January.. Do we need signings who can hit the ground running?

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

I think we need a couple of guys with Premiership experience.

[AyewJoking]

ndidi is the signing you make when you want to develop a young player over a season or two.

 

not for when you need instant results to stave off a relegation battle.

 

have we watched ndidi for years?

who at the club recommended we try to sign him?

 

 

 

 

[inckley fox]

I don't know. We had little reason to believe Kante would hit the ground running. And we have to keep one eye to the future all the time, because there are some terrifying statistics out there about what happens to good sides with starting line-ups that average 28+ years. Especially when they start losing.

 

When we talk about players who we think will 'hit the ground running' we often go on about top flight, or preferably PL, experience. But when you look at 'proven' PL players who've joined us, they've rarely slotted in instantly. Simpson was ex-PL, and took a year to bed in. Upson was ex-PL, and never did. Albrighton took seven or eight months. Huth took a couple. 

 

As for high profile players from overseas, I suppose you could say Cambiasso slotted in more or less instantly (sorry Col), Fuchs took a month or two, Okazaki perhaps even longer before he looked like anything other than a weak link. Kante comes into that category, and he came into the side after a fortnight or so of a season (and a couple of months at the club). Musa, Kapustka, Hernandez, Zieler, Slimani - these guys were all top flight players in their respective countries, some of them internationals who'd caught the eye in major tournaments, and they're all yet to demonstrate that they've added to the squad.

 

I'm not sure that it always works for Leicester City to 'think big' in their transfer policy. The little-known buy, or the bargain basement coup seems to be our area of expertise. Finding an unlikely character who just happens to offer what we need. Whether we still have the staff who can identify those people, or not, I don't know.

 

You also have to ask yourself if, in the Walsh-Pearson era, it was Walsh's eye for a player or Pearson's 'green light' for a player's temperament, which was more more important. Some of Walsh's post-Pearson buys make you wonder.

[foxtillidrop]

Huth the best example of a signing that hit the ground running - we need that kind of signing.

[STUHILL]

Yes.

[lee7]

13 hours ago, weller54 said:

Perhaps Dick Van Dyke? 

He's the more likely of the two! 

[shen]

21 hours ago, weller54 said:

Rather than spending £15M+ on unproven gambles such as Ndidi.. do we need experienced PL players such as Robbie Brady?.. 

Will Ndidi just be another expensive foreign youngster in the mould of Kramaric,  Kapustka,  Amartey, Mendy etc?...... The jam tomorrow brigade!! 

I like that you put in "foreign". Gray was relatively cheap I guess, but still expensive for a lower midtable Championship player. We were in for Michael Keane for a fookload of money, yet he's hardly proven, and if Kapustka, Amartey et al had been British (or from a British club) we would've looked at double or triple the price. Just look at what distinctly average players like Ibe (£15m), Townsend (£13m), Hendrick (£10,5+m), Ashley Williams (£11m), Ryan Mason (£13m) etc. have gone for.

 

I understand Ranieri 's and the club's philosophy of buying young players as we have an aging squad, but it required our current crop of players to keep performing at a high level to buy us the time to bed these players in. I don't think it's time to panic yet, but it does undoubtedly look like we need a transfer or two to improve the first team on top of a formation/playing style change.

[KingKante]

I miss Kante 

[Chico1958]

Morgan Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson ....................... Please

[Wymsey]

Wish it was January already - could be a long month if Ranieri doesn't stick his finger out.

But it gives the chance for under-performers like Vardy and King in particular to show that poor form is only temporary.

[AmarteyAndChill]

5 hours ago, Wymeswold fox said:

Wish it was January already - could be a long month if Ranieri doesn't stick his finger out.

But it gives the chance for under-performers like Vardy and King in particular to show that poor form is only temporary.

These deals need to be sorted before January so the players can be available as soon as possible. We should be negotiating now!

[Guest Col city fan]

Is this really a question we need to ask.

YES WE DO!