Why Haven't Leicester City Signed Any Players?

leicester city are the only club not just in the premier league but in all of europe's top five leagues not to have made a single signing so far this summer that may seem particularly surprising to many onlookers given that following consecutive fifth place finishes and an fa cup crown in the previous two campaigns the foxes slumped to an eighth place finish last season a massive 17 points behind arsenal in fifth and they failed to qualify for any european competition though there has not yet been a mass exodus out of the king power stadium this summer club captain and last season's number one casper schmeichel has departed for nice meanwhile chelsea seemed determined to sign wesley for fana newcastle united have made multiple bids for james madison arsenal haven't yet given up their chase for yuri tielemans and a whole raft of clubs are rumoured to be interested in signing timothy castanya in terms of incomings on the other hand despite leicester's inactivity on the eve of the season kicking off things remain eerily quiet the foxes were apparently willing to spend 21 million pounds on nico schlatterbeck all the way back in may but he opted to join borussia dortmund instead young chelsea centre-back levi colville was linked both before and after chelsea bid for wesley for fauna but it now looks as though he will join brighton as mark kukureia heads in the opposite direction there was talk of a permanent move for adam ola lookman at one stage who spent last season on loan at the club but he now looks set to join atalanta belgian marksman sharda catalara may have been leicester's most ambitious reported summer target but he too has now made a move to syria joining skidata winners ac milan for around 35 million euros there have been whispers around interest in the likes of hussein aware maxwell corney and most recently martin de bravka but nothing substantial and not a fat lot else from the outside looking in it all looks to be a bit of a mess and whilst leicester's rivals whether you consider that to be manchester united and west ham newcastle and aston villa or all of the above have all strengthened and whilst the foxes still have a formidable starting eleven their bloated and overpaid squad cannot match the depth of the clubs that they are wishing to compete against consequently with leicester seemingly on a bit of a precipice and with the rest of this window potentially capable of dictating what direction the club heads in over the next five or even 10 years i wanted to take a real deep dive into their finances the often unknown issues affecting the club and above all else why they are the only team at the time of this recording who still haven't signed anyone we should start with what we know for absolute certain at this point which is that two players have left leicester city this summer both goalkeepers namely casper schmeichel and eldon jacopovich followed by those who could still leave the club yakupovic made four appearances in five years at leicester the most recent of which came over four years ago so it would be fair to say that the impact of his departure is likely to be minimal i think casper schmeichel's sale given that he was club captain had been around for 11 years and made more appearances for the foxes than anyone else last season came as a bit of a surprise to a lot of people though perhaps less so to leicester fans whilst schmeichel was widely expected to see out the final year of his deal at the king power stadium before moving on at the start of this window he had made noises about leaving and last season was probably his weakest in the premier league whilst others will see it as a huge loss i suspect that leicester city themselves are quietly fairly content with their goalkeeping options even without schmeichel hence why i wouldn't give too much credence to the idea that they are interested in signing martin de bravka or previously bernd leno before he agreed a deal with fulham of course where schmeichel will be a big loss is in the dressing room in terms of his character leadership and experience and perhaps some people surprised at the move is caused partly by it coming so close to the start of the season but the foxes have two goalkeepers both of whom are good enough to be number ones in the premier league at least as far as i'm concerned in the form of danny ward and daniel eberson ward set leicester back 12.5 million pounds four years ago a sizeable fee for a second choice keeper and he is far far too good to have played just one premier league game during that time i thought that he looked brilliant for wales at euro 2020 and he has repeatedly impressed whenever he has been called upon by brendan rodgers either in europe or in the domestic cup competitions daniel everson meanwhile who is a compatriot of schmeichel's 10 years his junior and widely expected to be a successor in the national team was absolutely outstanding on loan at preston north then last season arguably the best goalkeeper in the championship everson won preston's player of the season award and if leicester hadn't sold schmeichel there was talk of a premier league low move being firmly on the cuts in which ever son would have been number one i suspect that ward will start the season as roger's first choice but he will have everson breathing down his neck all season long and as controversial as i suspect this will sound i think that both may actually be better goalkeepers now than a 35 year old casper schmeichel wesley for fauna leaving by total contrast i think would be catastrophic the young frenchman was on course to become one of the best centre-backs in the world in my view before breaking his leg almost exactly one year ago that was a devastating blow of course but unlike with muscle injuries there are no guaranteed long-term effects of a break and having seen for fauna a couple of times since his return both at the back end of last season and in pre-season i still think that he is capable of becoming one of the best defenders in the world and there is really no hyperbole there an absolute class act fafana is big strong comfortable on the ball intelligent and also capable of becoming a real threat from set pieces if he isn't already the best player at leicester city age 21 then i suspect that he will be before long if he sticks around chelsea have tabled a bit of 60 million pounds at the time of this recording which has been rejected with leicester holding firm on their stance that fafana is not for sale the ball is very firmly in leicester's court