Sven Goran Eriksson’s Leicester City have without a doubt been the biggest spending team in the Championship this season signing no fewer than ten new players.
Though has the Swede gone too far with his summer spending and taken a gamble in hoping that so many new players gel in time to mount a serious push for promotion?
The Foxes have so far made an indifferent start to the season, beating Coventry in their opening game of the Championship, and then going on to beat league two Rotherham 4-1 in the Carling Cup first round but then suffering a 2-0 defeat to promotion rivals Reading.
Eriksson will be more than aware that there are 46 games in the Championship season and this year the competition is as fierce as ever with as many as ten teams fancied for promotion. Though having been heavily backed by the clubs Thai consortium, spending around £8.5m this summer, expectations from fans and owners alike will be high.
There is no doubting the quality of players that he has brought in, Paul Konchesky and John Pantsil for example have both played in a UEFA Cup final, David Nugent has played both Premiership and International football, and defender Matt Mills lost in last year’s play-off final with Reading.
A number of the new arrivals played under Eriksson during his time at Manchester City and he will be hoping that their previous relationship will help them settle in quicker. One of those players will be Michael Johnson, once a very promising young central midfielder but after a number of serious injuries he’ll be looking to use this loan spell as a chance to rebuild his career.
After last season’s slightly disappointing 10th place finish both the manager and his players will have their sights set on a promotion or possible title challenging campaign. Some bookmakers have them at 6/4 second favourites behind West Ham for promotion to the Premier League.
The Swede showed last year that he was not afraid to dip into the transfer market signing a number of players after his appointment in October 2010. Consistency was perhaps the issue in the latter part of their push for promotion, at one point they occupied a play-off spot but a disappointing finish to the year cost them dearly.
Eriksson will now be hoping that having conducted his business early in the transfer market his new team will gel together and become a force to be reckoned with in the Championship. Though one thing is very clearly having spent such a vast amount of money failure is not an option and nothing less than a play-off spot will be acceptable.
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It is ridiculous to suggest that too many players have been signed. City only had a core of some 7 or 8 first team squad players. Last years squad comprised mainly loan players as sven joined after the close of the window.
Signings were always necessary if a competitive team was to be fielded.
So loan or permanent a large influx of players was essential.