The 24/25 Squad

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Brown Nose

Brown Nose

Well-Known Member
Right then, the window has slammed shut and we are where we are. Firstly, let's look at the squad changes.

Sold/Released: Iheanacho, Akgun (loan), Doyle (loan), Praet, Flynn, Dewsbury-Hall, Brunt, Albrighton, Booth, Maswanhise, Appiah, Hughes, Doherty, Lewis

Incomings: De Cordova-Reid, Golding, Fatawu, Okoli, Skipp, Ayew, El Khannouss, Edouard (loan), Buonanotte (loan)

Loans Out: Thomas, Souttar, Braybrooke, Richards, Popov, Marcal, Cannon, Cover, Young, Nelson

Loans Returned: Kristiansen, Soumare, Iversen

Contracts: Vardy, Vestergaard and Ndidi signed new deals having been out of contract. Several younger pros did as well.

It's difficult to know the finances of all this but reports suggest our net spend is a little under +£50m.

That leaves us with a first team squad of 29:

GK: Hermansen, Stolarczyk, Ward, Iversen
DF: Okoli, Vestergaard, Ricardo, Thomas, Coady, Kristiansen, Faes, Justin
MF: Soumare, Choudhury, Skipp, Ndidi, Golding, Winks, Khannouss, McAteer, Buonanotte
FW: Vardy, Fatawu, Edouard, De Cordova-Reid, Mavididi, Ayew, Daka, Alves

For me, this squad (yet again) is far too big. We have too many keepers, midfielders and forwards. I always prefer fewer numbers but better quality. If anything, we're probably one or two defenders short. A couple of defensive injuries (and we have a few with a history of long term absence) and we're fecked.

Daka and Stolarczyk are both long term injured. Alves and Golding don't seem to be very close to the team and incomings will have made this worse.
 


Asked if Leicester City’s summer transfer window had gone to plan, Steve Cooper replied on Thursday afternoon: “I’m not sure a window ever goes as planned.”

From the outside, that particularly feels true for City this summer. They’ve made enquiries for lots of players, learned the prices they’re being sold for or the wages they're demanding, and then quickly moved on, like with Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson. They’ve made bids for players to test the waters but then not returned, like with Panathinaikos striker Fotis Ioannidis.

They’ve had bids meet valuations, only for the player to turn them down, like with winger Matias Soule, now of Roma. They’ve had deals seemingly wrapped up, leaving Cooper “convinced” of a signing, only for another side to steal in at the death, like with forward Adam Hlozek and Hoffenheim.

But this is how transfer windows pan out for most clubs. It’s just that a lot of City’s business, annoyingly for the club, has been out in the open this summer. It means fans see them missing out on more targets, and so frustration rises.

That frustration has led to questions at every turn. Principally it’s been: is this City squad stronger than it was last season? The £30m sale of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall put them on the back foot in that sense, but it was a deal that was required to stave off at least one PSR problem. Still, supporters would have preferred if finances had been managed better so that the club’s star man and fan favourite did not have to be sold.

Since then, City have made signings, mostly in two chunks at the beginning of July and second half of August. There’s not always been the most positive reaction. For Caleb Okoli, Oliver Skipp, and Jordan Ayew, fans at Atalanta, Tottenham, and Crystal Palace were surprised by how much City were offering for players who were bit-part options at best. It gave City supporters another question to ask: is the club overpaying for players, and is that sensible when so many positions need strengthening?

With Ayew and with Bobby De Cordova-Reid, City have signed two forwards over the age of 30. They bring experience, and that may be valuable in a season where City are fighting for every point at the bottom, but for so long the club’s transfer policy revolved around signing young, exciting talents and developing them into top-level players. Why the change from a previously successful approach? Another question asked.

The mood improved with the £20m arrival of Bilal El Khannouss this week. One of the best young creative talents playing in Europe last season, it’s the sort of signing that City fans have long wanted. It’s the sort of signing they would have had with Soule back when they moved for him in July. Supporters had to be patient, but they do now have a future star to be excited by.

Plus, he will be kept on his toes by Facundo Buonanotte. There is a tinge of envy that the Argentinian is only on loan and that City are essentially improving him on Brighton's behalf, but he's made an eye-catching start to his spell at the King Power. In attacking midfield, the options are good.