since fafana still has five years left on his contract at the club but it seems pretty clear that he wants to leave several reliable sources have said as much in addition to fufana pulling their classic 2020s era trick of removing any mention of the club from his twitter bio and then liking a tweet the referred to him having done that it is like the kicking the ball away constantly in training but for the age of social media leicester still have the upper hand in negotiations since furfana can hardly threaten to run down his deal the question is what lentz if any is he willing to go to in order to force leicester's hand and whether if his heart really is set on leaving the club leicester wants to keep an unsettled player who they could cash in on for potentially as much as 70 to 80 million pounds newcastle united's bid for james madison came fairly out of the blue with the initial offer of 40 million pounds bordering on derisory and seemingly intended primarily to unsettle the 25 year old the reality is that madison is outstanding on his day but is also very inconsistent he enjoyed a fantastic back end to the previous campaign and he sensed that this season could be the one in which he strung it all together and had a genuinely outstanding season before all of this newcastle talk began newcastle's most recent bid at the time of recording was for 50 million pounds which was also rejected with the magpies refusing to meet leicester's reported 60 million pound asking price madison has just two years left on his deal in leicestershire but whether he is as keen on a move to newcastle as wesley farfaner is on joining chelsea it is as yet unclear when i first heard of newcastle's interest i thought surely madison wouldn't even want to join them despite their inactivity this summer i still think that leicester have a stronger starting eleven than newcastle and one that is probably only actually battered by the top six themselves on that front therefore joining newcastle would be a sideways or arguably even a backwards step for madison but whilst leicester have sat still during the current window newcastle has strengthened once again following major investment in the previous january newcastle's ambition and trajectory is very evident whilst leicester's seems somewhat unclear combine that with the fact that newcastle would probably increase madison's wages by somewhere between fifty to a hundred percent and you can start to see why that move might not be as outlandish or improbable as it initially seems yuri thielements it always seemed likely would leave leicester this summer with just one year left on his deal and no new contract agreement having been reached and arsenal have been their front runners all summer having previously demanded 60 million pounds for the belgian last year leicester are now willing to entertain offers of either 30 or 25 million pounds depending upon which reports you choose to believe which still seems for all the world to be an absolute steal for the 26 year old arsenal clearly feel that by dragging things out given tileman's contract situation leicester will settle for less and that they will get a better deal but that is an awfully dangerous game not just because leicester could hold firm but primarily because if another super club finds themselves in need of a midfielder before the window slams shot they could well hijack the deal the likelihood is that thielements will still depart this summer but the delay is hurting leicester city since it delays their ability to replace him and with every passing day the number of potential replacements available to them dwindles and ultimately that has been at the heart of leicester's inactivity during this window brendan rogers previously stated that he wanted five or six new arrivals before the season started looking to freshen up his squad following a campaign in which the club regressed it looks like he will have none when leicester city kick off their campaign a home to brentford tomorrow afternoon and that is largely due to the club's bloated squad a hefty wage bill and an inability to move players on aside from when the foxes were first acquired by the king power group in 2010 in the championship they have never been massive spenders that is unsurprising perhaps given the fact that the appointment of svengar and eriksson and signings like yakubu matt mills paul konchewski and jermaine beckford didn't exactly work out with far more success being found under the more measured approach that was taken by nigel person who brought in a handful of youngsters from manchester united and signed the likes of anthony knockart and riyad mahrez from france each for less than one million pounds that has guided vichai siwatanaprapra and his son iowa since his father's death as leicester have spent within their means typically only splashing out on your arrivals following the major sale of someone like angolo kante riyad mahrez danny drinkwater or harry maguire however there has been no major sale at leicester city since ben chilwell's 45 million pound move to chelsea two years ago meanwhile last summer's arrivals failed to make much of an impact ryan bertrand spent most of last season sidelined through a knee injury which required surgery 18 million pound arrival bubacare sumare struggled to settle into life in the premier league and 15 million pound signing and danish giants yannick vestergaard just didn't look very good despite having impressed at southampton those three added to what was already the largest first team squad in terms of senior players in the premier league and even with yakupovic and schmeichel's departures leicester still have more than 25 senior players which is more than the maximum that you are allowed to register in a premier league squad that means that for every player leicester sign now before shifting anyone on brendan rogers will have to leave another senior first team player out of his premier league squad aside from the logistics and rules around squad sizes although it has flown under the radar a little bit leicester's bloated squad also means that they have a really hefty wage bill only the top six spend more on their player and staff salaries than the foxes as per the last set of financial accounts in which leicester's annual wage bill was an enormous 192 million pounds that is just 13 million pounds less than tottenham's wage bill it is over 60 million more than west ham's wage bill who finished above leicester last season and it is close to double brighton's wage bill who finished just one place and one point