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If the list of current Leicester transfer linked players is anything to go by, we do believe it will be of no improvement. Players currently identified as potential new signings would disturb the squad balance even more and put the club under a lot of stress regarding their financial challenges as a potential relegation looks likely, if players on this list are brought in, as they all are of lower quality to what is actually in the squad at the moment.
For the fanbase and different websites and you tube channels following the club, they do never take into consideration a deeper view on the situation, and whenever they are challenged, you hear the easy answer coming up from the envelope, often using the owner as an escape route for few or no answers at all.
Leicester owner Khun Top is the only straw of hope this club have at the moment, often backing the manager, head of recruitment and director of football. Advise from a sporting point of view, looks far from the correct answer, as we clearly could see under Brendan Rodgers and also in several previous and current situations, becoming a comedy act. A number of players brought in, are far from able to play a part, as they are of less quality than what is currently available.
A fans view again would be, to just blame everyone for wrong recruitment, and still have no answer to the problem. Possibly coming up with an even more self distructing plan, that shows how difficult the recruitment of players from outside can be. The magical point of no return is always to throw money after players they can’t get elsewhere, to get them to join Leicester. Looking in perspective the last ten years, just a very little exclusive group have managed to get a regular place in the team.
Looking at the success of recruitment in football, you have different levels. You can recruit a player for the purpose of developing him over a couple of seasons, but then we are talking about a player below the age of 21. If you decide to recruit such a player for your first team squad inclusion, he needs to be close to something that would see him not making a total fool of himself if being played.
Then you have the recruitment of a player that you believe should be in and around the first team, for example an experienced man that knows his position and how he will be used by the manager, possibly not part of the first eleven, but that steady Eddie you can call on when you believe he is needed. But be very careful with these type of player recruitment, as it of course would affect his form and appearances when he is not played on a regular basis.
The one recruitment to be done is of course the once you believe can go directly into your first team and do an instant job. That player that will see a certain change and get points on board. We have seen this type of recruitment many times in the past, as we beleive Kasper Schmeichel, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan all were that sort of signings, when they came to the club from Leeds, Stoke and Forest.
Youri Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Winks, Riccardo Pereira, Wout Faes, Harry Maguire, Shinji Okazaki, Esteban Cambiasso, Stephy Mavididi and Christian Fuchs all had that impact as well. They all build a great momentum when they arrived, became significant contributers.
You never really know how everything turns out, but the recruitment done over the summer at Leicester, has not worked as well as we would have hoped. All players brought in are in real struggling to make an impact, and as they are all on long term deals, Leicester looks stuck with them until the contract runs out. Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Caleb Okoli, Jordan Ayew, and Oliver Skipp all looks to be players in this category. They do not look as they will be contributing in the manner we need them, and if a relegation happens, possibly either being sold for deflated prices or becoming part of fans frustration towards the club as we have seen with Danny Ward, all so perfectly in place of what can go heavily wrong at a football club regarding recruitment. The fee paid, contract length and services received, looks a total crash scenario.
As we have said so many times before, a recruitment policy at a football club needs to be well storted, if not you will get fractions, clicks and different underlaying matters that we as fans have no clue about, and as fans we should not make a judgement on it.
Often recuritment under stress and in a relegation battle could be difficult and as we have seen in the past, few players of what Leicester need, might be available or eager to get into these type of environments. Youri Tielemans joined Leicester on loan and was a clear example of great recruitment as he decided to join a struggling team, a manager under treath, but in some way blossomed and became one very good signing long term. We would also put Wilfred Ndidi in that situation as well.
The problem at Leicester at the moment is a bit more complexed, as Steve Cooper came out on the wrong foot completely adding players that were signed to just fill out the squad numbers and as we have seen not been able to become a regular first team quality addition. Bilal El Khannouss is a very good example. His potential looks great, but doubts and warning signals should have been seen, as he looks far from a finished article and at his age not one to count on as a player to lift the team on his own. A terrible recruitment short term that could turn a disaster as a relegation battle looks far from what he should be experiencing at this time, but money thrown after him made it impossible not to make the move.
The fact that the club do have players on relatively long term contracts and possibly on saleries no one else would be able to pay, moves away will not be very tempting, and a loan neither, as these players have looked on their recent moves to the club as a place to be staying with their families, so everything is a very mixed bag.
To bring in new players in January looks almost impossible if no one is shipped out either on loan or being sold. To see any of these players interested in a move, looks out of the question as their package at Leicester from a financial perspective is so far away what interested clubs would be willing or able to offer.
Leicester cannot bring in more equal quality or bench warmers to fill up the squad at this point, and if not able to off load first team players, you are not really in any frame at all to add new players. The mess looks complete at this point as Ruud van Nistelrooy needs at least three quality signings to be able to bring this ship forward.
One has been done in Brian Barry-Murphy, as he looks a very good addition, sadly not a player, but hopefully this will give Ruud van Nistelrooy the type of help that we certainly believe will see the squad and players in here grow to a level that could see the club survive in Premier League. Barry-Murphy comes for a recent position at Man City, and being said to know he trade and described as a training ground guru.
Rvn has confirmed Brian Barry-Murphy, former Man City U21 boss, is set to join his coaching team at #LCFC.
Barry-Murphy took over from Maresca with Man City's dev squad and won two PL2 titles in his three seasons in charge. https://t.co/k645go6txv
— Jordan Blackwell (@JrdnBlackwell) December 24, 2024
This will also be the growing belief going forward, to improve players from the work done on a daily basis out on the training field, being able to lift spirit, self confidence, technical quality and also improve the relations between players as you get a possible developement, bringing the team higher in the table.
Watching the team vs. Wolves, we do see that this team lacks a lot of relational quality as well as not really showing the knowledge of judgement, leaving out Wout Faes and having Conor Coady and Jannik Vestergaard as a partnership against a Wolves forward line that had certain qualities perfect for playing relatively slow moving defenders.
The fact that Leicester do have so many players on long term deals, and as we have seen in the cold, cool and hot list of linked players, makes it terribly difficult to do any transfers of the caliber needed in January. Cannot, so far, see any of the players linked, being able to cement a place in the first team as they all are in no way near what is needed and possibly more likely to end up as Tetè and Harry Souttar.
Leicester are chasing players at a lower level than needed, and at this point potential is not something to regard as a transfer strategy for players in this January transfer window.
One clear example is to see the name Victor Lindelof as a potential signing for Leicester, then it would be a downgrade from Wout Faes, who in my view is the best defender at the club. It would also push summer signing Caleb Okoli further away from a starting position, as that investment looks in danger of ever being paid back, as the move was sanctioned by Atalana boss Gasperini, not really being rated from the Serie A club at all. Okoli played for a team that was relegated from Serie A last season, and with what was available at Leicester, not really one to use money on at the time. He has limited techinical quality and a bit slow and unsecure in passing, something that is essential if you should survive in the game of Premier League.
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