But still questions remained over the lack of firepower. City arrived into deadline day needing a striker. That they had not yet addressed a position that was, for many, the number one area to strengthen.

Had they got their priorities mixed up? Should they have spent £15m on a centre-back in Okoli when he’s not yet troubled Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard for a space in the starting line-up? Should they have spent £20m on a central midfielder in Skipp, or should a smaller fee have been used there to open up the budget for a forward?

On the striker question, the club’s answer is Jamie Vardy. He remains at City on a star-striker wage, with a star-striker reputation. The view internally is that spending a fortune on a new forward was not the best idea if they were only going to play second fiddle to Vardy anyway. Unlike the biggest clubs, City can’t have big earners sitting on the bench.

City have kept their eyes peeled and their ears to the ground to be aware of opportunities and have managed to strengthen their frontline with Odsonne Edouard. He will be Vardy’s back-up. If he’d not arrived, Ayew would have been the number nine’s deputy, but now will probably play more often on the wing.

While there may be disappointment over the lack of a marquee arrival up front, it means the club will instead use their greatest ever player every week. That’s not a terrible position to be in.

But again, more questions. Because the club did bid more than £20m on Ioannidis. Would he not have been a starter had he signed? If a striker wasn't a priority, why did bid big for the Greek international as a new striker? If it was a priority, why were they left bringing in Edouard on loan right at the end of the window? It leaves fans scratching their heads over the strategy.

But all in all, they do finish the summer window with at least two decent options in every position. It sounds like the basics, but summers quite often pass by without that being the case. There should be belief among the squad, staff, and fanbase that the team is good enough to make their mark on the Premier League this season.

As for the above questions, some of the answers will come out in the next few weeks. Some will be answered by performances over the next few months. But as is always the case, the business can only truly be assessed once the season has been played to completion.

That's when the true analysis can be made, next May. But if it gets to that date and City are placed 17th or higher, it will be forgotten that a lot of these questions were ever asked.
 
Just had a look and deadly Dennis P is still without a club.

Sometimes sitting around taking a wage rather than taking a pay cut and moving on doesn't work out.
 
Brown Nose said:
Just had a look and deadly Dennis P is still without a club.

Sometimes sitting around taking a wage rather than taking a pay cut and moving on doesn't work out.
Click to expand...
Oh god. Wouldn’t put it past Rudkin to sign him up.
 
Brown Nose said:
Right then, the window has slammed shut and we are where we are. Firstly, let's look at the squad changes.

Sold/Released: Iheanacho, Akgun (loan), Doyle (loan), Praet, Flynn, Dewsbury-Hall, Brunt, Albrighton, Booth, Maswanhise, Appiah, Hughes, Doherty, Lewis

Incomings: De Cordova-Reid, Golding, Fatawu, Okoli, Skipp, Ayew, El Khannouss, Edouard (loan), Buonanotte (loan)

Loans Out: Thomas, Souttar, Braybrooke, Richards, Popov, Marcal, Cannon, Cover, Young, Nelson

Loans Returned: Kristiansen, Soumare, Iversen

Contracts: Vardy, Vestergaard and Ndidi signed new deals having been out of contract. Several younger pros did as well.

It's difficult to know the finances of all this but reports suggest our net spend is a little under +£50m.

That leaves us with a first team squad of 29:

GK: Hermansen, Stolarczyk, Ward, Iversen
DF: Okoli, Vestergaard, Ricardo, Thomas, Coady, Kristiansen, Faes, Justin
MF: Soumare, Choudhury, Skipp, Ndidi, Golding, Winks, Khannouss, McAteer, Buonanotte
FW: Vardy, Fatawu, Edouard, De Cordova-Reid, Mavididi, Ayew, Daka, Alves

For me, this squad (yet again) is far too big. We have too many keepers, midfielders and forwards. I always prefer fewer numbers but better quality. If anything, we're probably one or two defenders short. A couple of defensive injuries (and we have a few with a history of long term absence) and we're fecked.

Daka and Stolarczyk are both long term injured. Alves and Golding don't seem to be very close to the team and incomings will have made this worse.
Click to expand...

Presumably Nathan Opoku is back with us now too. He was on loan at OHL last season but broke his leg in April.
 

