Leicester have in recent seasons taken a number of loan men on board. Looking back they all made a fringe performance and none of them except from Youri Tielemans triggered a full signing.
The last player on loan, Ademola Lookman, was tipped to be a full signing this summer, but the deal never happened and he is close to a Serie A move and an exciting challange at Atalanta.
His season was one to cherish but with the transfer stand still at Leicester nothing ever happend. TCF did rate Lookman for what he did last season but looking at it with fresh eyes and the fee that had to be paid no one can complain that Leicester made an approach.
Fans of this football club must remember that not long ago £1million was a relatively high fee to pay for players and for most clubs at a good level in Europe and you can get great talent for fees in that category. To go out and splash £14million on a fringe man would be insane when you have a squad with certain players that you are trying to to sell.
Looking back in previous seasons you had Nathan Dyer joining from Swansea in that special 2015/16 season, playing 12 times in Premier League and scoring that 1 goal that became so vital in the win vs. Aston Villa coming back from 0-2 down to win 3-2 in the end. Dyer returned to Swansea after that season and retired from professional footall after last season at the age of 33.
The year after a new loan deal came in place with Granada as Molla Wague signed and made little or no impact besides getting a chance in the disaster vs. Millwall in the FA Cup. Ten-man Millwall secured a stunning upset with a last-minute winner and reaching the quarter-finals. Wague signed for Udinese and later joined Watford and Forest on loan. He finished last season at Belgian club RFC Seraing. Wague has been without a club since February when his contract was cancelled. Wague is a Mali full international with 39 caps at present and looking for new options at the age of 31.
Craig Shakespeare also entered the loan marked siging Aleksandar Dragovic from Bayer Leverkusen for a season long loan. Dragovic was at the time seen as one of the better defenders in Bundesliga but never convinced Craig Shakespeare playing only 11 games in Premier League. In total Dragovic played 16 times and moved back and stayed in Germany until 2021 when he signed for Red Star Belgrade. He is still rated by his county Austria and reached the tally of 100 caps in a game vs. Scotland in March this year.
Youri Tielemans came next as he joined Leicester from Monaco on loan in January 2019. His move was a success and he signed a permanent deal to break the transfer record of a player to join Leicester. The fee was set at £40million. He has since gone on to play 107 league games added to his 13 on loan, and been a great asset for the club.
Brendan Rodgers has since he came in added three loan men in Ryan Bennett, Chengiz Under and Ademola Lookman, with the latter being seen as a success. None of the three has triggered a possible full move. Bennet has since left Wolves and joined Swansea. Under returned to Roma and went on a new loan move to Marseille and did well in France to be given a full move this summer.
Looking at everything in perspective you will only find one of these players actually getting into the team at Leicester on a regular basis and he was signed up, the rest might have ticked a few buttons but in all seen as what they were, loan signings.
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