KEEP THE FAITH - Transfer activity or lack of it

All clubs have their motto's. Ours as the title suggests is Keep The Faith.
That is something City fans have more than learned to do over the past few decades.

However The Faith is being well and truly tested at the moment.

When Mandaric sold Portsmouth there were big promises made by the new owners. Money was going to be no problem and they planned to take the club to Europe & beyond.....

Sounds familiar?

We were told Sven would be given unlimited funds to get the players he wanted to take us to The Premier League & beyond.
And yet here we are over a month since the season ended and not one new signing in place, no immediate prospect of any of last years loanees returning and to add insult to injury players actually leaving the club!!

So as things stand at the moment our squad is smaller & weaker than the one that failed to get us promotion last term.

Lets face it we shouldn't really be worried, its early days, players and managers are on holiday. But, and its a big but, agents it seems never go on holiday!!
All we keep hearing is that we can't sign The Yak cause of his wage demands, negotiations are stalling over Nugents wage demands, Naughton looks to be staying in London albeit with QPR and its down to wage demands.

Well we should have expected it. The Thai's come in shouting about how they are going to spend to Leicester where they want them, so isn't it only natural agents & players are going to up their demands when Sven comes a knocking?

Look back at the Mandaric / Allen years. Money spent, not very wisely but spent none the less as those players & agents who answered their door to Allen immediately doubled their value, and stupidly looking back Allen paid it.

Allen was like the kid on pocket money day in the sweet shop - thankfully Sven is not like this!

Look back at the Premier League / Taylor years. Having been successful in the top flight winning trophies so with money to spend Taylor went a looking for a new squad. He tried to do a Martin O Neill & find hidden gems in the lower league (Junior Lewis, Trevor Benjamin et al) - he couldn't. What money he spent on great prospects was badly spent - Ade Akinbiyi for example

Taylor was good at coaching but absolutely usless when it came to finding & buying his own players aka managing - thankfully as we have seen Sven is not like this!

Look back at the Championship/Premier League / Martin O'Neill years. A manager who had his players respect. A manager who could get star names to Leicester who could still play (Cottee), a manager who could pluck unknowns from bigger clubs reserve teams (Izzet), a manager who could go digging at less fashionable clubs and find a gem (Lennon).

Sound familiar?

For Cottee read Yakubu. For Izzet read Naughton, for Lennon read Bamba.... well I think you get the picture.

Martin was never one to rush into the transfer market. We learned that. But when he did he bought well.
So lets not shout too loudly at Sven just yet.

Is Sven another Martin? I believe he could be

Yes I am like every other City fan getting impatient at the lack of transfer activity, especially when our so called targets are being snapped up by other teams. Maybe the club bought the fans discomfort on themselves by shouting too loudly about signings.

Yes I am asking myself is the money really there?
But Leicester I am convinced is NO Portsmouth.
They level of commitment from the Thai's since their arrival last term convinces me they do have the money & desire.
Top is at many games and I truly believe that Sven has curbed their enthusiasm to 'spend spend spend' going for a more sensible approach.

You don't I believe win things with expensive over paid has beens.
You have to get the mix right. Youth & experience together ala Heskey & Cottee.

Lets learn from the golden years of Martin O'Neill who DID get the nix right.
Do we have stars coming through the youth academy? After all they didn't have a bad season last term themselves did they?
Yes we are losing players but are they not the players we have been shouting to get rid of all last season ?

This coming season promises to be one of the most exciting season in many a year for Leicester. I haven't felt this excited since Mandaric brought in Martin Allen. But deep down I know that Sven will be sensible and get the right players in at the right price.

Lets not overspend on the house and not be able to furnish it. Spending too much to get to The Premier League could leave us with nothing to send once we get their.
And as teams have found out when you go up to the top division you need TWO teams -
one to get you there & one to keep you up.
So you need to make sure that there is money left for the latter.

QPR one of the richest clubs in the country did not buy their way instantly to the top. Despite having some of the richest owners in the country they bided their time to get promotion. They spent but not madly, they got the right manager who chose the right players to get them

Never has the Leicester City saying be so true - KEEP THE FAITH!!