Enzo Maresca has left Leicester City Football Club for Chelsea. While there is no formal announcement yet, we have something more than official: Theme from “Here We Go” We could delve into a detailed history of the Maresca era, but…wait, no. No, we couldn’t because the “era” lasted just one season. It was a fantastic season, and the club completed all of their goals. Chelsea was drawn to this success, and they decided to take action. This is the end of the narrative… Sort of.
The Foxes are now tasked with selecting a new manager. Whoever gets the post will have an interesting time. The goal is to “keep City in the top flight,” but it comes with a lot of baggage. To wit: Many Premier League veterans in the squad are out of contract. Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Dennis Praet, Jannik Vestergaard, Marc Albrighton, and Jamie Vardy are all available to sign with any club as free agents. Combine this with the previous year’s losses of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, and the first-team squad is small, even by the standards of freshly promoted sides.
The Foxes are nearly certain to begin the season with fewer than zero points or, at the very least, face a points deduction at some point throughout the season. The aim is 42 points, but getting there will require a handful of extra wins. To put that in perspective, the customary safe mark will require us to match Brighton and Hove Albion’s point total from their 11th-place finish last season.
Money is going to be an issue. Even with the monetary bonus City will receive from Chelsea for Maresca, the club will need to sell to bring in new players. This could imply that stars such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wout Faes will be sacrificed to balance the budget. The new manager will not have an open checkbook with which to conduct business.
The first-team squad is heavily influenced by Enzo Maresca and may not suit the strategies of the new manager. That is to say, Harry Winks has suffered everywhere but here. There are two hypotheses as to why this is the case: either he is the ideal player for Maresca’s system, or the League Championship represents his true level.
This is a lengthy way of stating that retaining this club in the top division is a tall order. However, everything is not lost. City’s roster includes several players who did not fit into Maresca’s system. Victor Kristiansen and Boubakary Soumare spent last year on loan with Bologna and Sevilla, respectively, and had successful seasons. Luke Thomas has played for both Sheffield United and Middlesbrough, and Harry Souttar is still with the Foxes, but how long for is unclear.
If there’s one thing we learnt last year, it’s that Wilfred Ndidi is a surprising good attacker. If we’ve learned anything else, it’s that the quality of recruitment is heavily influenced by how well the recruits fit into the manager’s systems. It’s pointless to speculate on who City should buy until we know who will take the reins. So, is this going to be another one of those summers? Ideally, we’d find and hire a new manager quickly before focusing on strengthening the squad. Things are rarely perfect, therefore we should expect certain critical details to be left till the last minute.
So, since guessing who will be on the squad next year is pointless, let’s try “pick the next manager.” Instead of who you expect it to be, who do you believe it should be?