From the Mercury:​

Leicester City's 25-man squad and the rules they must follow with transfer opportunity left open​

City have to submit a 25-man squad list to the Premier League by Friday, September 13, and could leave a spot available for a free transfer between now and January

Leicester City may not fill their 25-man Premier League squad and that would allow them to sign a free agent between now and January.

City’s deals on deadline day – including the signing of Odsonne Edouard and the loan exits of Tom Cannon, Ben Nelson, and Wanya Marcal – means Steve Cooper has a squad of 29 first-team players. However, five of those will not have to be registered in the main squad.

For this season, players born on January 1, 2003, or later can be placed on the under-21s list, which has no limit. City quintet Abdul Fatawu, Facundo Buonanotte, Bilal El Khannouss, Will Alves, and Michael Golding are all eligible for that list.

That leaves 24 senior players to be registered at City, and one spare spot. While the squad list has to be submitted by Friday, September 13, a free agent could be added any time between now and January, as long as they were out of contract before the transfer window ended.

When naming a 25-man squad, the main rule to be aware of revolves around homegrown players, those who spent at least three seasons representing an English or Welsh club before they turned 21. Clubs are allowed a maximum of 17 non-homegrown players in their 25-man squad, and that won’t be an issue for City, who only have 11 such players in their squad.

While they may have one free spot, there is a possibility that City will fill their 25-man Premier League squad. Two of the players in their development squad would need to be registered if they are to be called upon by Cooper to play in first-team matches. They are midfielder Arjan Raikhy, who made his debut under Enzo Maresca last season, and striker Nathan Opoku, who is currently recovering from a double leg fracture he suffered in April during his loan spell at OH Leuven.

But City will not face the difficult decisions they had the last time they named a Premier League squad. Back in January 2023, with 26 players needing to be registered, City chose to leave out James Justin, who was out injured with an Achilles injury. But the full-back returned to fitness before the end of the season, and Dean Smith rued that he couldn’t turn to the England international to help with the club’s fight against relegation.

City's prospective 25-man squad list (24 players, * indicates homegrown): Mads Hermansen, Jakub Stolarczyk*, Danny Ward*, Daniel Iversen*, Ricardo Pereira, James Justin*, Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard, Conor Coady*, Caleb Okoli, Victor Kristiansen, Luke Thomas*, Harry Winks* Oliver Skipp*, Wilfred Ndidi, Boubakary Soumare, Hamza Choudhury*, Jordan Ayew, Kasey McAteer*, Stephy Mavididi*, Bobby De Cordova-Reid*, Jamie Vardy*, Patson Daka, Odsonne Edouard.

Selected under-21 players: Abdul Fatawu, Facundo Buonanotte, Bilal El Khannouss, Will Alves, Michael Golding.
 
Surely we won't register Stolarczyk with his current injury?

Changes can be made in Jan so any club with half a brain cell would just register Mads, Iversen & Ward and then move one of the latter 2 on in January, and be replaced by Stolarczyk when he's fit or nearing fitness again.

I therefore fully expect us to register all 4 of them all season.
 
Jeff said:
Presumably Nathan Opoku is back with us now too. He was on loan at OHL last season but broke his leg in April.
Click to expand...
He's definitely back with us at the moment as he was pictured behind the bench for one of the games this season.

I imagine he'll be back with the development squad when fit and then probably out on loan again in Jan.
 
M17TT C said:
He's definitely back with us at the moment as he was pictured behind the bench for one of the games this season.

I imagine he'll be back with the development squad when fit and then probably out on loan again in Jan.
Click to expand...

I think he had to go to OHL because he wouldn't qualify for a work permit for us. No idea whether 18 months there is sufficient to get one.

As he did a double break of his leg in April, I expect he'll be out for a while yet.
 
FOX Franks said:
Interesting article in light of having space for free agents; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpvyjwjr17no

Someone like a Hummels could be the Esteban Cambiasso of the season and I can imagine we are in a position to offer a big money contract for 12 months or so with the expensive deadwood we have shed (although not finished?)
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Hummels is off to Roma and I don't think the PSR ruling improves our buying power at all.

We still made above the allowable losses for that season, which carriers forward on a 3 year rolling total, so we still need to be careful on what we spend to avoid further breaches.

We avoided a penalty due to poorly written rules and an almost unique set of circumstances with out relegation, the timing of our financial year and the timing of when the charges where brought about.
 
I thought we may go for Brandon Williams, as left back cover instead of Thomas
 
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