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Could Leicester go bust?

Remember a conversation with a mate years ago after they won the league. He said the champions league would do them no good, they'd end up paying over the odds in fees and wages for players who want champions league football but aren't good enough for the top sides and be stuck with them bleeding the club out.

Only taken ten year but now I think fair play to him, he was spot on.
 

Ultra_Fox said:
Hi. Leicester fan here.

Can't completely rule out liquidation, but given the amount of land the club owns in both Leicester and Seagrave (site of the training ground) it's highly unlikely.

There are a lot of London-based scribes still bitter, ten years on, that we deprived their faves of a title they feel they deserved.

They're revelling in our current misfortune, but are secretly terrified that we may bounce back even stronger than before.

Trouble for us is, we don't (yet) have a Nigel Pearson-like figure to rebuild the club as we did in 2008..
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All the stars aligned for you that season, it won't happen again in your lifetime mate.
 
HorsePills said:
Remember a conversation with a mate years ago after they won the league. He said the champions league would do them no good, they'd end up paying over the odds in fees and wages for players who want champions league football but aren't good enough for the top sides and be stuck with them bleeding the club out.

Only taken ten year but now I think fair play to him, he was spot on.
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Globally teams that do get up there simply can't compete season on season. This is why the mags, even after 2 Champions League seasons will still be selling some of their better players just like Leicester did. You don't see Man City or Arsenal having to sell their top players as they can pay the wages.

The challenge for also rans is replacing those players leaving with players who are similar but ideally better level. The problem is that players like that would be wanting top player money so it means they have to buy players at a lower level in the hope players evolve into better players.

Whereas the big clubs with the money can pay the big wages and big money and usually take the best players from the also rans, like Man City taking Guehi from Palace recently. The mags (and Villa) simply can't offer the same level of wages to buy enough top level players for the squad and although it's good for them now, it will eventually catch them up. The mags are suffering now and another bad window could see them struggling even more next season, even if they're not in Europe.

We're the same if you take 2 or 3 of our better players out of the team. Thankfully the recruitment last season was very good but we got lucky with Brobbey getting him due to Guiu going back to Chelsea due to Delap's injury. Imagine our season without Brobbey blossoming throughout the season to what means to us now!
 
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK said:
Globally teams that do get up there simply can't compete season on season. This is why the mags, even after 2 Champions League seasons will still be selling some of their better players just like Leicester did. You don't see Man City or Arsenal having to sell their top players as they can pay the wages.

The challenge for also rans is replacing those players leaving with players who are similar but ideally better level. The problem is that players like that would be wanting top player money so it means they have to buy players at a lower level in the hope players evolve into better players.

Whereas the big clubs with the money can pay the big wages and big money and usually take the best players from the also rans, like Man City taking Guehi from Palace recently. The mags (and Villa) simply can't offer the same level of wages to buy enough top level players for the squad and although it's good for them now, it will eventually catch them up. The mags are suffering now and another bad window could see them struggling even more next season, even if they're not in Europe.

We're the same if you take 2 or 3 of our better players out of the team. Thankfully the recruitment last season was very good but we got lucky with Brobbey getting him due to Guiu going back to Chelsea due to Delap's injury. Imagine our season without Brobbey blossoming throughout the season to what means to us now!
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Atletico Madrid and Dortmund have made a good fist of it. Atalanta aren't off and it will be interesting to see how Como develop too.
 
mackemed2 said:
Atletico Madrid and Dortmund have made a good fist of it. Atalanta aren't off and it will be interesting to see how Como develop too.
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Is it not easier for Atletico Madrid and Dortmund to attract or hold onto decent players given their always in Champions League? Atletico have been in CL the last 13 seasons, Dortmund 14 of last 15 with 11 in a row at the moment so both are well established CL teams.

From 2004/05 in the PL when it was Everton until 2022/23 when the Mags got in, it was only Leicester that tasted Champions League apart from the big 6. In the PL in recent seasons, it's been more due to big clubs having blips that allowed the mags (by 4 points) and Villa in (by 2 points).

Whereas in Germany and Spain there's not a big 6 fighting over the 4 places (5 sometimes) so still CL spaces for the best of the rest. There's only Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, so 2 more spaces for the also rans, and Bayern in Germany so 3 spaces.
 
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK said:
Is it not easier for Atletico Madrid and Dortmund to attract or hold onto decent players given their always in Champions League? Atletico have been in CL the last 13 seasons, Dortmund 14 of last 15 with 11 in a row at the moment so both are well established CL teams.

From 2004/05 in the PL when it was Everton until 2022/23 when the Mags got in, it was only Leicester that tasted Champions League apart from the big 6. In the PL in recent seasons, it's been more due to big clubs having blips that allowed the mags (by 4 points) and Villa in (by 2 points).

Whereas in Germany and Spain there's not a big 6 fighting over the 4 places (5 sometimes) so still CL spaces for the best of the rest. There's only Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, so 2 more spaces for the also rans, and Bayern in Germany so 3 spaces.
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Atletico actually got relegated at one point. You could make an argument Dortmund were not all that successful until the mid-90s. I'm just saying, things change.
 
Ultra_Fox said:
Hi. Leicester fan here.

Can't completely rule out liquidation, but given the amount of land the club owns in both Leicester and Seagrave (site of the training ground) it's highly unlikely.

There are a lot of London-based scribes still bitter, ten years on, that we deprived their faves of a title they feel they deserved.

They're revelling in our current misfortune, but are secretly terrified that we may bounce back even stronger than before.

