How Leicester City deviated from the transfer norm to eliminate excuse in survival gamble

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/how-leicester-city-deviated-transfer-9535842

 

Leicester City signed five players from Premier League rivals during the transfer window, the same number as in their past five summers as a Premier League club

ByJordan Blackwell
07:00, 7 SEP 2024

It may come as a surprise to learn that, by net spend, this summer’s transfer window was perhaps Leicester City’s biggest ever.

Six of their nine signings arrived for a fee, with the expenditure finishing at around £80m. With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall leaving for £30m and with players like Lewis Brunt and Zach Booth comparatively sold for spare change, the net spend stands at around £50m.

The lack of details around fees, and the potential for add-ons to be met, means it’s hard to be definitive around transfer spending, but that £50m figure would just eclipse the estimated net spend from City’s previous record, in summer 2021. That, of course, was City’s anomaly, the one summer where there was no major sale.

 

 

 

Kamal Sowah left for a fee rising to £7.5m in City’s most profitable exit. So when Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare, and Jannik Vestergaard were signed for a combined £55m, that represented a significant outlay.

That this may be City’s biggest summer ever feels unusual for a few reasons. For a start, they weren’t busy throughout the window, going three weeks through late July and early August without an arrival.

Secondly, they were still some way from being the league’s biggest spenders. For net spend, they ranked eighth in the Premier League, while both of their fellow promoted clubs spent more, Southampton coming in sixth and Ipswich, with a net spend of around £123m, were second only to Brighton.

 

It’s also because there perhaps wasn’t the usual excitement around signings. To really get fans rubbing their hands in glee, new faces need to be high-profile players or have an air of mystique about them. Bilal El Khannouss is not a familiar name to most supporters, but as a 20-year-old Moroccan international renowned for his vision and creative talents, he’s got fans licking their lips.

Players like Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid have been seen on Match of the Day and Sky Sports for years. Because they’re so well-known, they’re not signings that necessarily get the juices flowing.

And they represent a short-termist approach. They need to make an immediate impact, as they're very unlikely to deliver for City for years to come. With younger signings, if they're only at the club a short time, it's usually because they've developed to an extent that they've been sold for a big fee.

 

But, equally they may keep City in the Premier League. And that is the club’s ultimate goal. With that being the objective, it seemed to influence City’s recruitment process, which was a slight stray from the norm.

Ayew and De Cordova-Reid were two of five first-team signings from fellow Premier League clubs, with Facundo Buonanotte, Oliver Skipp and Odsonne Edouard completing the line-up. Only Southampton recruited more players from Premier League clubs, a whopping eight, albeit three of those they had on loan last season.

 

Bringing in players from Premier League clubs is not something City typically do. To find the last five signings they made from top-flight rivals while they were a Premier League club themselves, you have to go back through five summers to 2018. In that time, they only brought in Danny Ward, Ryan Bennett, Ayoze Perez, Ryan Bertrand, and Jannik Vestergaard from Premier League clubs.

Ayew and De Cordova-Reid also represent a change in approach, given their ages. Since they won the Premier League in 2016, City had only signed one outfield player aged 31 or over, which was Bertrand. Now they’ve signed two in one window. Across the whole of the Premier League, only seven outfield players aged 31 or over were signed, with Ayew the oldest to come with a transfer fee.

In short, experience, and Premier League experience at that, is the name of the game. It’s often a shortcoming of newly-promoted sides, but cannot be an excuse at City.

The players at City have played a combined 2,015 Premier League games. That’s more than at seven other sides in the division. It’s much more in line with the league average. Southampton are only one place behind City, but have 300 fewer Premier League appearances in their squad. Meanwhile, City are within 300 appearances of seven sides above them.

Cooper has 10 players he can call on who have played at least the equivalent of two full seasons of Premier League football, with four of them added to the squad this summer. It is fair to say City, as a collective, know what this division takes.

