Stephy Mavididi

[Finnegan]

1 minute ago, lcfcsnow said:

Just feels to me like our transfer strategy hasn't changed since relegation, we're still looking to bring in players with european experience even though we're long past that at the moment. Coady, Winks, Hermansen, Mavididi they all match playing in Europe in recent seasons. This was part of our downfall, it started with Perez and Praet and we've not really drifted from that type of player since.

 

I dont really see any correlation between the players you're naming. 

 

What do you think connects them and what sort of player would you rather we target? 

[3 titles in 7 years]

When we going to sign someone who knows how to get out of this division, other than a CB?

[lcfcsnow]

5 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I dont really see any correlation between the players you're naming. 

 

What do you think connects them and what sort of player would you rather we target? 

Apart from Hermansen they are all safe transfers. But these are mostly players that have reached their limit, then we come along and offer them a lucrative deal which has them set until they are 30.

 

We need younger, positive players on the up, players that have yet to reach a ceiling. Proper replacements for Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans and preferably Vardy.

[Finnegan]

Just now, lcfcsnow said:

Apart from Hermansen they are all safe transfers. But these are mostly players that have reached their limit, then we come along and offer them a lucrative deal which has them set until they are 30.

 

We need younger, positive players on the up, players that have yet to reach a ceiling. Proper replacements for Maddison, Barnes and Tielemans.

 

So, Kristiansen, Faes, Daka, Soumaré, JJ, Souttar and we just tried to sign Doyle permanently? 

 

All since Perez and Praet, no? 

 

Not every signing can be a young, up and coming player that we need to coach and nurture. Sometimes you need leaders, you need a sure thing. Especially now. 

 

Winks and Coady look like they'll be absolutely fantastic business and both represent something we really lacked. I'm not sure what the problem is really. 

 

Yes, I hope we also manage to bring in a couple of young guys with potential but these days you pay a lot for potential. We have a lot of squad places to fill as cheaply as we can whilst also trying to get out of the league first try. We can't do that if we're trying to sign potential wonderkids with every deal. 

 

I've got to be honest, I think our business has been really sensible so far. 

[lcfcsnow]

15 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

So, Kristiansen, Faes, Daka, Soumaré, JJ, Souttar and we just tried to sign Doyle permanently? 

 

All since Perez and Praet, no? 

Winks and Coady I can understand, we need some leadership and the spine of the team has been missing for at least two years. But out of that list, JJ was the only one that's impressed here. The rest were all players who had played in Europa league or the World Cup and didn't even fit into how we play.

 

It's like there is no plan, just match a few boxes like pace and finishing, thats enough for a Vardy replacement get him in. Can't control the ball, has no technical ability so let's try him on the wing where those are crucial. 🤦 We can't defend corners, get a big bloke in who recently impressed at the World Cup, but then don't play him because he's slow and nowhere near PL standard. But if we'd watched him at Stoke we'd have known that, if we have then what's going on? Soumare, we needed a player who can receive the ball from defence better than Ndidi, he can do that but the rest of his game  and yet we persisted with those performances for two years. It's unbelievable and I'm just fed up with our inability to sort the mess out.

 

I mean we've not even replaced or really tried to get a right winger in for five years so what hope is there to get both sides sorted in this window.

[OadbyBlue]

13 minutes ago, 3 titles in 7 years said:

When we going to sign someone who knows how to get out of this division, other than a CB?

I don’t think it matters all that much. How many of our 13/14 squad had got promoted from the championship previously? How many Luton town, Brentford, Brighton etc players had during their promotion seasons?

[Finnegan]

Just now, lcfcsnow said:

The rest were all players who had played in Europa league or the World Cup and didn't even fit into how we play.

 

I'm not really having that to be honest. 

 

Daka was a very obvious replacement for Vardy looking at his statistical strengths and weaknesses. He was signed from a club with an excellent track record of identifying talent where he'd scored a goal a game and was being tracked by some of Europe's biggest clubs, he was 22.

 

Soumaré was also 22 and had just won the French top flight, he wasn't signed off the back of a freak summer tournament performance he was thoroughly scouted because his ball progression stats were fantastic and we were expecting to lose our main progressive player in Youri Tielemans. 

 

Kristiansen (20) was brought in because he's an extremely strongly defensive left back held in very high regard in Denmark where we've been scouting a lot over the last year or so. Our main left winger didn't require a lot of support from an attacking full back but did need someone to compensate for his lack of defensive work. VK was meant to be to Barnes what Simpson was to Riyad. 