below the foxes last season what's more whilst the top six spend more than less to do on wages none spend nearly as much as the foxes as a percentage of their turnover in the 2019-20 accounts leicester spent an eye-watering 105 of their turnover on wages alone the most of any team in the premier league barring afc bournemouth now who have by far the smallest stadium and fan base in the division and were only promoted back to the premier league last season tottenham by comparison spend just 57 of their turnover on wages manchester city just 62 and arsenal liverpool and manchester united all between 65 and 66 that is of course because the big six generates far more in revenue than any other premier league team and it leaves leicester city in a pretty awkward position one could argue quite reasonably that they have left themselves exposed by overpaying for certain players making one or two mistakes in terms of their recruitment and perhaps giving certain players an extra year on their contracts when they shouldn't have done but the bigger problem is that either leicester spend big in a bid to compete with the top six and therefore run the risk of losing a lot of money and falling foul of ffp regulations in future windows just as everton have done or they accept that the premier league is a closed shop where no one can consistently compete with the big six unless they are taken over by an extremely corrupt oligarch or a sports washing human rights abusing autocratic monarchy in the middle east who are willing to create bogus sponsorship deals in order to inflate the club's revenue and allow them to overspend and compete with the big boys without getting in trouble that might sound bleak as an explanation and whilst it ain't pretty it ain't sexy and it ain't very fun it is the reality of this situation and it is one that i've harped on about a fair bit in previous videos on this channel leicester city are the one club and i mean the singular example of a team that has caused a genuine seismic upset by becoming the champions of english football journey the premier league era they are the only ones not blackburn who spent a fortune and had come second and fourth in the last two seasons it is just them and yet even for the miracle workers of leicester city who could walk on water and indeed turn water into wine it took just one dodgy transfer window in 2016 to condemn them to a relegation scrap and a trio of mid-table finishes lester have done an awful lot right since winning the premier league title in fact i would argue that they are the most enviable club in the entire football league pyramid as a fan well personally of whole city but i would imagine all similarly sized clubs in terms of what is possible if you get the right owners the right recruitment and everything falls into place yet even when all of those criteria are met and i'm not saying that lester have got all of the big decisions right but they have certainly done a better job of it than manchester united or arsenal at times in recent years whilst you can compete with the big boys for a season or two maybe even three as we have seen with leicester previously at southampton and maybe west ham at the moment the second that you make a couple of mistakes you will drop right back in line with the rest of the mid-table pack before you can even blink and the reality of football dictates that whilst there is certainly some science to player and staff recruitment and some clubs do it far far better than others it is not an exact science no team makes no mistakes in terms of their recruitment and for most if 50 of their signings are a success then they will be delighted so the idea that a leicester southampton west ham brighton wolves or really anyone outside of that top six with the possible exception of newcastle in light of their ownership regime are going to get everything right for the 10 15 or 20 consecutive transfer windows required to get their revenue consistently capable of even competing with the top six is fanciful at best and completely delusional at worst that is a slight tangent as to why i don't think that it is realistic to expect leicester city to consistently finish within the top six despite their consecutive fifth place finishes in 2020 and 2021 but it doesn't justify them dropping out of the top half let's say as some fans fear will be the case this season or from failing to compete in the transfer market with the likes of west ham and aston villa it's hard to really emphasize in words just how rapidly leicester's wage bill has risen in recent years but hopefully plotting it on a graph will help you all visualize it when leicester won promotion to the premier league in 2014 their wage bill was 36 million pounds during their first season back in the premier league when they narrowly avoided relegation it was 57 million pounds by the 2019-20 season in which the foxes finished fifth in the premier league it had risen to 157 million pounds but in the last set of accounts as you can see there was an enormous jump up to 192 million pounds during a season in which the club had no match day revenue due to covert restrictions there are plenty of players who leicester would love to move on this summer for exactly that reason to get them off their wage bill and pave the way for new arrivals but that is easier said than done the reality for the club is that so far this summer they have had an awful lot of interest and indeed actual bids for players that they want to keep and virtually nothing in the way of interest in players that they want to sell according to a number of reports lester would be willing to park company with the likes of chagla seonchu ryan bertrand ayozi perez hamza chowdhury yannick vestergaard dennis pratt and perhaps even bubakari sumari this summer but prat and sumarei are the only ones who they seem to have had firm interest in torino are keen to sign pratt having had him on loan last season but they say that they cannot pay any more than 10 million euros whilst leicester a demanding 12.5 million meanwhile monaco have expressed an interest in signing sumarei but only on loan which whilst giving them a bit of room to maneuver in terms of their wage bill wouldn't provide the kind of cash injection that the club needs to go out and make a real investment in the types of signings that brendan rogers wants last month ahead of a pre-season friendly against leicester's sister club o.h leuven which is also owned by the king power group when he was asked about leicester's lack of signings rogers stated that quote we have to do