 

While Cooper has played his part in requesting those experienced heads, he also wanted it balanced out. In Buonanotte, El Khannouss and Abdul Fatawu, City have three players aged 20 or under, and their job will be to bring a youthful exuberance and fearlessness to a group of cooler, older heads.

“It’s something that is important,” Cooper said on signing experienced operators. “Players that come into the Premier League for the first time, there’s a transition stage. Sometimes players can hit the ground running but other players can take a little longer, and that’s okay.

“And when players come to England for the first time, that needs a transition period as well. I know a lot about that. That’s probably where I was with making sure that if we brought players in, some of them we knew could play at Premier League level. We’ve been able to do that.

“We’ve also bought some guys from other countries who have come to England for the first time who will have to adapt quickly, even to training. When you speak to a guy who’s in England for the first time, they will always say that training is more intense. It’s about adapting to what English football is brilliant for, and that’s the intensity and the speed and the competitiveness.

“Because you also want that youthful wonder of guys going there carefree and just delivering. You want a mixture of both. You can’t have too much of one or too much of the other.

“The balance needs to be right, and then maybe dialled up or dialled down for certain games. We’ll put all of those things together when preparing for a game and hopefully we’ll have the right balance.”

[davieG]

 

INS

Bobby Decordova-Reid		Fulham	Free	06.07.2024
Caleb Okoli		Atalanta	£12,700,000	09.07.2024
Abdul Fatawu		Sporting CP	£14,000,000	16.07.2024
Facundo Buonanotte		Brighton & Hove Albion	On loan	10.08.2024
Oliver Skipp		Tottenham Hotspur	£20,000,000	19.08.2024
Jordan Ayew		Crystal Palace	£5,000,000	23.08.2024
Bilal El Khannouss		Genk	£19,000,000	29.08.2024
Odsonne Édouard		Crystal Palace	On loan	30.08.2024

 

OUTS

 

Lewis Brunt		Wrexham	Unknown	02.07.2024
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall		Chelsea	£30,000,000	02.07.2024
Silko Thomas		Wigan Athletic	On loan	26.07.2024
Harry Souttar		Sheffield United	On loan	06.08.2024
Sammy Braybrooke		Dundee	On loan	28.08.2024
Brandon Cover		Port Vale	On loan	30.08.2024
Chris Popov		Barrow	On loan	30.08.2024
Wanya Marçal		De Graafschap	On loan	30.08.2024
Tom Cannon		Stoke City	On loan	30.08.2024
Ben Nelson		Oxford United	On loan	30.08.2024

[1969]

Presumably Golding is the 9th signing he refers to?

[Finnegan]

Hideous reading. 

[davieG]

27 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Hideous reading. 

Yeah I was struggling to say anything positive so said nothing.

 

Any potential positives are in the unknown.

 

 Across the whole of the Premier League, only seven outfield players aged 31 or over were signed, with Ayew the oldest to come with a transfer fee.  £5m 

[Stadt]

I hadn’t even considered that this was one of our biggest net outlays. 
 

Fatawu will fetch a lot eventually but the rest, BEK aside maybe, Skipp definitely won’t.

[RonnieTodger]

“ In that time, they only brought in Danny Ward, Ryan Bennett, Ayoze Perez, Ryan Bertrand, and Jannik Vestergaard from Premier League clubs.”

 

If ever one sentence could encapsulate the level of bullshit that is  “PL experience”.

 

[Corky]

12 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

“ In that time, they only brought in Danny Ward, Ryan Bennett, Ayoze Perez, Ryan Bertrand, and Jannik Vestergaard from Premier League clubs.”

 

If ever one sentence could encapsulate the level of bullshit that is  “PL experience”.

 

Last year will be the better window. Winks is good enough for this level whilst Fatawu and Mavididi look promising. The two interesting signings this year are Buonanotte and El Khannouss but I think Cooper will go safe with Reid and Ayew as we struggle.

