Mark Albrighton, Daniel Amartey, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel are the players still to appear for the club that also had a first team impact going back to 5000/1.
Six years ago since those great happenings and if you look back at the squad twelve seasons ago, you will see that rotation and changes are keys to such development, but in all you need to mix everything with the best possible blend of new signings, young home grown talent and of course keeping a number of experienced players as you drive your forces forward.
Leicester will go into action today vs. Newcastle who are in transition and fighting for a new lift with major changes in front, and we believe Magpies will fly higher next season and under Eddie Howe climbed away from the relegation battle that looked as a scenario earlier in the season.
From the squad as it looked when the Thai owners came in. The year was 2010, and Leicester had allready seen some type of progress being able to get to the play-off’s in tier two after getting promotion from the third tier a season before.
The club had been through a difficult period but in some way owner at the time Milan Mandaric managed to balance the finances. The club decided to part company with their manager Nigel Pearson and go posh by appointing Paulo Sousa.
Andy King, Liam Moore, Lloyd Dyer and Jeffrey Schlupp were all in the first team picture at the time, and as listed the only one left when the club pushed for promotion four years later.
The rotation was immense and changes made to drive through a promotion push which in a way started with the new appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson, inroducing Kasper Schmeichel, David Nugent and Paul Konchesky all appearing in the years to come .
In the summer of 2011 you also had a special change as new CEO Susan Whelan and CFO Simon Capper both came in and still today are very much involved. Jon Rudkin and Mike Stowell were given the confidence of running first team affairs in the interim period between Eriksson and Pearson.
Nigel Pearson returned to the club with his special assistants Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare also in the party. Wes Morgan and Danny Drinkwater was two early signings that turned out fantastic, using a million on each of them had a grand impact.
Leicester gained promotion a year later falling in the play-off’s the season before as Nigel Pearson introduced names that later became England internationals in Jesse Lingard, Harry Kane and Micheal Keane all joining on loan, but never signed in full. Jamie Vardy joined also in that very same season.
One signing that stood out as special in the return of Nigel Pearson was Anthony Knockeart as his talent flourished at tier two level. Later we have seen that Knockaert never really found his tune in Premier League but became somehting of an expert to help his teams to promotion as we did see at Leicester, Brighton and Fulham, being part of their promotions.
Riyad Mahrez, Kevin Phillips, Matty James and Dean Hammond together with Richie De Laet and Marcin Wazilewski all became special players added to a push to promotion that happened in 2013-14, not to forget Gary Taylor-Fletcher, who had his prevouis promotion experience with Blackpool in the bag.
TCF personally believe that too many changes were made in the summer of 2014 and probably upset the chance to a normal progress and it became a bit of a mess as Nigel Pearson struggled to establish the team in the division and just in time saved the club from relegation and luckily was not sacked.
The sack came in the summer and another odd appointment made as Claudio Ranieri returned to England to take over a club that had seen a rice and still had Shakespeare, Stowell, Rudkin and Walsh around the place, so it was not a total roll over when Claudio stepped in.
Esteban Cambiasso left after one season and had his impact. We were all sad to see the Argentinian leave, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as another signing turned out as outstanding introducing N’Golo Kantè. The team became a sensation bringing everything to perfection with Okazaki, Huth, Vardy, Mahrez, Kantè, Drinkwater and Albrighton all flourishing at the same time. Simpson, Fuchs, Schmeichel and Morgan all also showed quality that made this team so special. King, Schlupp, Benalouane and Inler together with Ulloa and Dyer and also the inclusion of Gray and Amartey made up the numbers and also had their impact as this group turned out perfect.
Other players had stepped aside and as Sven Goran Eriksson, Nigel Pearson and Claudio Ranieri all put their hands on it, we were surprised to see that the next moves in the transfer market never turned out good as Harvey Barnes and Ben Chilwell became the two best outcomes of the players introduced in the next season to come.
What happened during the summer of 2016/17 is not easy to say as of course N’Golo Kantè’s move to Chelsea made a gap that was easily not replaced before the January window appeared as Wilfred Ndidi, the last signing done by Claudio Ranieri, came in and really became a pivotal player and in a way could have saved Claudio, but the Italian magician had lost his golddust as he tinkered his way out of the job.
Claude Puel and Craig Shakespeare both had a number of succesfull aditions but in all never managed to convince anyone about their ability to bring Leicester back into contention for a top spot again, but as we have seen under Brendan Rodgers, he has managed to bring more silverware to the cabinet and managed to qualify Leicester to Europe in his years at the club.
Leicester ownership and management at this time looks as perfect as it can be, sometimes we do see errors made and form not at it’s best, but all in all we do not know about any better formula than what the club has in place at this very moment.
Hopefully this will continue away to Newcastle today as we prepare for yet another exciting evening of football with Leicester City.
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