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Leicester City Transfer Review

After a whirlwind of  rumours which at one stage left many Foxes fans wondering if they would be able to field a first XI, the transfer window finally slammed shut on Thursday night.

And now that the dust has settled, how do I believe Leicester City have fared?

In a nutshell, brilliantly. I don’t think pundits have given the Leicester board enough credit with their summer dealings. In fairness, the club’s fans have certainly been on the back of Leicester’s transfer chiefs but all in all after a surprising final day, it went quite alright.

Perhaps the biggest plus to come out of this window is the fact that Algerian wing wizard Riyad Mahrez has somehow remained on the books of the former title winners.

Ever since the 2016/17 season came to a close, a host of clubs in England and abroad have been linked to the ex Player of the Year but no one was ready to stump up the £50m asking price. On a confusing deadline day, it appeared Mahrez had found himself new employers but this didn’t materialise. How he will react remains to be seen, but he has conducted himself well in the opening three games of the season and the Foxes faithful will hope he continues to do so.

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Keeping Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, Demarai Gray, as well as Mahrez shows clear intent and ambition from the owners.

Danny Drinkwater was the only major casualty this summer. A bit out of the blue but I don’t think the fans mind too much. He has been excellent for us but his performances have dropped and he has become injury prone, due to the fact he has played so much football for us. It is rather painful to see that he will be lining up with the little Frenchman N’Golo Kante but fortunately we have replaced the Englishman so it’s not too tough to take.

Which brings us to our incomings. Five first-teamers have joined us including Kelechi Iheanacho, Harry Maguire, Vicente Iborra, Aleksander Dragovic, and hopefully Adrien Silva, subject to international clearance.

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Iheanacho is a wonderful signing and it’s a shame that a toe injury has limited his opportunities so far but an exciting partnership with Vardy awaits.

Maguire was an early £17m addition from Hull City and eyebrows were raised at the transfer fee. Yet he has already secured himself an international call-up and with the prices some players have moved for, he now looks to be quite a bargain.

Iborra and Silva are unknown quantities in the Premier League. The club have chased Silva since last summer but a move never came off. Spanish midfielder Iborra has been in and out at Sevilla but he has won a hat-trick of Europa League winners medals and brings plenty of experience. Injury has prevented him from making an appearance so far.

One negative point from this window has been the failure to bring in a central attacking midfielder. We have lacked one for years now. It is well documented that we were in for Gylfi Sigurdsson but he had his heart set on a move to Everton. The Iceland playmaker would have been an outrageous signing for us but it seems it was him or no one.

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With aspirations to break into Europe again, the board have shown great resilience to knock back interest from rival clubs and maintain a strong spine to our side. Last summer’s signings were exciting on paper but in truth most have been a disaster.

Additions this year have been exciting and outgoings have been extremely limited.

It has been an excellent transfer window for Leicester City.

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