Trouble for us is, we don't (yet) have a Nigel Pearson-like figure to rebuild the club as we did in 2008..
Click to expand...
Really hoping mate you do not go bust
There but for the Grace of the big fella upstairs goes us all
Hope you have better times ahead
We’ve been there for 4 ! Seasons and now look at us -you can ànd will come again KTF
 
mackemed2 said:
Atletico actually got relegated at one point. You could make an argument Dortmund were not all that successful until the mid-90s. I'm just saying, things change.
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That was well before the big money of the Champions League and growth of the game globally as Atletico's relegation was in 1999/2000. Football is a financial beast compared to those days and getting £50m now for being in CL for a team in Spain or Germany is massive compared to the also rans who are competing for the open CL places.

Whereas in the PL you've got the big 6 who dominated the 4 CL spots and prior to the mags breaking in, I think they finished top 6 for something like 3 seasons. To break into CL constantly you'd have to be better than 3 of the big 6 and that's not impossible now given Spurs current mess. To do it consistently is still a massive task unlike in Spain and Germany as there's more CL spots than big teams. If anything you could say that Atletico and Dortmund are part of the 'big teams' in the league given they're consistently in CL spots, they're not just in the elite group like the teams above.

Checking the money league 2025, Dortmund had the 11th highest revenue and Atletico are 12th so the best of the rest in Europe financially. Look at the commercial as this is what I meant about the global pull of the big 6 compared to the mags. It's all the eyes around the world on those 6 teams that demand big money from sponsors/ads etc along with merchandise and all other revenue streams etc. Football has grown massively globally since the Man City takeover, especially on social media in recent times. It's part of the reason why the PL International TV rights are now worth more than the Domestic.

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Bear in mind that some of the commercial for the mags is inflated due to Saudis self sponsoring more than they'd get from a 3rd party and nowhere near the lowest of the big 6 pull in, which was Arsenal with €250m. The mags will never get anywhere near that winning a League Cup, or even FA Cup. They'd have to be winning the PL or CL a lot more consistently or being contenders season upon season for many seasons to even build up a global 'fan' base that will follow them when they don't win anything.

That's also ignoring the issue of location for the mags which means higher wages given there's not as much concentrated wealth up here (footballers/actors/musicians/millionaires etc) to mingle with, or the same amount of places that cater for that kind of wealth.

Long story short, the mags certainly ain't gonna be another Man City and won't even be part of the elite anyway even if they build their shiny new stadium as having a big stadium doesn't win things, just ask Spurs. As some have said, it's a closed shop at the top of the PL and any team trying to get a place at the table may get some scraps in a doggy bag but they'll never get a full plate to munch on. If they try too hard and it all goes wrong then see Leicester as to what could happen.
 
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They look to be in a much, much worse position than us when we dropped but with more assets.

The result will be the same, everyone either gets sold or is allowed to walk to cut the wages. Not sure how easy it will be to move some of them on though, could be a few Rodwell's in there. They then have to start again with kids with everything cut to the bone.

Their 3 biggest earners contracts expire this year but that also means they let players they paid £50m for walk for nothing!

We struggled with our academy in L1 and it only cost us about £2m a year, Forest must think Christmas has come early, £100m complex, you can still smell the wet paint and the owners might have to sell it at a knock down price.

We wanted to do a 'Leicester' this year, they have absolutely nailed a 'Sunderland'
 
Milton Whonez said:
They look to be in a much, much worse position than us when we dropped but with more assets.

The result will be the same, everyone either gets sold or is allowed to walk to cut the wages. Not sure how easy it will be to move some of them on though, could be a few Rodwell's in there. They then have to start again with kids with everything cut to the bone.

Their 3 biggest earners contracts expire this year but that also means they let players they paid £50m for walk for nothing!

We struggled with our academy in L1 and it only cost us about £2m a year, Forest must think Christmas has come early, £100m complex, you can still smell the wet paint and the owners might have to sell it at a knock down price.

We wanted to do a 'Leicester' this year, they have absolutely nailed a 'Sunderland'
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With the estimated running costs, why would forest even want that training ground?
Plus they have just spent millions upgrading their own
 
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robbied2 said:
With the estimated running costs, why would forest even want that training ground?
Plus they have just spent millions upgrading their own
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I have no idea how good or bad their current facilities are but thought they had already shown interest in it?

Leicester have built a white elephant they cant afford and pretty much no one else wants, Forest might be the only interested party and it might actually be 'worth' little more than the land it sits on.
 
Have Leicester not got an academy full of kids they can sell off?

You'd imagine they'd be similar to us, big first team turnover, cut backs all over the shop, but generally try to keep everything together for a season and hope to go up. As we found though it's not that easy and the financial situation gets real quick.

From the nine teams relegated in the past three seasons only Birmingham (who spent a fortune) and Cardiff (who will finish second this season) have come straight back up.

Luton are currently three points off playoffs so could make it three teams, but Plymouth are out of it.

From teams relegated with Birmingham in 23/24 Huddersfield are still down there doing nothing and Rotherham have just been relegated to League Two.

All three teams relegated in 22/23 are still there. Reading the only team in the top half, Blackpool and Wigan will finish miles off playoffs.
 
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Ultra_Fox said:
Hi. Leicester fan here.

Can't completely rule out liquidation, but given the amount of land the club owns in both Leicester and Seagrave (site of the training ground) it's highly unlikely.

There are a lot of London-based scribes still bitter, ten years on, that we deprived their faves of a title they feel they deserved.

They're revelling in our current misfortune, but are secretly terrified that we may bounce back even stronger than before.

Trouble for us is, we don't (yet) have a Nigel Pearson-like figure to rebuild the club as we did in 2008..
Click to expand...
Literally nobody cares whether you “bounce back” other than Leicester fans tbh.

You’re where you are because you spent money you didn’t have on players and infrastructure you couldn’t afford, then hoped that you would avoid being docked points for that financial mess. It’s as simple as that really.
 
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