You can always relate a decline to management, but seldom fans relate it to a departure of a big money move, or an exit of a star who’s importance might be ignored.
The fact that Leicester City have sold and cashed in on players have resulted in three managers getting the sack at Leicester City in the last four years. Brendan Rodgers faith will be seen during this season.
Claudio Ranieri never managed to find a suitable replacement for N’Golo Kantè, and he was finished just months after the club sold their most important player. We all know what Kantè has experienced since leaving Leicester City. Winning the World Cup, Europa League, Premier League and played in finals of the FA Cup and EFL Cup.
Craig Shakespeare had to see his bow with the departure of Danny Drinkwater, who’s importance in the team was vital in the relation to Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy setting the two up with clever passes and great deliviries, no one could take the place of «Drinky» while Shakespeare was in charge.
Claude Puel had to see Riyad Mahrez leave, taking his steps in the top of football, and since leaving Leicester City just a year ago, winning a domestic treble with Manchester City and also captaining his nation Algeria to an African Nations Cup title win.
Three of the most important players in the 2015/16 Premier League winning season are all gone, and now with Harry Maguire also out, what will we see in the next season or so, nursing forward new players and selling them to bigger and better looks as a tragic strategy if you would like to get somewhere close to a trophy.
A new, fresh and young group of players are coming through, but the cruel fact is that Harry Maguire will strengthen a competitor and weaken Leicester City. The club would have been at a totally other level with Maguire, Drinkwater, Mahrez and Kantè in the line-up.
Going back you will of course see how the club have suffered, selling their best players, as they have done to raise money in the past. But instead of buildiing a bright future with the money coming in, it’s been gambled and instead seen «black clouds» all over.
Neil Lennon was the real reason behind Peter Taylor’s fall as a manager at the club, not possible to get a good enough replacement in, Leicester City were top of the league a few weeks before Lennon moved to Celtic. A player in that engine room that we all know did ever so well winning domestic titles and playing in the UEFA Cup final.
Selling Emile Heskey to Liverpool might have been the reason why Martin O’Neill jumped ship as he couldn’t see how he could manage without him, and we all know that buying Ade Akinbiyi never really became a big success for the next one. MON left Leicester City a few months after Emile Heskey, everything fell appart.
Frank McLintock made a harsh decission when he decided to sell Frank Worthington to Bolton, a player that finished top goalscorer in the 2nd tier and got promoted, while Leicester City had to see the opposite happen and with a keystone gone in the Leicester City team of the 70’s, no one could take the place of «Worthy».
Gordon Milne and later Bryan Hamilton both had problems to get a struggling top flight Leicester City on their feet, selling top goalscorers Gary Lineker and Alan Smith, as Jimmy Bloomfield also struggled to get into a trophy hunt seeing two top class players such as David Nish and Peter Shilton both being sold and later both players won the league at Derby County and Nottingham Forest.
If this continues, Leicester City selling relatively young and promising players and keystones in vital positions we cannot really believe that a manager will be able to find the replacements that will bring the club forward, over and over again. Players needs to adapt and learn and then hopefully be able to do a job, but as we have seen in the past the story is totally different.
Fingers crossed that Brendan Rodgers will be able to fill the gap without losing momentum, we all of course hope that he is clever enough to do so, either with an internal player or by signing someone from outside.
TCF believe that at the moment no player can just slot in and become Harry Maguire, that is impossible, but Caglar Soyuncu and Filip Benkovic are both alternatives that could grow and become solid alternatives over time. Wes Morgan would be a temporary gamble as his life at the club looks soon to be over.
As a vital point, Virgil van Dijk became a huge success at Liverpool and Southampton have not gained anything by selling their best player, struggling in the bottom of the Premier League season in and season out.
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