Scout explains surprising reason why Nigel Pearson wanted Riyad Mahrez at Leicester City

[davieG]

Mahrez was a long way from being a Premier League champion and PFA Player of the Year when he arrived at the King Power in 2014.

Nigel Pearson decided to bring Riyad Mahrez to Leicester City in January 2014 in order to add more foreign blood to a predominantly British squad, former head of technical scouting Rob Mackenzie has told Sky Sports.

The then-unknown Algerian’s switch to the King Power Stadium midway through the 2013/14 season is now the stuff of legend, with the dynamic winger rising to prominence to spearhead the Foxes' charge to the Premier League title, seizing the PFA Player of the Year award to boot.

However, Leicester were just one of many promotion hopefuls when Mahrez signed from Ligue 2 club Le Havre three years ago, with David Nugent their talismanic top scorer and a rough-edged Jamie Vardy struggling to adapt after arriving from non-league.

And Mackenzie says the decision to add the silky wide man to their ranks was made in order to add some continental flair to a squad with a strong British backbone.

"When I was working with Nigel at Leicester City in the Championship we had a predominantly British core and if players weren't actually British a number of them had played in England for a long time so they were fully acclimatised to the respective level and the expectations placed upon them - Kasper Schmeichel, Chris Wood and Ritchie de Laet for example,” Mackenzie, who also worked at Tottenham and Derby, told Sky Sports.

"I think that British core actually contributed to us feeling that we could bring in some foreign players at that time - Anthony Knockaert, Marcin Wasilewski and Riyad Mahrez for example - as they could provide us with qualities that we were perhaps lacking a bit, whether that be creativity or high-level experience and leadership.”

The minimal £400,000 fee The Foxes paid to secure the services of the now-Premier League champion, via the Leicester Mercury, will surely go down as one of the most inspired signings of the generation.

[foxile5]

That's not exactly surprising. I was expecting to hear that he had been bought in because he was a dab hand at beat boxing or something. 

[Fox92]

Nothing revealing there.

[bovril]

41 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

That's not exactly surprising. I was expecting to hear that he had been bought in because he was a dab hand at beat boxing or something. 

Makes excellent lamb shanks. Was lacking before he arrived, Chris Wood just couldn't cut it culinarily.

[Bayfox]

Worst insight ever.

 

Should just be grateful Walsh snr spotted him and we didn't  take the useless twat we had gone to watch that ended up at the club that still live in 1979.

[brucey]

17 minutes ago, bovril said:

Makes excellent lamb shanks. Was lacking before he arrived, Chris Wood just couldn't cut it culinarily.

Riyad can't cook.

 

Great decision by the people involved. (Although if we keep up our current rate of signing African players, nearly the entire first XI will disappear in Jan 2019)

[Stadt]

I think having a predominantly British squad helps with the team spirit and togetherness but I think the influx of new foreign signings has weakened the camaraderie slightly which may be a factor in why we're not as good this season. The determination of the squad was displayed in the games against Villa, Tottenham, Stoke and Southampton last season where rescued points but nowadays if we concede early it's basically a guaranteed loss.

[KFS]

In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue.

 

More as we get it ...

[Collymore]

I had the choice of finding out if extraterrestrial life actually exists or this. Absolutely no regrets, what an eye opener. 

 

Thanks to the journalist who sourced this information. Just incredible. 

[VLC86]

Michael Owen branching out into journalism? Fair play.

[Out Foxed]

that's ****ing mental