The good news for panicky Leicester City supporters is that they are no longer the only Premier League not to announce a new signing this summer. The bad news is that their one arrival is a 32-year-old third-choice goalkeeper who is replacing the club captain. If Alex Smithies ever plays in the Premier League for Leicester, it will be an emergency situation.
Leicester’s sluggishness is neither deliberate nor accidental; it is necessary. In their last published accounts, their wage bill had risen to roughly 85 per cent of turnover and was comfortably the highest outside the Big Six. Leicester have lost approximately £120m combined over the last three seasons. That figure is clearly impacted by Covid-19’s practical and economic limitations, but it means that Leicester simply couldn’t afford to freewheel their way through the summer window. There are concerns over FFP and the need to reduce the wage-turnover ratio.
The need to sell to buy is exacerbated by the presence of several, barely wanted fringe players. Outfielders who haven’t yet played a minute this season despite being fit include Jannik Vestergaard, Boubakary Soumare, Nampalys Mendy, Ayoze Perez and Caglar Soyuncu. Brendan Rodgers would probably be happy for any of those to leave (or, ideally, already have left). There are no great secrets about who is wanted and who is dispensable.
But Leicester haven’t sold players. That might well change – Wesley Fofana did seem to be waving goodbye to supporters at Arsenal on Saturday – but Rodgers and the club are in a very awkward position. The players being targeted are their gems: Fofana, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes. Leicester, therefore, are asking for high prices to reflect their importance. And there is a PR issue at play here; selling your best players after the season has started requires a premium to sidestep the perception that the squad is weakening. Every replacement has the pressure of being compared to what has just been lost.
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A good deal of any negativity about Leicester’s summer is pure noise, an over-exaggerated focus on football ephemera. There is an obsession with transfer market culture that has somehow not yet peaked and perhaps never will. A club is typically far better buying too few players than buying too many (providing they keep the ones they have) – maybe Leicester would just be better rejecting all bids and sticking with what they have.
But that gets so lost in the storm that it becomes an accepted falsehood. It doesn’t matter if buying players is necessary – if enough supporters believe it to be necessary and their mood becomes instructive, it becomes necessary. All the while, Tielemans’ contract ticks down and Fofana looks at Stamford Bridge with longing eyes.
Leicester might be able to ignore all this noise if it remained within their fanbase; wins are always a soothing balm for those problems. Unfortunately, Rodgers too wanted change this summer and Leicester have conceded six goals in their opening two games, taking one point.
“If players aren’t improving and developing, then of course you need that healthy shake-up – we need to reinvigorate the squad,” he said as early as February. It was a deliberate public message to his seniors that invigoration was needed to maintain their position as European hopefuls. It has not been heeded.
But then what more could the club do? They are not prepared to risk financial peril to fuel short-term improvement. They are acutely aware that their legacy must be sustainable growth. They are prepared to sell at the highest prices, but are refusing to be bullied. There is no panic yet, but nor is there an obvious course of action. Leicester are caught in suspension, waiting for the first domino to fall. And on they wait…
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