Milan Mandaric targets new signings for Leicester City
Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric is poised to back manager Nigel Pearson to the extent of up to six new players for next season's Championship campaign.
The dust has not yet settled on City's League One title achievement, but already the club are preparing for the next level up.
Two on-loan men, Jack Hobbs and Wayne Brown, are permanent-deal targets already, but there looks like being more.
Mandaric said: “Now the hard work starts. We are already having strategy meetings and recognising the needs for more quality.
“We are looking for five or six players and we are having discussions along that plan with Nigel and his staff.
“One thing about the manager is that his judgement is spot-on, and I am very happy with that.
“We have a good base and we will give the current squad every opportunity to participate, and for that reason we are not going to bring in large numbers of players but be very selective.”
That is in contrast to last year when Martin Allen brought in 14 players, which proved too many to be integrated into the squad he inherited.
Next season will be geared to give City every chance of competing for that longed-for return to the Premier League, and Mandaric said: “The worst thing for me would be to predict that, but what our supporters must know is that the character of people like Nigel and myself is to be successful, and the way to do that is to go to the next promotion.”
Mandaric has been delighted with the level of support and said: “The fans have been great in sticking with us this season.
“It is their club really. It was here over a hundred years before I came and it will be here a hundred years after.
“I am very grateful for their incredible support after so many years of not being successful.”