A year ago, predicting the season to come felt like being forced to narrate your own march to the scaffold.
How are you feeling this time around…?
Your mood in 10 words?
Helen Thompson: All I’m expecting is just some exciting, attacking football. Please.
Harry Gregory: Sometimes may be good, sometimes may be shit. Simple as.
Jamie Thorpe: Cautiously, carefully optimistic with a hint of excitement.
James Knight: Most of our players are better than the other teams’.
David Bevan: Excited about the wingers, still wary of the club’s direction.
Becky Taylor: Not interested. Waiting for a club comment on relegation; divs!
Iain Wright: Play the youth, not the failures. Then I’ll be happy
Ryan Hubbard: Cautious optimism, renewed perspective, but still angry with the board.
Jamie Barnard: Nothing’s changed off the pitch, any progress is only temporary.
Matt Jedruch: Disarray off the pitch, but our young prospects breed optimism.
Where will we finish?
HT: I don’t like to set expectations too high so somewhere around 7th – 10th
HG: 7th
JT: 3rd
JK: 1st
DB: 2nd
BT: My gut is torn between back to back relegations or HMS piss the league, wouldn’t be surprised by either.
IW: 4th (due to the deduction)
RH: Top six. Any potential points deduction could hamper our ability to achieve automatic promotion, but the play-offs should still be achievable.
JB: 3rd
MJ: 4th
How many points will we be deducted?
HT: 9
HG: 5
JT: 9
JK: None
DB: 6
BT: 6, surely we can’t get away with it again? The EFL have been waiting to get us and I am sure there will be something.
IW: 12. There’s been some enormous deductions in the EFL, far greater than the ‘max 9 for administration, so it’ll be less’ some are consoling themselves with. I hope ‘Super Nick’ has got his case together to try and reduce this for us.
RH: Fifteen. Assume the worst, and anything better is a bonus. If we get away with nine, I’ll be reasonably content.
JB: 6
MJ: 9
Who will be our most important player?
HT: Abdul Fatawu, given our lack of outright strikers
HG: Jordan Ayew. In the lack of a recognisable goalscorer or out and out striker, the no 9 role will still be hugely important. If he can grab 10 to 15 goals, while being a foil for the wingers, that will see us towards the top.
JT: Fatawu, if he stays.
JK: Mavididi. Senior player, lot of responsibility, goals, hair cut indicates he Means Business.
DB: Fatawu – but, more importantly, we will need a couple of our extraordinarily expensive (for the Championship) midfielders to step up and boss things.
BT: Fatawu, what a time to be alive that he’s back. Even if it’s going terribly, his vibes can get me through the season.
IW: Fatawu – we have to be careful with him following injury, but come on, the guy’s a Champions League level player!
RH: Abdul Fatawu. He terrorised this league two years ago, and the glimpses of him since returning suggest he can do it again.
JB: If he stays, El-Khannouss. If not, the creativity will have to come from Fatawu.
MJ: Abdul Fatawu
Who will be top scorer?
HT: Abdul or Stephy
HG: Mavididi – 14
JT: Mavididi
JK: Mavididi
DB: Ayew (or our terrific new Vardy replacement when he inevitably arrives)
BT: Jordan Ayew. I want to back Patson but I’m not sure I can and I think Ayew is going to be a curveball that’ll do a job as the 9. Abdul, Stephy, Monga running past him and he will just quietly tick over with goals without doing much, other than winning free kicks and sticking his arse out.
IW: New striker if we sign one. Mavididi if not
RH: Jordan Ayew. In the absence of a goalscorer, he’s chipped in over Pre-season. The top-flight may be beyond him now; but provided we can’t get someone to take his chunky wage bill off our books, he’s still capable at this level.
JB: An as yet unsigned striker – but the goals will be shared around a lot this season across several players.
MJ: Jordan Ayew.
What are you most excited about?
HT: Marti and clearing out some of the older players, it feels like a chance at a fresh start again. A more exciting, youth-driven start.
HG: One of the very few beauties about being a yo-yo club is the variation of opposition and venues. Throw in a bunch of youngsters with room to develop and if Cifuentes can harbour a badly needed link between players and supporters.
JT: The raw attacking talent in this side, especially with the young guns coming through. A squad with Monga, Alves, Mavididi and Fatawu in it is hard not to feel optimistic about.
JK: Mavididi and Fatawu in tandem again. One of the worst things about last season was the fact they virtually never played in the same side. Attacking wingers are cool.
DB: The wingers but also, at the time of writing anyway, the prospect of Bilal El Khannouss linking all these exciting wingers if he stays.
