I thought it was strange timing to let Walsh go to Everton during this transfer window but I presumed that we'd done all the background work on players we were interested in and that City and Everton would have come to some agreement about conflicting interest in players - i.e. we'd have first dibs. However there have been a few stories about Everton bidding for players that we are purportedly interested in, the latest being Lucas :
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...verton-Leicester-Transfer-News-Rumours-Gossip
If we're no longer interested in him then I have no problem with this but if it's a "war" between us and Everton for him I'd be concerned. Everton do seem to have decided to build a team based on speed - as we are - so conflicts are sure to arise.
Thoughts?
I agree that it was pretty poor to leave in the middle of a transfer window. However, Everton were desperate for recruits and it isn't something Koeman considers part of his role, so it was probably a 'now or never' offer for him.
The approach of Spurs to (Walsh's probable replacement) Mitchell makes more sense in preventing him for moving on during the current transfer window. However, as a consequence of these two decisions, we get the worst of both worlds.
In broad terms, we do tend to do two rounds of recruitment in the summer. The first appear to be long term targets and pre-agreed deals. Then towards the end of the window, we do a bit of last minute wheeler dealing - I seem to remember Cambiasso, Lawrence and Simpson being late signings two summers ago and Inler and Dyer coming in late last year. I still fully expect that we 'want' at least a couple more signings this window. But are we in any shape to make them happen without a chief recruiter?
Walsh is now bound by a 12 month agreement that he will not sign any Leicester player that isn't transfer listed. This was widely reported and is why Everton dropped their interest in Schmeichel. However, he is clearly free to go after players that he wanted us to sign but didn't for a multitude of reasons. All the players he's recruited so far have been linked with us at some point so it's hardly surprising that more will do so.
What is unclear is whether there is a formal or informal agreement between City and Walsh that we won't compete for the same players this window. It could be that we passed on competing for those he's already signed and maybe from the guy in this article.
It would be disappointing if we end up competing for the same player over the coming days. I don't trust this articles accuracy though.