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

“ In that time, they only brought in Danny Ward, Ryan Bennett, Ayoze Perez, Ryan Bertrand, and Jannik Vestergaard from Premier League clubs.”

 

If ever one sentence could encapsulate the level of bullshit that is  “PL experience”.

 

When you see that list it really is incredible people still talk about it like some guarantee of success - none of those are what you would consider good signings.

 

Vestergaard is probably the closest and yet he's made a positive contribution in one of the three seasons he's been here. Perez was an OK-ish player but one we either overpaid or dramatically overpaid for depending on which of the reported £16m/£30m fees is accurate. Bertrand was a complete and utter waste of space and Ward was the biggest on-pitch cause of our relegation. Bennett was shit but at least he was presumably cheap and didn't stink the place out for longer than half a season.

[onekeithweller]

Horror stories are not really my genre but thanks for sharing anyway.

[The Doctor]

absolutely hideous reading and honestly makes even clearer that "premier league experience" is a folly that bad managers obsess over to hide their flaws

[JimJams]

Players with previous premier league experience have also been important to us.  Huth, Albrighton, Simpson, Kasper, Drinkwater, De Laet, N.Dyer. All important to survival or title winning.

Just cos the last 5 have been off it doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Time will tell.

[Pick Good Name Later]

7 minutes ago, JimJams said:

Players with previous premier league experience have also been important to us.  Huth, Albrighton, Simpson, Kasper, Drinkwater, De Laet, N.Dyer. All important to survival or title winning.

Just cos the last 5 have been off it doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Time will tell.

Agreed. And whilst Ayew and BDR aren’t going to get us off our seats. They’ve represented success at clubs that we are wanting to emulate this season. Clubs which the main goal has been survival. 
 

Not saying for a moment the strategy is a guaranteed success. That will be down to Cooper and how he reads the broader picture and recognises the need for a blended approach. This, for me, is the question mark and not our approach of bringing in experience to the squad.

[HankMarvin]

Net spend isn’t £50m because as we know KDH was added to last years accounts. 

[Pliskin]

Spaghetti Coops barmy army!!!!

[Old Fox]

12 hours ago, davieG said:

 

INS

Bobby Decordova-Reid		Fulham	Free	06.07.2024
Caleb Okoli		Atalanta	£12,700,000	09.07.2024
Abdul Fatawu		Sporting CP	£14,000,000	16.07.2024
Facundo Buonanotte		Brighton & Hove Albion	On loan	10.08.2024
Oliver Skipp		Tottenham Hotspur	£20,000,000	19.08.2024
Jordan Ayew		Crystal Palace	£5,000,000	23.08.2024
Bilal El Khannouss		Genk	£19,000,000	29.08.2024
Odsonne Édouard		Crystal Palace	On loan	30.08.2024

 

OUTS

 

Lewis Brunt		Wrexham	Unknown	02.07.2024
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall		Chelsea	£30,000,000	02.07.2024
Silko Thomas		Wigan Athletic	On loan	26.07.2024
Harry Souttar		Sheffield United	On loan	06.08.2024
Sammy Braybrooke		Dundee	On loan	28.08.2024
Brandon Cover		Port Vale	On loan	30.08.2024
Chris Popov		Barrow	On loan	30.08.2024
Wanya Marçal		De Graafschap	On loan	30.08.2024
Tom Cannon		Stoke City	On loan	30.08.2024
Ben Nelson		Oxford United	On loan	30.08.2024

I don’t think it would read too badly had we not spent £20m on Skipp and had maybe brought a better player with more upside in !

[LCFCJohn]

9 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

Net spend isn’t £50m because as we know KDH was added to last years accounts. 

My understanding would be that this is still the net spend as net spend incorporates the transfer window from when it opens

in June until it closes at the end of August.

 

Accounts and PSR are the yearly thing which happens to start and end during the transfer window.

[Mr.Bingles]

If we stay up, it'll be heralded as a master stroke. If we go down it'll be heralded as a complete sh!t show. 