BT: My brothers having their first season tickets. I feel completely drained by the club but the one silver lining is them getting their season tickets and their excitement about that is infectious.
IW: The prospect of the younger players coming through and shining. The squad has been stale for ages and I really hope this season sees the changing of the guard. I want Monga especially to grow into the generational talent he could become.
RH: A bit of a fresh start. Last season became unbearable to watch at times, and indifference quickly crept in. Although no one has arrived through the door, there’s plenty of opportunity to see some different faces to last year.
JB: The thought that maybe, just maybe, the lack of significant change and the utter void in comms is because the club is up for sale.
MJ: Winning games again.
What are you most worried about?
HT: The off-pitch dramas, the usual.
HG: I often think back to that awful period over 23/24 where we lost to Millwall and Plymouth in a week and also showed frailties at other mid-table sides including Cifuentes’ QPR. We have a fortunate start and if we fail to make progress over that, this squad badly lacks the minerals.
JT: Who will be nabbed before the season starts and the lack of depth at centre-back – I really don’t want to see Faes in the shirt again.
JK: The strikers. Ayew is a deeply uninspiring number 9 and Daka’s head has gone the way of his first touch. In those terrible winter midweek games, do we have the ruthlessness to just nick a goal and win 1-0? That’s where the promotion magic happens.
DB: The nagging feeling that we still don’t have good, responsible decision-makers at the club to safeguard its long-term future and nothing is happening about it.
BT: The engagement with fans from the club. Hiding behind the FEF I’m very concerned that all those in key positions at the club think everything is fine, when everything just seems to be getting worse on that front.
IW: The potential for a points deduction. It was one thing to breach in the Premier League (chasing Europe, unexpected drop to 18th etc) which we ‘got away with’. Its a completely different situation if we breached when were last in the Championship. We knew exactly where we stood and what we needed to do. A guilty verdict invalidates that promotion, eviscerates our reputation and a significant deduction will hit us hard in what’s looking like a strong league.
RH: The fact we haven’t got rid of as many of the higher earners as we’d have hoped. Selling Vestergaard, Faes, Kristiansen, De Cordova-Reid and Daka (although I still hope he can chip in at this level) would have added to the sense of a refresh, and provided further, much-needed cash injections.
JB: That we sell Hermansen and El Khannouss to generate funds to spend. We then use the money as poorly as we have done in recent years and end up in this perpetual cycle of selling our best players to keep our heads above water and cover the mistakes of prior windows.
MJ: Enduring poor decision-making and management of the club.
What’s one thing you most want to see this season?
HT: Goals. Last season was so devoid of the joy of celebrating a goal.
HG: Keep it simple. Winning at Coventry. Additionally and slightly leftfield, I’d like to see LCFC promote the Women’s side far more and push the wider accessibility of the women’s game.
JT: Fan unity, at least at the start. Cifuentes deserves a chance and I really pray our fanbase gives it to him.
JK: Something different. Some new players, a different style of play. I need to feel like this isn’t the same show on repeat.
DB: Safe standing contributing to a better atmosphere.
BT: Monga and Nelson (and others, but particularly these two) getting plenty of minutes and tearing up the Championship. It’s about time we give our academy a proper go and make some proper stars.
IW: A team that knows how to defend. Jeez, it’s not much to ask!!
RH: Youth, youth and more youth. What’s the point of having a top-class academy if you don’t provide a pathway to first team football? This season is the opportunity to blood them properly, and some of them clearly have the talent to cut it at this level.
JB: A manager that connects with the fan base and gets us bought into something. If feels like since Ranieri we haven’t had a manager that the entire fan base has been fully keen on.
MJ: Putting trust in our youth prospects.
Which player is going to surprise us?
HT: It’s going to be Jannik Vestergaard again isn’t it, storming back into the side.
HG: Oliver Skipp looks competent as he’s clearly got fitter over pre season. So maybe that he goes from 1/10 to a 3/10.
JT: Winks. Backing him to remind us how good he can be.
JK: Vestergaard. Or low-key Kasey McAteer, who looks vaguely like he’s found a yard of pace and a killer instinct.
DB: Okay, it’s happening. This is not a drill. I might regret this but… Boubakary Soumare.
BT: Ayew. He gets a lot of hate, but he does a decent job of what he knows and as mentioned I think he could do a very good job up there to bring out the best of our other attacking players. Jordan Ayew Ole Ole it is!
IW: Stolarczyk – nails down the no1 position. I like how commanding he is around the box and the fact he’s got a bit of personality about him (Spurs away was a masterclass). Safe hands.
