get us into the top five."

and

"If £180m will get us into the top five, we're ready to spend that."

The first is a spendthrift sentiment, and throws everything back into kid in a sweetshop with £20 in his pocket mode. The second is more of a pragmatic acceptance that if you are going to set high targets, you must be prepared to back that with resources.

I *really* hope they have learnt from their Sven experiment. What I want this statement to mean is not "Hey, Nigel! Here's £180m – get us into the top five," but rather "Here's a reasonable sum to spend this summer. If you can turn that into a 13th place finish, we'll give you more to target 8th the next season. And if you succeed in that, we'll plough a third tranche into getting into Europe."

It's a pity then that Leicester wasn't awarded 'City of Culture 2017' because the projected qualification for Europe by that date would have seen more money (in terms of investment) flowing into the City.

You never know, like Hull we may even fluke our way in to Europe after our first season.

There's a bit more depth in the Guardian's report – and the extra quotes are more reassuring IMO. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/13/leicester-owners-top-five-premier-league

That's fat fox, that's why I'm more excited than concerned about this headline statement

The owners have clearly learned from the Sven days, although Sven appears to have been a Mandaric advised appointment, they authorised a lot of money for Andrew Neville to sign off on poor transfer targets

Their faith in Nigel and the appointment of him in the first place show that lessons have been learned. They are clearly ambitious and part of paying off the debt is to realise the return on investment not simply by hanging onto EPL status, but by building on it.

A three year plan to invest £180m in wages, transfers etc will, if it works out, see an increase in sponsorship and club revenue through ticket sales which in turn will increase stadium capacity to generate more revenue etc.

I welcome this ambition and understand that retaining EPL status is not just a wish list item, but an absolute must to grow the club commercially and in stature

But having said that, I'm still surprised. It's an exciting and ambitious statement and I really didn't expect us to have Europa league in our long terms sights. It really feels as if the owners are looking at clubs like Southampton to build a successful platform

We have to remember the target audience as well. This was a press conference with NP present for the Thai audience.
Hope no agents where listening. We just need to establish ourselves as a Premiership team and thats going to be tougher than getting out of the Championship after 10 years of trying.

One reassuring part of that interview was that the owners won't be changing the team colours any time soon!

I don't see any issue with the owners clarifying what they meant by being successful in the EPL. It was hardly likely to translate to being happy with 17th on goal difference every year was it? Indeed, not unreasonable to aim high given what Hull (a cup final) or Southampton (8th place) have achieved in pretty short order after getting promoted. Provided there's no stupid splash the cash - which I don't expect (FF - mention of the 'Ridsdale' word sends shivers up my spine). As for the £180M figure, again no surprise there, they have already invested more than £100M over the last three years.

One really great point from the article is 'I fell in love with Leicester. One reason was the team's colours, which were the same as my company's'. So hopefully no new shirt colour antics a la Tan.

BS - an interesting thread - which we may have missed if you had gone, so stay!

Oh joy. A positive article about the ambitions (however unrealistic they may be) of our owner and suddenly the usual, short-sighted suspects are out in force to bash Sven again

Anyway, I suspect the £180m figure includes the long awaited proposed redevelopment of the KP to take it up to the 45,000 mark that will be needed if we sustain PL football (I'm sure the 'Where were you' brigade will be overjoyed by the prospect of another 12,000 plastics they can abuse) so you're perhaps looking at a *possible* 100m fund over three years. My personal hope would be 5 or 6 players this summer (perhaps including one biggie like a Rhodes or an attacking midfielder from abroad) to consolidate, then go bigger in seasons two and three.

I was slightly concerned by Pearson's 'we'll only buy 2 or 3 players' comment - adding 2 or 3 to one of the smallest squads in the Championship last season would struggle to even bring us up to the 25 man limit and surely we need to add more depth - but this comment from the owner has eased my worries.

I just hope our precious supporters are able to accept the prospect of ambitious signings without bleating on about Sven and the supposed errors he made. I'm sure they will, however, be prepared to give Pearson more time to incorporate the signings than they were willing to give Sven.

First things first.... Lets stay up next season!!!

Jesus Foxello, if you still haven't accepted that Sven/Neville wasted a load of money on dross back in the day then there's no convincing you. But I'm still going to try anyway;

Matt mills 5.5 million. Yes that's 5.5 million for a centre back. Where is he now? Premier league? Sought after by top championship clubs? No he's at Bolton where he puts in average performances. Waste of money

Jermaine Beckford 2.5 million 30k per week wages. Waste of money

John Pantsil, Michael Johnson, Michael Ball, waste of time even if they were free

Neil danns. Where is he now? Oh yeah, Bolton. Not a bad player but hardly worth what we paid

Sven- what's his record since leicester sacked him? What has he achieved since man city in fact....

Come on pal, he is a great guy, the romantic in me wanted it to work but he's not right for the championship and it wasn't going to work. No one has gone near him since and his signings were very hit and miss. Give this one up....

Sorry BS You missed out Kasper and Nugent? oh and giving Schlupp and Moore their first professional contracts.
There where some right wastes of space given that 50% of signing don't work out Nigels much doing better.

Credit it where its due Nev, Kasper and Nugent were good signings but thats two out of about 14.

Schlupp was first given a squad number by Paolo Sousa originally and was loaned out to Brentford for most of the Sven era playing a handful of times at the start of 2011/2012.

Liam Moore was a contracted player by the time Sven arrived who played him twice.

Can you back up your 50% of signings under Nigel don't work out any better please? Perhaps you'd like to list them since his return and we'll see what everyone says

If thats what you meant by your previous post, I honestly can't understand it...