Michael118

Terry - £77,000 pw Snodgrass - £42,000 pw Lansbury - £40,000 pw Hogan - £35,000 pw Taylor - £32,000 pw Hourihane - £30,000 pw Bjarnason - £25,000 pw Johnstone - £12,000 pw Bree - £1,200 pw Total £294,200pw / £15m per season (not including Whelan, Onomah & Elmohamady). 15m per season is 47 times the average Championship player's wages recorded in 14/15. Average weekly wage for a Championship player in 14/15 = £6,235 Average weekly wage for Terry, Snodgrass, Lansbury, Hogan, Taylor, Hourihane, Bjarnason, Johnstone & Bree in 2017/18 = £32,688

I think they're both similar in that they both have a preference for physicality over creativity. I'm not a fan of either but if I had to choose I'd go with Hughes. I think he's about a half a level above Bruce and falls right on the line for me whereas Bruce falls below it.

Amavi, Bertrand, Cissokho all had more than enough quality. Players rarely realise their potential with us. The same problem existed back then as it does now with Hogan, Hourihane, Lansbury etc failing to reach the same heights they did at their previous clubs. It's not Bruce's tactics which is our problem. Its hiring managers who have no idea how to get the best out of our players.

For me, we were always going to come crashing back down to earth after the anomaly of winning 5-0 against Bristol. I didn't expect us to lose 1-3 but am not surprised by the performance at all. With it out of the way, I think there's a better chance of a decent performance in the next league game but will Bruce be able to keep it together over the remaining games and collect enough points for us to go up automatically? I seriously doubt it.

I don't think they would have been relegated under Ranieri. They were one point outside the relegation zone when he was sacked with around 1/3 of the season left to play. There was plenty of time for him to turn things around and finish the season respectably. I think after they became Champions, he wasn't able to get them motivated in the same way he was able to the previous season to sustain what they achieved or take them any further. There are lots of examples of much stronger teams falling off a cliff after winning a title and I think that's basically what happened to Leicester after they won the Premier League.

I don't really see Guardiola as a manager who could have achieved the same at Leicester as what Ranieri did. Leicester's squad were no better than average and Ranieri transformed them into world beaters. Assuming you haven't got a hidden talent for being a manager you might be able to get a 50% record or more managing Barcelona against Leicester under Ranieri if the matches were one-offs. Over a full season when other factors come into play it would be a different story.

Leicester under Ranieri in 15/16 will always go further than say Barcelona under Bruce over a full season.

A better analogy would be a film. A good writer & director could still produce an excellent film with an average cast. But a poorly written screenplay with an average director will never reach the same heights no matter how good your actors and actresses are.

Hogan has 3/3 in Cup games and Gabby 0/1.

Hogan vs Gabby vs Davis Goal Ratio (avg goals per game) Gabby - .22 Davis - .13 Hogan - .11 Goals per games started ratio Gabby - .33 Davis - .12 Hogan - .12

That was Hogan's second goal for us. The other came in the 0-2 away win at Wigan last season. His record compared with Gabby's is 0.11 goals per game from 16 starts and 1600 mins played. Gabby has 0.22 goals per game from 6 starts and 787 mins played. Hogan is averaging 1 goal for every 8 starts. Gabby is averaging 1 goal for every 3 starts.

They're both on the same level in my opinion. Houghton maybe has slightly more potential but I wouldn't be confident in either of them getting us promoted let alone keeping us in the Premier League or pushing us on once we got there.

Chris Hughton would be another sidestep and another manager who just isn't quite good enough. It would be Steve Bruce all over again. We need a manager with some x factor and some actual quality.

If our aim is to get out of the Championship we need better than just 'good Championship players'.

I'd take Gabby from the MON era over anything I've seen of Defoe. Gabby could have developed himself further since that time as well if he was a bit more self motivated or we had managers who were more capable.

Gabby has more presence than Defoe, is stronger and quicker than Defoe, holds the the ball up better than Defoe and in my opinion at his best is a more influential player than Defoe.

You could argue Gabby has more left in him than Defoe because he's barely played over the last few seasons. Gabby needs a decent manager and hasn't had one since MON left. Consequently he's never fully recovered his form or fully blossomed as a player and I still think a good manager could get that out of him to a degree if they can get him fit and motivated to perform consistently instead of just for a few games per season when the stakes are high. Unfortunately Bruce was never going to be the manager to get that out of him.

He just turned 31. While it's not young, it's not old enough to say he couldn't get back to his best if he got himself into the best condition of his career. He's 4 years younger than Jermaine Defoe. People who think he's past it because he might have lost a yard of pace and that was his only quality are seriously underestimating him. Under an Allardyce or Pulis he'd be scoring 20+ goals per season in this division and would do it fairly easily.

A fully fit Gabby under the right manager would still be one of the best strikers of the Championship. Bruce is getting very little out of him like most of our players.

Johnstone Hutton Chester Elphick Taylor Jedinak Hourihane Snodgrass O'Hare Agbonlahor Davis Steer McKirdy Onomah Adomah Grealish Bree Richards

I think people misunderstand how significant motivation is in sport. Even the most self motivated athlete can get a huge benefit from a manager who understands motivation and can build morale in a team in a way which breeds success compared with a manager who isn't aware or isnt able to apply that understanding. Two managers could have the same tactics and would achieve 2 completely different results depending on their delivery. It's about being able to connect with the players on a deeper level as well as the power of belief and being able to get others to believe in themselves. Everyone has unlimited potential. If you can put others on a path to seeing that in themselves it can be pretty powerful. A good motivational manager vs a poor one is the difference between Leicester under Ranieri and us under Lambert. Champions versus relegation.

They're all managers who have the ability to rise above the rut we are in in one way or another rather than being sucked into it and all have the quality necessary to get us promoted and keep us up once we get there.

If he gets them up you can guarantee he'll keep them up as well.

For those who think our issues are motivational, we're 0 wins from the last 5 now since Xia left town after giving his motivational speech and 2 from the last 10 if you exclude the 3 game winning streak we went on while Xia was still attending games following the motivational speech.

I always thought scouting/player recruitment was fine under Lambert but has gone massively downhill since we were relegated.