Leicester City FC: Caught in the No-Mans Land
Last season was one of consolidation for the 2015-16 Premier League Champions. Following their historic triumph, the 2016- 17 season was again an exciting one. Leicester enjoyed a great run to the Champions League Quarter Finals, going further than any other English team.
The same season, Leicester sacked their championship winning manager Claudio Ranieri and brought in Shakespeare in order to avoid relegation, which he did successfully. Then came last season, where they started with Shakespeare at the helm, but got rid of him by Mid-October, replacing him with former Southampton manager Claude Puel.
He came in and got the team to playing solid and sometimes entertaining football; getting the best out of Maguire, Mahrez, Iborra to elevate their performances and helping them to finish a respectable ninth, a few points behind Burnley in the last European place.
Against this backdrop, the Leicester board can be forgiven for wishing for more of the same at this moment of time. Leicester should have realized by now, that the Premier League hierarchy will not be broken easily.
What they were able to achieve a few years, might not get repeated anytime soon. So what should be Leicester's ambition in the short term? If not the top six, then the next best is the next four places in the Top 10.
By and large, only Everton have maintained to stay in these positions over the years. Leicester should be aiming to make one of these places theirs for the upcoming seasons.
Leicester is re-aligning themselves to the new aims, This summer they have sanctioned the sale of their best player - Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City.
Leicester have invested wisely in their squad. Bringing in Jonny Evans from West Brom for just £3.5m; investing in Danny Ward from Liverpool, in case Schmeichel has prized away this summer and bringing in Portugal International Ricardo Pereira to further strengthen their defense and provide competition to long-serving Danny Simpson.
Leicester is well stocked in midfield with Ndidi, Iborra, Albrighton, Adrien Silva; some of the accomplished members of the squad. Add to the mix the youthful energy and raw pace of Demarai Gray and things start to look better for the upcoming campaign.
Vardy, Iheanacho, Musa, Okazaki add depth and variation to the front line. Vardy finished last season with 20 goals in the league and the challenge will be to replicate that form this year without Mahrez providing him quality support.
Puel might have to tweak the style of play, in order to compensate the creativity Mahrez brought to the team. Still, Leicester looks pretty well stocked to replicate their performances from last year and push the teams ahead of them in the pecking order.
Leicester would be wise to make plans to consolidate their premier league status in the upcoming seasons, which would place them ideally to receive that windfall from the broadcasting deals. Less excitement might just be what Leicester need this season.