some work and if we can do that then hopefully we can affect the squad if we are going to compete anywhere near where we have been we need to do that if not it is a different expectation the honest opinion is it probably isn't going to be to the level i wanted that is just unfortunate end quote it was a pretty somber assessment from a visibly frustrated manager whose first two and a half years at leicester was such a resounding success there are those who would argue however that rogers himself is not entirely blameless for leicester's transfer conundrum upon his appointment at the king power stadium rogers was reportedly insistent that his head of recruitment at celtic lee congerton be brought with him congaton formerly of hamburg west brom and sunderland was not held in particularly high regard by the supporters of any of his previous clubs it must be said although being head of recruitment at a club can be a thankless task at times whilst leicester city fans weren't infused by claude puel's management of the club and most celebrated roger's arrival few actually had too many complaints about the club's existing recruitment team and their track record the previous summer lester had signed the likes of james madison ricardo pereira chagla sayonshu and johnny evans for the same amount of money as they had sold riyad mahrez for alone and the summer before that harry maguire have been signed for 18 million pounds from hull city only to be sold for 80 million pounds a couple of years later congaton's record at leicester i think it would be fair to say has been a bit of a mixed back but few leicester city fans will mourn his departure which came at the end of last season more problematic however is the fact that congreton left leicester to take up a similar role at atalanta back in may when the season came to a close meanwhile the man who leicester have hired as his replacement martin glover was placed on gardening leave until the end of the summer transfer window by his current club southampton so as to prevent him from being able to help the foxes this summer it means that leicester have not had a head of recruitment this summer which is far from the only reason why they have been unable to shift unwanted players on and bring any fresh faces in but you would imagine that it can't have helped in all likelihood there will be some movement over the next few weeks before the window slams shut dennis pratt i would imagine will depart yuri thielemans surely will be sold for somewhere in the region of 25 million pounds a couple of first-team players will be allowed to leave the club on loan if permanent deals cannot be struck for them and it is probable that at least one of leicester's big hitters who they really would rather keep hold of will be sold for a significant fee whether that is madison for farna or castanya any of the three would represent a major blow but it would at least give lester the freedom to go out and make some long overdue alterations to their squad whoever they lose this summer though they could do with the deal being struck sooner rather than later as the number of the fox's supposed summit transfer targets like sven botman have already been signed by other clubs and that situation will only worsen as time goes on someone like hakem ziesh for example who i think would have been an excellent and very affordable replacement for james madison earlier in the window if leicester are to sell the england international is now being linked with a move to manchester united thus making him a much tougher transfer target obviously and certainly a whole lot more expensive i have as is the nature of this video given the question that is posed in the title not painted a particularly positive picture of leicester city's current predicament though i do think that they are all reasonable assessments of the challenges that are currently facing the club that is not to say that there aren't also reasons to be cheerful or that the foxes are doomed this season as i said their strongest 11 as things stand is for my money the seventh strongest in the division players like fafana james justin ricardo pereira and even ryan bertrand assuming they all stick around whilst obviously not new signings will feel almost like that having missed large chunks of last season through injury and in for fana justin and pereira we are talking about potentially three quarters of the strongest back four that leicester can probably name even jamie vardy for example missed more than 30 games last season and following a season of getting used to life in the premier league personally i think that pats and daca is an enormous talent capable of taking the premier league by storm if he is given the chance we ought not lose sight also of where leicester city were a decade ago specifically mid-table in the championship having spent a season in league one not all that long ago compared to where they are now the new 100 million pound training ground that the club moved into a year ago is absolutely first class and is one of the best setups in all of world football it is frustrating no doubt for leicester city fans that they so narrowly missed out on champions league football in successive seasons missing out on vital revenue and the chance to really push on and challenge the top six and now they may feel as though they are slipping behind the big boys and are unlikely to be able to keep pace with them this season that is all fair and reasonable and above all else true but within the constraints of english football for a club of their size they have built spectacularly strong foundations they have one the two biggest trophies in english football and they are still the envy of virtually every similarly sized club in the country that is it for today's video but thank you all very much azam for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed it i sincerely hope that was the case let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and uh yeah make sure you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for hitc sevens you can also find me on either twitter or instagram via the username at hitc7s on both should you wish to do so cheers

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 153,903

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Leicester City, Leicester, City, Signings, Transfers, Premier League, Documentary, Brendan Rodgers, Chelsea, Wesley Fofana, James Maddison, Arsenal, Youri Tielemans, Newcastle United, Transfer, Signing

Id: Xv-n7vUp1ac

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 06 2022