With the new ownership of King Power, Leicester City fans are believed to think that the club are not in any need of selling their best players, since the mother company covers all depth and will always look after their own interest.
TCF also believe that the club is in a healthy position, but recent financial statements and the previous FFP problems and a number of big money sales of players in the last three years must be taken into consideration.
Transfers are part of professional football and often decides the short term happening at a football club. Makes fans thick and talk as they all are wondering about who’s coming in, and who’s going out. A new face is always refreshing, but often it can be too many and looking back, doing wrong can end in “hell”.
To balance finance at a football club is no easy work, since you always have that short term competitive factor and the actions to be made correctly to win and stay in reach of your goal, which can be to fight for promotion, stay up, qualify for Europe or win the league. The fact that you also have to be in guidance with FFP is also important.
Going back you will find managers at this club that made this balance almost perfect, and in TCF’s mind comes people such as Matt Gillies, Jimmy Bloomfield, Martin O’Neill and also Nigel Pearson.
Peter Taylor, Micky Adams and Sven Goran Eriksson are examples of managers that made fatal errors, trying to solve “results” with too much speedy chopping and changing. Claudio Ranieri also made crucial mistakes using billions of pounds on the wrong heads and placing all of his new signings either on the bench or in the stands.
You can also put a number of questions marks on money used by Claude Puel and Craig Shakespeare, who splashed out cash, without moving other players out and just add to a large wage bill that must be seen as little value for money, when players are not playing first team football.
You can’t really miss on a big money transfer, then you are out of order and slightly getting into problems. Peter Taylor missed heavily when signing Ade Akinbiyi, who clearly had problems to adapt to Premier League level football, something a manager should see. Claudio Ranieri experienced the same with his record signing, bringing in Islam Slimani for a new club record and seeing a great failure in two areas, not really in need of a striker like Slimani, not a clear idea of the use of the player.
The situation at Leicester City has never changed, not since the early days of the 60’s, when record deals were made selling of the best players, and it looks as if it will never stop. The big issue at Leicester City is always, how to find a proper replacement and for a fair price as we have seen so many times before, nursing the career of some great players over the years.
This has been the song over and over again. Seeing some great players leave, when you really started to hope that something could be build on those, but instead they either forced a move through or the club needed to sell, either to get finances correct or find money to strengthen other areas in the team.
Some managers balanced this perfectly, while others missed the target by far. The use of money at times have been a total disgrace, and the heavy spending on Ade Akinbiyi and Islam Slimani stands out as the worst. Kelechi Iheanacho must be “destroyed” after his big money move, and probably seen his chances less than what he expected.
Southampton is a similarity to look at, selling, selling and selling, and where are they, close to a relegation fight season in and season out. Can’t really see a club trying to progress with such a strategy, it will over a period of time end in a relegation.
You often feel that Leicester City make sales when they should not, and are not always able to find the right replacements and act a bit desperate and not really from a settled plan, and they are eager to spend money fast when it is available.
The story seems to repeat itself with players moving on without a clear plan to get in someone that can take that role directly and close a gap. We will see how it will work this summer, and so far promising moves has indeed been done by Brendan Rodgers.
Below a list of big money Leicester City sales over the years,
- 1964, Frank McLintock, Arsenal, £80.000
- 1967, Derek Dougan, Wolves, £50.000
- 1967, Gordon Banks, Stoke City, £50.000
- 1969, Allan Clarke, Leeds United, £165.000 (British Transfer Record Fee)
- 1972, David Nish, Derby County, £225.000 (British Transfer Record Fee)
- 1974, Peter Shilton, Stoke City, £325.000 (World Record Fee, Goalkeeper)
- 1985, Gary Lineker, Everton, £900.000
- 1987, Alan Smith, Arsenal, £850.000
- 1991, Gary McAllister, Leeds United, £1.000.000
- 1995, Mark Draper, Aston Villa, £3.250.000
- 2000, Emile Heskey, Liverpool, £11.000.000
- 2000, Neil Lennon, Celtic, £5.750.000
- 2001, Steve Guppy, Celtic, £700.000
- 2002, Ade Akinbiyi, Crystal Palace, £2.200.000
- 2002, Robbie Savage, Birmingham City, £2.000.000
- 2002, Gary Rowett, Charlton Athletic, £2.000.000
- 2008, Richard Stearman, Wolves, £1.000.000
- 2008, Gareth McAuley, Ipswich Town, £1.250.000
- 2008, Iain Hume, Barnsley, £1.200.000
- 2009, Joe Mattock, West Bromwich Albion, £1.000.000
- 2010, Matty Fryatt, Hull City, £1.250.000
- 2011, Jack Hobbs, Hull City, £800.000
- 2016, N’Golo Kantè, Chelsea, £32.000.000
- 2016, Andrej Kramaric, Hoffenheim, £10.000.000
- 2017, Jeffrey Schlupp, Crystal Palace, £12.000.000
- 2017, Danny Drinkwater, Chelsea, £35.000.000
- 2018, Riyad Mahrez, Manchester City, £65.000.000
- 2018, Ahmed Musa, Al Nassr, £14.500.000
- 2019, Vicente Iborra, Villareal, £8.000.000
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