[BKLFox]

I think Skipp will surprise a few within a few games when he strikes up a decent partnership with Winks enabling us to keep the ball for more than 30secs and build through the middle, out of interest who did people have earmarked for that position because most names were 10s and we have brought in 2 very good players for that position.

Solid signing in my eyes and probably worth his fee when looking around other transfer fees made in the premier for starting players which include added tax for being that league not decent players moving within mainland Europe.

 

Reid and Ayew granted but I don’t see Reid being anything more than a sub which he was probably brought in for on a free, he is 1 of those players that used to cause us issues when they came on as subs, full of running and come up with something different (crazy) to change a game late on.

Ayew whilst he’s had a few more minutes than expected so far will probably revert to sub once things settle down also, but in the meantime the game has changed and the bench is more important now than simply used to replace injured players we do need tactical options & running players that can cause tired defences issue later on, looks bad now because of the single point but maybe given more than 3 games it might pan out.

 

Okoli, is €13m such a bad investment for a future Italian National CB?

A few more strong performances can see him being a starter.

 

Is it Reid and Ayew people can’t see past due to age although what 5m for the pair, or Skipp for 20m?

 

 

 

Edited 9 September by BKLFox

[shen]

On 07/09/2024 at 10:40, davieG said:

but that £50m figure would just eclipse the estimated net spend from City’s previous record, in summer 2021. That, of course, was City’s anomaly, the one summer where there was no major sale.

 

 

 

Kamal Sowah left for a fee rising to £7.5m in City’s most profitable exit. So when Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare, and Jannik Vestergaard were signed for a combined £55m, that represented a significant outlay.

 

 

To find the last five signings they made from top-flight rivals while they were a Premier League club themselves, you have to go back through five summers to 2018. In that time, they only brought in Danny Ward, Ryan Bennett, Ayoze Perez, Ryan Bertrand, and Jannik Vestergaard from Premier League clubs.

No wonder we're screwed with PSR when we've sign Jannik twice!!

[JimJams]

That's not what it says.

[HankMarvin]

7 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

My understanding would be that this is still the net spend as net spend incorporates the transfer window from when it opens

in June until it closes at the end of August.

 

Accounts and PSR are the yearly thing which happens to start and end during the transfer window.

I think the 13 month extended financial year changes this.
 

 

Net Spend Calculation

Net spend is usually calculated as the difference between a club's expenditure on player purchases and the income received from player sales within a specific period, typically a season or financial year.

If a club extends its financial year to 13 months, the transactions that fall within this extended period would be included in that year's net spend. This could mean that a club's net spend for that season might encompass transactions from an additional month compared to a standard 12-month period.

 

Impact on the Season's Net Spend

Seasonal Net Spend

For practical purposes in football, net spend is often calculated based on the football season, which usually runs from July to June, corresponding with the traditional transfer windows. If a club extends its accounting period to 13 months, it may choose to report its net spend to match the new extended period.

If the net spend calculation is adjusted to reflect the 13-month period, it might include transfers from July of the following season, potentially changing the net spend for that season. For example, a transfer that would have been counted in the next season under a 12-month period might now be included in the current season's net spend.

 

When Does the New Net Spend Period Start?

After the 13th Month: If the club adheres to the 13-month period, the new net spend period could logically start at the end of the 13th month. This means that for the next accounting period, the net spend would begin from the end of the extended period (e.g., if the period ends in July, the new period would start in August).

[Viva]

I think it’s been a good window. Happy with the mix of experience and youth. If it gets us to 17th or above then it will have been a success. 

[LeePhilpottsBaldSpot]

On 07/09/2024 at 22:24, Old Fox said:

I don’t think it would read too badly had we not spent £20m on Skipp and had maybe brought a better player with more upside in !

Oliver Skipp has plenty of upside. Looks old but he won the U21 Euros last summer!

[JimJams]

And he'll be 24 in 6 days!