 

Faes (was 24) doesn't need much explanation, we had a Cags/Fofana shaped hole. Both are valued for their habit of stepping up out of the offensive line to aggressively win interceptions and also their carrying of the ball. Faes had a track record of doing fairly well in these areas. 

 

Finally, we were absolutely shocking at defending set pieces and severely lacking in height. Harry Souttar (24) is a 6'6 unit who scored in the 96th percentile for aerial duels won which is one of the most important, leading indicators for a Premier League centre back and something we massively lacked in the team - a flaw that correlates consistently throughout the league with teams that concede frequently from set pieces. 

 

Every one of these transfers made sense logically, every single one of these is a player being signed before their peak whose values should have had plenty of room to grow. Now, all transfers are risks, statistically a decent percentage of transfers fail. But for nearly all of those to look like current failure I would personally put more at the door of the then-manager and his management of the squad. Time will tell whether or not Maresca gets a different tune of them. 

 

Maybe we just failed in our identification of whether these players would transition well in to the Premier League, maybe we as a club or a squad became or have become poor at integrating new players in to our culture. I don't know. 

 

But claiming these players were just signed for European experience or off the back of world cups is just objectively wrong and frankly silly. 

[sacreblueits442]

26 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

Just feels to me like our transfer strategy hasn't changed since relegation, we're still looking to bring in players with european experience even though we're long past that at the moment. Coady, Winks, Hermansen, Mavididi they all match playing in Europe in recent seasons. This was part of our downfall, it started with Perez and Praet and we've not really drifted from that type of player since.

...we are rumoured to be looking at a few players who are very much developed in the UK!!!

Piroe

Ryan Giles

Cole Palmer

Cesare Casadei

Amad Diallo

Oscar Bobb

Carlos Borges

Jesurun Rak-Sakyi

[lcfcsnow]

6 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

But claiming these players were just signed for European experience or off the back of world cups is just objectively wrong and frankly silly. 

Fair enough, I'm not keep going on about it but I do think we're looking in the wrong place for players. Our best players over the past 10 years were lesser known brought in from elsewhere or came through the youth team all of whom didn't yet have that experience, but aspired to be someone who reached those heights and they improved with us (improving us as a result).

[lcfcsnow]

11 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...we are rumoured to be looking at a few players who are very much developed in the UK!!!

Piroe

Ryan Giles

Cole Palmer

Cesare Casadei

Amad Diallo

Oscar Bobb

Carlos Borges

Jesurun Rak-Sakyi

Those are what I'm talking about, but I doubt the rumours are true. We really need at least a few of those types of player to make a difference though with the exception of Piroe who I'm not convinced of (we need wide players not more central players). I'm sure there are similar types abroad as well, who would be more likely to come here as they won't be at a high profile PL club.

[moore_94]

 

[Finnegan]

10 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

Fair enough, I'm not keep going on about it but I do think we're looking in the wrong place for players. Our best players over the past 10 years were lesser known brought in from elsewhere or came through the youth team all of whom didn't yet have that experience, but aspired to be someone who reached those heights and they improved with us (improving us as a result).

 

But it becomes harder and harder for us to do that the more succesful we become which is something we've found out. 

 

Havre wouldn't have batted an eyelid when we came sniffing for Riyad, we're just some scrubs in the Championship looking for cheap players. Makes sense. 

 

Fast forward a few years and we've developed a reputation for shrewd signings and good scouting of young players to up cycle. All of a sudden clubs start thinking, hang on, Leicester City are trying to sign a player we've maybe undervalued. What have they seen that we haven't? Can we tout him around? Can we make more from them? 

 

Fees have crept up and up and up and it's gotten harder for us to identify and find unknown talent. I'll be very surprised if Brighton and Brentford don't start to feel the same squeeze once their reputation for good business grows. You become a victim of your own success. 

[HoustonFox]

3 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

Those are what I'm talking about, we need that type of player to make a difference with the exception of Piroe who I'm not convinced of. I'm sure there are similar types abroad as well, who would be more likely to come here as they won't be at a high profile PL club.

I think Mavidid falls squarely into this category and the type of player we have historically signed and had kick on. 
 

