Youri Tielemans was the only signing of Claude Puel in the January transfer window, and a loan signing of a player that probably needs a climate change to get his career going.
We have gone back in time and looked at the loan signings done before, and you will find a number of different results on how the “loan gang” has done.
The first player to come in mind is the guy that came in from Stoke City, just as Peter Shilton left and move the other way. John Farmer came in and had a go in goal, he played only two games as Jimmy Bloomfield decided to use Mark Wallington instead.
The next player to come in mind was Gerry Daly (no 10 v. Wolves), who had a much better impact on the team, helping Gordon Milne and Leicester in the 2nd tier. Daly played 17 games in a few months and was greatly part of a promition push, and he must be seen as to date the best loan signing ever at the club.
Forward Peter Eastoe actually had two loan spells at Leicester City, and both of them with a bit of success, scoring 2 goals in a total of 11 games. City avoided relegation and stayed up, as Milne went for Eastoe to help.
Midfielder Billy McKinlay and goalkeeper Alan Fettis were two loan signings under the time Martin O’Neill was with the club, and none of them played a single game, but had a role to play in the squad. McKinlay later returned under Micky Adams and made the most of two relatively good season, helping Leicester to a promotion in 2002-03 and also played a number of games in the Premier League the season after.
Micky Adams loaned Marcus Bent from Ipswich Town in the 03/04 season and the forward did well at Leicester, despite ending the season in relegation. Bent scored 9 goals in 33 league games and must be seen as a good loan move.
Ian Halloway also juggled with loan moves and during his turn in management he had several players on loan. The Hungarian duo Laczko and Bori came in, so did goalkeeper Ben Alnwick, others where Hendrie, Worley, Bell and Etuhu, none of them managed to be able to keep the relegation ghost away, and as we all know ended in League 1.
Nigel Pearson also had loan players as part of his plan to get Leicester City back up and some of them must be regarded as good contributers, such as the goalkeeper David Martin and defender Jack Hobbs and midfielder Astrit Ajdarevic from Liverpool. Tom Cleverley from Manchester United, Kerrea Gilbert from Arsenal. Pearson also loaned in Mark Bunn, David Stockdale and Tony Warner short term to solve a goalkeeper crisis.
Gilbert had a good impact, so had Hobbs, Martin and Cleverley who all played well under their loan spells at Leicester City in that promotion season. Pearson must also be happy with the way Wayne Brown helped out, also him loaned from Hull City.
Pearson continued to loan in players as a habit, and during the 09-10 season he made moves for James Vougan from Everton, Martyn Waghorn, Sunderland, Alex Bruce , Ipswich and Jay Spearing from Liverpool, all having an impact, especially Waghorn made the most out of his stay, getting a permanent deal the year after.
Sven Goran Eriksson came in and made a number of loan signings in his first season at Leicester City, with a likes of Curtis Davies, Ben Mee, Yakubu, Patrick Van Aanholt and Jeffrey Bruma among those. They all had mixed experiences from this as “Svennis” struggled to find a rhythm and pattern for his team, and it all never really gelled.
Svennis and later Pearson made a number of loan signings the season after, but it was less than the season before. Delfouneso came in from Aston Villa, Gelson Fernandes joined from St Etienne and Michael Johnson from Man City. Gelson had glimps of his previous great, but the two other failed to impress.
Then in that next season iconic enough Nigel Pearson made a number of loan signigs that later became great and fantasitc players, but must really be rated as average while at Leicester City. Jesse Lingard and Harry Kane had short loan spells at Leicester during the 2012-13 season, and Michael Keane played the full season. All of them today full England internationals and Keane did his job and helped Leicester City to a play off position.
Pearson did one single loan signing in the next season, bringing in Arsenal defender Ignasi Miquel, who was a young and up coming central defender, and seen as a cover for Wes Morgan, Marcin Wasilewski and Liam Moore.
The first season back in the top flight, “the great escape” also had their “loan hopes”. Robert Huth came in on loan from Stoke and had a clear and instant impact, while Nick Powell, who joined from Man Utd, didn’t really have a look in.
During the “5000/1” we all remember Nathan Dyer for his fantastic header, scoring the winner against Aston Villa, coming on as a sub. As a season long loan, he only featured in 12 league games and scored that only goal. Dyer is a winner of the Premier League and in that sense must be seen as a successful loan, but all in all, might have believed he would have been more involved when the news of him joining came in.
Claudio Ranieri decided to bring in Molla Wague in the January window of 2017, it’s only two years ago, feels much longer, but it never worked out for Wague at Leicester. He only appeared once, in that tragic FA Cup clash away to Millwall, and later had difficulties with injuries and all in all wasn’t really not a contender, just a disaster recovery, if suddenly four or five other alternatives were out.
Youri Tielemans is then the next of Leicester City “loan hopes” as we have seen that it can be either a great move or in most cases a difficult one. Tcf is very uncertain about Tielemans, who are not an experienced player, can be difficult to adjust, and also competing with some very good players at Leicester City.
Struggling to see what type of “plan” Claude Puel have with this loan move as we only can see him upsetting the balance long term and unsettling other players such as Harvey Barnes, Hamza Choudhury and maybe James Maddison, Nampalys Mendy, Demarai Gray and Marc Albrighton, who all will be competing with Tielemans for a place in the first team.
We certainly believe that Paul has brought in the player to see him as one bringing something “fresh and extra” to the first eleven, if not, this can’t really be a move made just to give Adrien Silva a chance to escape from his nightmare at Leicester City.
We wish Tielemans all the best as we rate the top three and the low three of loans in the modern history of the club, this is our selection,
- Top Three
- Robert Huth
- Gerry Daly
- Marcus Bent
- Low Three
- Molla Wague
- Nick Powell
- Harry Kane
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