RH: Every established player on the books shouldn’t be surprising us in the Championship, so it feels as though a young player should be the answer to this question. But still I’m going for Ayew, given he didn’t set the world alight last year.
JB: Luke Thomas – he’ll be one of our best performers and earn an extended contract here.
MJ: Bouba Soumare.
Which current player are you most desperate to see follow Conor Coady out the door?
HT: Wout Faes.
HG: Wout Faes. Arrogance in a modern footballer. Never his fault. Never his mistake. Had his agent pushing a video around last season on LinkedIn (which included clips of the 4-0 loss at Everton).
JT: Wout Faes. Diabolical. The hill I am willing to die on is that he is the main cause of JJ’s fall from grace.
JK: There’s something about Boubakary Soumare living long enough for us to get so rubbish that he starts every game that riles me. So him.
DB: Yeah, it’s Faes – even though I think he could suit this Cifuentes style pretty well at this level. A long overdue departure.
BT: WOUT FAES. Do not make me watch him play football for us again, please!!!
IW: Faes. I’m frankly sick of him. Nowhere near as good as he thinks he is and always disappears when the going gets tough. He quite simply makes the opposition’s manager’s team talk easy – just work the ball near to where he’s standing. Please just leave.
RH: Any high-earning, saleable asset. Vestergaard or Faes, ideally, so we don’t continue in the cycle of seeing them perform in the Championship and a new manager assuming they can cut it back in the Premier League. Also Hermansen, as Stolarczyk deserves his chance to establish himself as number one.
JB: Faes and Soumare on a 2 for 1 deal – their mentality and consistent underperformance epitomises everything wrong with the squad in recent seasons.
MJ: Wout Faes.
Which player linked with a move are you most desperate to keep?
HT: Bilal El Khannouss. We’ve seen glimpses of what he’s about but it feels there’s more to see and enjoy. Plus I want to see him and Abdul linking up more.
HG: I’ve largely been numb to the links and sadly that’s included two players in Ndidi and Hermansen who have been good servants. However, when Ben Nelson was mentioned to Chelsea, that was worrying.
JT: Fatawu, but if we could somehow hang on to BEK you may as well promote us already.
JK: Nelson is a great shout.
DB: Of the players strongly linked, El Khannouss. But also tell Fatawu not to score any more goals like the Fiorentina one until September.
BT: I suppose El Khannouss, he would be ridiculous in the Championship but I am not particularly desperate to keep any of those linked with moves. I think Bilal is overrated by our fans.
IW: Fatawu hasn’t had that many links, but he’d be the one I’d be desperate to keep. To be honest, I wouldn’t be upset about anyone older than 23 leaving.
RH: El Khannouss is probably the only player not having come through the youth team, to emerge from last season with any credit. Yes we’d make good money on him, but he’d be worth a lot more to us in the long run.
JB: El Khannouss. We have a genuine future Champions League level player there. If he doesn’t want to play in the Championship, we should loan him out and have him back in a year if we go back up.
MJ: Bilal El Khannouss.
Will Marti Cifuentes still be the manager this time next year?
HT: The hardest question. I’m going to go with yes.
HG: Yes. He will hit the gap of not achieving enough that his reputation grows to be attractive for Premier League clubs while he will have done enough at LCFC to buy some time amongst the fan base.
JT: Yes, but he will be heavily linked to a move to a “bigger” club…
JK: Yes.
DB: Got a good feeling about this one, but not so good that he’ll be off imminently. A cautious yes.
BT: Yes, because even if it’s going disastrously the hierarchy will be sat on the hands oblivious of the fire around them.
IW: Absolutely no idea. After starting out making all the right noises about communication from above, he’s already started to state his frustration around how slowly things are progressing in the transfer market. At the other end of the spectrum, if he does well this season he could be Enzo 2.0. Ultimately, I’d like to think, and indeed hope, he would be still here. We’ve burned through far too many managers recently and desperately need some consistency to wrestle control of the changing room away from the proven failures and towards a brighter future.
RH: Yes. Even if we narrowly fail to achieve promotion. We’ve got to stop thinking that we are a Premier League team, and remember that where we are is where we’ve been for much of our existence. Only then can we push on and try to achieve more. Sacking a manager-or-two every season because we think differently isn’t going to help in the long run.
JB: Yes. As seen with Ruud, we can’t afford to sack managers and are not savvy enough to insert clauses to help do so even when performance is not acceptable.
MJ: Yes!
The Fosse Way 
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