He’s only just turned 25 and grew up through the Arsenal youth ranks but then decided to try his arm abroad in Italy and now France. He’ broke through in an ok Montpellier team and has done well in ligue 1 but got injured but is now back. His attributes tick a lot of boxes on what we need, fast, direct, eye for goal, sbows good aggression and willing. 
 

Based on your parameters we would never have signed Albrighton because he was too old or hadn’t done it, same with Simpson who was a middling RB. Not every signing can be Mahrez or Kante (who seem to be your yardsticks). 
 

This guy is a clear fit, brings what Barnes brought and is affordable and looks like a fit for our playing style and the league we’re now in 

[lcfcsnow]

9 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Fees have crept up and up and up and it's gotten harder for us to identify and find unknown talent. I'll be very surprised if Brighton and Brentford don't start to feel the same squeeze once their reputation for good business grows. You become a victim of your own success. 

Brighton, one example they signed Buonanotte for £5.3 million, he was already an Argentina U20 international and not exactly unknown but we're going to spend similar on this guy who has nowhere near the same amount of ability or potential. Where's the ambition or our scouts? The lack of it has got us in this mess and a big reason for that is not signing a decent forward for 7/8 years, and its no surprise when we don't look outside the box.

[UniFox21]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Fees have crept up and up and up and it's gotten harder for us to identify and find unknown talent. I'll be very surprised if Brighton and Brentford don't start to feel the same squeeze once their reputation for good business grows. You become a victim of your own success. 

Really great points in your post, also worth taking into account how prices for even average players increased when we started receiving big fees (Maguire, Chillwell, Fofana to name 3). Brighton in particular will begin to see that. 

[talking_goldfish]

https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/L-attaquant-de-montpellier-stephy-mavididi-vers-leicester/1409457

 

Quote

Montpellier striker Stephy Mavididi is expected to join Leicester in the coming days. The leaders of the English club have agreed with their Hérault counterparts to buy out the last year of the 25-year-old's contract.

 

Arrived three years ago from Juventus Turin for 6M€, the Englishman should be sold for around the same price.

[AjcW]

55 minutes ago, 3 titles in 7 years said:

When we going to sign someone who knows how to get out of this division, other than a CB?

Burnley have just experienced one of the biggest cake walks in championship history. They had 1… at most 2 seasoned championship pros in their side most weeks. 
 

As I’ve said before the only thing these sort of comments give away is someone’s age  

[moore_94]

 

[Finnegan]

6 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

Brighton, one example they signed Buonanotte for £5.3 million, he was already an Argentina U20 international and not exactly unknown but we're going to spend similar on this guy who has nowhere near the same amount of ability or potential. Where's the ambition or our scouts? The lack of it has got us in this mess and a big reason for that is not signing a decent forward for 7/8 years, and its no surprise when we don't look outside the box.

 

You have to earn the right to make signings like Bounanotte. He's 18, he'd scored 4 professional goals in his life and had 20 odd appearances total in senior football. He represents a huge risk and he's almost certainly not ready to come in and have immediate impact. 

 

We're losing Harvey Barnes, we don't have a strong squad with good wingers who are in place now, we're not able to just invest in youth with high potential we can take time to develop. 

 

I think you're hugely under rating Mavididi. He's a consistent, solid, top flight footballer with over a hundred games in Ligue 1 who has scored at a similar rate to Barnes cutting off the same wing. He's ready to go now, he's ready to slot straight in to the team. He's a much more known quantity. 

 

If it works out and we get back to the Prem and settle down in to consistent safety, then we can afford to take a few risks on talented teenagers.

 

But right now, ambition IS signing Stephy Mavididi. He's far too good for our level, for context he's got a much better record over a similar number of games in France to someone like Ismailia Sarr who everyone creamed their knickers over. His record playing in Europe's top five Leagues is very, very strong for a signing by a Championship club. 

[Buzzell]

13 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

 

🚨 🚨 👀 👀 

[LestaLad]

17 hours ago, LinekersLugs said:

This deal is done

 

friendly with his agent here, 8m deal all in place 

 

quality english player 

Fair play @LinekersLugs 👏🏻👏🏻

[Nolucklcfc]

So after all that, is he any good? 

[Harry96]

Happy with this 

[Dahnsouff]

Give that man a plane ticket

[lcfcsnow]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

If it works out and we get back to the Prem and settle down in to consistent safety, then we can afford to take a few risks on talented teenagers.

But we won't, even when qualifying for Europe we never brought in anyone like that. Anyway, I hope he's good.