We had almost forgotten what good news looked like. The reaction time was similar to the split second it took to remember how to celebrate after Jamie Vardy scored Leicester’s first home league goal for 146 days.
Here were some words on the official website bearing genuinely superb tidings rather than something about losing at home to Brentford again, or falling foul of financial regulations, or giving a long contract to another donkey.
This isn’t the time and place for all that. It might be like someone nicking your car and then posting the steering wheel back to you but let’s actually celebrate for once like we did when that Vardy goal finally hit the back of the net.
Leicester City have agreed contracts with nine young Academy graduates.
We can put them in several different categories. You’ve got the raft of promising players ready to take the next step in their career: **Henry Cartwright**, **Toby Onanaye**, **Stevie Bausor** and **Bobby Amartey**. Cartwright, a robust midfielder with a good passing range, looks the closest to first team action after making the squad for the trip to Newcastle last December, while Bausor’s shot-stopping has caught the eye during Academy games.
In a similar category you can place **Olabade Aluko**, who made his league debut as a substitute on the final day of the season at Bournemouth. That trust elevates Aluko slightly and his athleticism and ball-carrying ability from either full-back position mark him out as a real contender for a first team squad place next season.
Then you’ve got the players with something to prove: **Sammy Braybrooke**, who remains an elite prospect despite serious injury and a disappointing loan at Dundee hampering his progress.
Braybrooke might be in last chance saloon now at Leicester given the sheer numbers of even younger players with huge potential. In his central midfield position, that means Louis Page, capped at England youth level, and even the 14-year-old Darren Motsi.
Last chance saloon probably also contains **Silko Thomas**, who impressed in patches at Wigan without stealing the show on a regular basis.
Then there’s **Jakub Stolarczyk**, who arguably doesn’t belong in this list at all after fine loan spells and a series of eye-catching displays standing in for Mads Hermansen over the past couple of years. Stolarczyk has great presence for a relatively young and inexperienced goalkeeper.
Even our pair of reliable Danes, Hermansen and Kasper Schmeichel, couldn’t match Stolarcyzk’s ability to command his box at set piece situations. His shot stopping appears close to that stellar duo too. If he shows an ounce of Schmeichel’s leadership qualities or works on his distribution to get anywhere near Hermansen’s capability then we’ll have another elite goalkeeper on our hands.
Some shaky passing out from the back in the final few games of the season has coloured some fans’ current perceptions but Stolarczyk still has so many of the ingredients needed to be the next in a long line of great Leicester number ones.
Eight down, one to go. The youngest. And I actually owe either **Jeremy Monga** or the club or both an apology as I’d made such an assumption he would be leaving that at one point I didn’t think it was worth continuing to play him at the tail end of last season. It turns out those strong links to Manchester City amongst others were just unfounded rumours.
Either that or the situation changed. Perhaps Ruud van Nistelrooy was central to Monga’s decision to stay after being given so many minutes at Premier League level at the age of 15. Perhaps Monga’s series of substitute appearances came after a request to van Nistelrooy from higher up.
Whatever the truth of it, the club seem to have played a tricky situation perfectly. It must be every young footballer’s dream to get a move to a club like Manchester City or Real Madrid but, even accounting for bias, Monga has made the right decision in chasing Championship minutes after he turns 16 next month.
The tantalising prospect of a professional contract kicking in next summer is now on the table, but in our current scenario we are fortunate just to get a season out of Monga. We’ve seen enough from his cameos so far to believe he can be a Championship gamechanger from the bench at the very least, even at such a young age.
For Leicester fans, the creative, attacking options in the positions between central midfield and centre-forward are suddenly thrilling.
We already know what Abdul Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi can do in the second tier. Kasey McAteer has progressed in the past few weeks to score his first goals at Premier League and international level, and spoken well about what is required of Leicester players next season. Will Alves returns from Cardiff with full knowledge of the division and is another with a point to prove about his future at his boyhood club.
Fatawu’s return from injury is one of the most exciting things about next season but you can put Monga’s first full season at senior level right alongside that.
On one hand, you shouldn’t place too much pressure on a 15-year-old. But when it comes to Jeremy Monga, the buzz is genuine. The electrifying feeling of knowing when he gets the ball, he can be off and past his marker within a split second.
You can’t factually state he’s going to make it to the very top, of course. You can, however, make a very reasonable case he’s one of the best in the world for his age group given his first-team exploits, England youth recognition and the calibre of clubs that were queuing up to watch him play.
It may have seemed like plain sailing to get to this stage of his career, but it would have involved a lot of hard work and dedication. He’ll need to show those qualities in even greater quantities now to muscle his way past the wealth of options and into the starting lineup.
The minutes given to Monga and Jake Evans demonstrate the most important thing in a young player’s mind. Although Evans wasn’t listed among the nine renewals, BBC Radio Leicester’s Owynn Palmer-Atkin described a deal there as “close”. We also await news of the 17-year-old striker Lorenz Hutchinson, who has bagged regularly for the Under 18s and been linked with other clubs.
The message to all of these players is clear. Work hard and if you’re good enough, you’ll get a chance.
For a moment, we can park our concerns about the management of the club in a number of areas. This week, we can aspire to a brighter future with players who should fundamentally understand the pride in playing for Leicester City.