As we reported early Saturday morning, Facundo Bounanotte has been added to the squad on a one year loan. Bounanotte recently signed a new deal with Brighton, running until June 2028. The 19 year old Argentina full international is one player that can operate in the offensive area and be used either behind the main striker or on the flank. He is a player of good potential, but a young prospect that makes up the numbers and of course one that can be a good addition.
Steve Cooper will also have to cope with the fact that Jamie Vardy, Conor Coady and Patson Daka all will be out of contention for a place in the squad on Monday, due to their recent injury stories. Vardy and Coady is definately out, Daka got a knock after 37 minutes vs. Lens and had to leave the field, so we have to wait and see.
The desperation seen from Steve Cooper, and also the fact that players know that depth in a Premier League squad is important, asking themselves what is going on and if more players will come in, still far from a good squad of 25, also having a chance to ship out a few younger players on loan to gain more experience.
Steve Cooper knows the level of Premier League and he knows what will come, having a life at Forest to use as a benchmark, we will see a manager eager to get in as many qualified players as possible before the transfer window close.
Looking at the transfers allready done, we all had the Abdul Fatawu move in there, despite waiting for the confirmation for weeks, even if the deal was in a way nailed with that contract clause on his loan deal, making him a Leicester player with the promotion in place.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid is a proven Premier League player and one that can operate both wide in midfield as well as centrally, but against Lens being in a hybrid wide role between attack and midfield as he looked far from comfortable, not really coming much forward, having Choudhury, Winks and Ndidi in those three midfield roles. We certainly rate him highly and believe the Jamaica international can be a good addition, no doubt.
Kaleb Okoli is the odd fellow at this moment. Splitting the partnership between Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard as Steve Cooper looks to go for a flat four in the back. Not that we rate Okoli, but that the signing looks far from needed, having four other options in those two central defensive positions.
The signing of Michael Golding makes no sense at all at this point, splashing out money on a player that is not needed to avoid relegation this summer, so possibly as earlier said, being part of a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall payment solution.
We have no understanding in the pre-season selection methods used by Steve Cooper, who looks to be a wizard of dimentions as he juggles his team in selection and formation, to possilby upset opponents not really knowing what Leicester will be doing from game to game, hopefully understanding themselves what they are doing, not really seeing any pattern at all with the selection being made for the Lens game, dropping Mavididi, Vestergaard and Pereira from the starting line-up.
Looking back at previous seasons when promotion to the top flight had happened and what was done during the preperation period to get ready and adding players needed to be able to compete, you had several different approaches as those seeing a survival became the once to follow. Jimmy Bloomfield as Steve Cooper, was not part of the promotion and took over the team in the summer of 1971. Bloomfield made three major signings in Jon Sammels, Alan Birchenall and Keith Weller, as well as shipping out Bobby Kellard and Willie Carlin, later in the seaseon, Paul Matthews and Rodney Fern became departures. This is also the job, to get players out that in real no longer looks part of the plan.
Martin O’Neill also had a clever hand with recruitment in front of a promotion, as he in 1996, brought in solidity over the summer in goalkeeper Kasey Keller, defender Spencer Prior and forward option Ian Marshall. He later added more players as well as shipping others out, perfectly planning the work of progress within the football club.
Micky Adams is another name to look at, but his approach in the summer of 2003, became a bit too much, having a lot of different transfers being made, all of them on a free or loan deals, not really figuring out the logistics, but still very close to survival, but not good enough to follow the two others, that managed to survive in their first season back.
Nigel Pearson should of course not be forgotten as he took Leicester up in 2013-14, brought in a lot of players over the summer, such as Danny Simpson, Ben Hamer, Marc Albrighton, Robert Huth, Matt Upson, Leo Ulloa, Esteban Cambiasso, Mark Schwarzer and Andrej Kramaric. He also added young personal such as Tom Lawrence, Jack Barmby, Louis Rowley and Nick Powell, all from Man Utd. They all filled out the numbers and as we did see, getting different opportunities as the season ran.
We do believe that experience from playing in Premier League is a need at this point as well as age, not really looking for more youngsters to join. 19 year olds should not be given a heavy burden, but be able to perform on the guidence of other mature players to see their talent flourish. In this category of players we have seen a few linked, such as Oliver Skipp, Wilfried Zaha, Jordan Ayew, Steven Bergwijn and Reiss Nelson, who are all additions that would have gone straight into the starting line-up and boosted the starting eleven. It looks as if Leicester at this point do not have the power to get such deals done.
Looking at the fans comments regarding Jordan Ayew, you can argue he is not a proper and solid striker, but still one player of great experience and ability. Ayew (32) was on the field in 35 league games last season, the year before he was an ever present for Crystal Palace, so of course one man that we feel knows the level of the league and the performances needed to be part of a survival journey.
Leicester cannot continue recruite just with an ambition of recruiting, they need the correct additions to be able to compete at this level and so far we have not yet seen any type of recruitment, besides Bobby De Cordova-Reid that is in this category, of course looking at a potential massive breakthrough for Facundo Buonanotte, as he hopefully will be that inspiration needed to get those clever attacking moves to put the correct pressure on opponents, fingers crossed.
With the experience of Bouba Soumare and Patson Daka, both being signed from leagues abroad, you are not always lucky as the two have struggled to become what they both potentially were signed for, having difficulties to adapt to the football in play at this level.
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