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What we have seen this summer is a massive change of player material and as the situation still is far from balanced, more changes will appear when we reach the January transfer window.
Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi are two players close to their contract end. Dennis Praet, Alex Smithies, Jannik Vestergaard and Jamie Vardy are all in the same situation.
Enzo Maresca is in a similar situation as Jock Wallace and Micky Adams, as we experienced a number of years back, with Wallace getting it all together, using two seasons to bring Leicester back up, Adams got confused and stepped down from his position early in his fourth season, facing relegation twice.
Micky Adams and Jock Wallace changed almost everything in their days at the club, as especially Wallace found talent were no one else looked as the bargains of Ian Wilson and Kevin MacDonald are among the best moves ever done at the football club. Wallace gave a young Gary Lineker his first team debut and introduced other youngsters such as Paul Edmunds, David Buchanan and Andy Peake.
Micky Adams never really managed to bring the stability needed, but had the most difficult job to handle, as he later drifted up and down with managerial jobs in EFL. He had a solid foundation when he took the team back up into Premier League, and managed to build a solid squad of many top individuals, but instead of bringing forward a fair share of youngsters he instead signed experienced players.
The outcome of the Enzo Maresca project makes no anwers so far, as the ability to establish a strong foundation needs time, and players signed must take the job on. To change and at the same time bring good results to the table is a difficult act and it could crash land as the Leicester project at present might be one of the most difficult to handle, as the fall from a top team into Championship life is in real a shock for every brick in the wall.
Looking back at the success formula of Jock Wallace, only one established first team player were left at the club when promotion and winning 2nd divison happened two seasons later. Goalkeeper Mark Wallington was that individual, being left from the Jimmy Bloomfield team of the 1976/77 season. The team of Jimmy Bloomfield was an aging lot, with stars such as Keith Weller, Frank Worthington and Jon Sammels.
The team Jock Wallace took back up, was far from the standards of the previous group, brought on by Jimmy Bloomfield, as philosophies were very different. Enzo Maresca has brought in Harry Winks and Conor Coady and shipped out Harvey Barnes, Timothy Castagne and James Maddison, and adding those who left on a free in the summer, you will have to understand that players valued to less than £10million not can compete in the area of those leaving, simply because you need time to develope and evolve.
To sell players season by season and demand success with constant transition is a tall order. Over time no one really manage to get it correctly. Only the big guns survive at the top, even them having difficulties at times. Previous league winners such as Ipswich, Derby, Forest, Man City and Leeds have suffered and been out of the top for several years.
When Leicester were finally relegated from the top flight in 2003/04, we did see a change of player material that made the decline and suffer difficult to handle, as it all continued for a long period of time. Leicester ended the 2004/05 season in a 15th position in the 2nd tier.
Ian Walker, Nikos Dabizas, Keith Gillespie, Lilian Nalis and James Scowcroft were the only established first team squad players left from the prior Premier League season. For pre-season 2005/06 season Leicester traveled to Norway and played Bodo Glimt and Lillestrom. At that time the rest of the Premier League squad of 2003/04 were all shipped out, and nothing left as the Leicester City project did see further decline, management change and no plan installed, as it all was in downfall.
Enzo Maresca needs a clever brain and a lot of luck to bring stability to his establishment, seeing more players on the way out in January, as he needs new recruits, to get a very different Leicester team back to the top. This mission looks is a challenge, but hopefully no one will ask for Maresca’s head, even if results are not favourable in periods.
As a fan of this football club you will never be surprised as history often repeats it self decade by decade.
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