Muzzy_Larsson

Steady You can't say a guy that's unproven outside of Holland is as good as those two yet, two guys who won the champions league last season and are top 10 ballon d'or finishers!

Maybe he doesn't feel he'll play enough long term. They have Bonucci, Rugani and De Ligt all most likely ahead of him at the moment with Chiellini still to come back next season.

I'm not convinced Bowen would make the step up to the EPL all that well. He lacks pace and against a better quality of opposition he'd get less space to get into favourable positions. Although different types of players could see shades of the Che Adams transfer with Bowen. For a club closing in on the champions league you should and need to be aiming higher, looking to secure a real difference maker, Bowen isn't that guy for me. From what I've saw of him also he doesn't do enough off the ball to play in a Rodgers side so I'd be surprised if there's even any genuine interest in him.

This is it in a nutshell.

Can't agree, you can't fast track players if they aren't showing enough, they need to make the breakthrough on merit. Also disagree on Barnes, with the benefit of hindsight his spell at West Brom looks to have done him the world of good, a productive 6 months there and he came back ready for premier league football, if he had spent that 6 months kicking his heels on the bench and/or playing U23 football he wouldn't have developed at the rate he has, no doubt about it.

Chilwell has been linked with everyone and his auntie for astronomical fees, Chelsea being the latest in a long line of suitors, if he goes it wouldn't be for far off the £80m mark. I don't really understand the point your trying to make here. Yes, in a general sense strikers/attackers cost more as there are less of them and they do the hardest thing there is to do in football which is scoring and creating chances but maligning Leicester somewhat for not producing strikers is a bit spoiled given the quality of young players you are bringing through across the board.

I'm sounding a bit like a broken record here but if you were prepared to sell Chilwell in January would he be a kick in the back side off of an £80m player? I don't think so. From the outside looking in Leicester look like one of the best club's in the EPL for producing and promoting youth at the moment so I'd be careful what you wish for.

I probably would because I would look at guys like Chilwell, Hamza and Barnes who have came through the last few years and think there is a pathway there if I'm good enough and if I get there, there is a manger in the first team who has a proven track record of developing young players. There's a glut of EPL clubs you could look at, at both ends of the table who you most definitely could not say the same for. Young players need to be included in the match day squad on merit, not to motivate them, if they require motivation to succeed at that age then they are in the wrong job and don't posses the necessary hunger and desire to make it in the game.

Some interesting chat on this thread, can relate to it quite a bit as the core of our side (Celtic) have came from our academy with the next crop predicted to come through thought to be even more promising(Dembele, Robertson, Okoflex, Afolabi, O'Connor). Youth development, particularly at elite level like the EPL can be a bit of a double edged sword as the stronger you become as a side and the boom and bust nature of the EPL itself means the pathway is for youngsters to make the breakthrough is a lot more difficult. From the outside looking in I'd say you guys are doing pretty good on this front, Chilwell, Hamza and Barnes all permanent first team squad fixtures, all of whom have made the breakthrough proper in the last few years. If you get 1 player of the level or close to it of Chilwell coming through every few years then that's a great success rate imo. Looking at it coldly it's like getting a £40-60m player every few years for free. These clubs where you see a glut of kids all come through at the one time are very much the exception as opposed to the rule. Examples would be the class of 92, pep's barca, the current Ajax side and the Ajax side of the 90s, there's not much more going beyond that so expecting or planning to develop that sort of talent all at the one time is very much an unachievable utopia 99.9% of the time.

Did you see him on Sunday

Agree with all of this, absolutely spot on.

Tbh it would be a disgrace if you guys let any of your best players go in January given the league position, etc so his comments there are no surprise.

I'm basing this mainly on the fact he underperforms a lot for Scotland (they all do tbf lol) but I know what you mean, I'm never blown away when I watch him but at the same time his stats make very impressive reading.

The entire reason Leicester would be in with a shout of getting Lemar would be because of his record at Atletico being poor, if he was pulling up trees he'd be unattainable for obvious reasons. A player with better output, who plays regularly in the Atletico side wouldn't go to Leicester, that's not a dig just a harsh reality. The theory behind a signing such as this is your signing a player who has bags of potential, still at a good age, who hasn't had the best time of it lately but with a manager who has a proven track record of developing players you can get him firing again.

Oh God! Nightmares seeing that

Hahahahahaha superb post

Given the hyper-inflation in terms of transfers between EPL clubs and the fact Everton reportedly had an £80m bid knocked back a matter of months ago I don't think the price for Zaha is ever going to be realistic. Shopping in the EPL market should be a last resort for Leicester imo, very hard to find value and all your recent successes have been imports from abroad or the championship. If it ain't broke don't try and fix it.

I’ll take your word for it mate. I’ve only seen them a couple of times in all honesty this season and he’s played more centrally so was just basing it on that. Being aware of that now he would be an excellent signing for you guys in that case.

I think Grealish is a great player but I struggle to see how you would fit him, Maddison and Tielemans to an extent into the same side. He's too good a player to be shunted out wide and I think it would be a similar result as to when Maddison was played wide, unsuccessfully at the start of the season.

So is everyone in China, it's par for the course for any decent players that go there, that's why they go. It's not going to come down for a financial decision for guys like Carrasco, it will be a footballing one and down to whether they want to continue wasting the best years of their career in a footballing backwater. Carrasco is a great shout in all honesty and IMO attainable. Guys such as him and Lemar (who someone else on this thread suggested) are exactly the profile of player you should be after, young enough with it all still to prove yet with great pedigree already.

I genuinely don't believe you need to go out and bring anyone at all in come January, a window where value is hard to find. Summer is the time to strike carefully and bring in a top class wide player who will chip in with goals and assists. Signing people for the sake of it can sometimes upset the apple cart.

I think this is spot on, that's when you'll really start being considered a bona fide force and become able to attract and more importantly retain the top top players, with regular European competition, even if that's consistently making the latter stages of the Europa League. This season though Champions League qualification looks in the bag to me.

On the very odd occasion in his first two years. Then at the start of the third season we played that way all pre-season, with a view to playing that way that season with Dembele and Edouard together but Dembele was sold on the last day of the window and we reverted back to the 4-2-3-1.

I think next season may be the real breakthrough season for Praet after being used sparingly this season. The main reason being with the added workload of European football Rodgers will be forced to rotate more and more than likely more injuries will be suffered.

If your going to be playing European football next season which now looks nailed on there'll be far more opportunities for the third choice centre back to play. Add into that Evans will be a yer older and it may make sense to manage his workload a bit better which then might make the notion of anyone being third choice a bit obsolete, may be more of a case of Soyuncu being that stand-out first choice and Evans and Smalling rotated somewhat throughout the season. Going into next season, with the added workload of European football with Evans and Soyuncu and Morgan as first choice back-up would concern me if either of the former pick up an injury.