Leicester City fans will be hoping the club uses the summer transfer window as a blank canvas, clearing out all of the deadwood and making smart investments.
Of course, Jon Rudkin and the Leicester City owners can’t be trusted to spend wisely in the summer, or even back their manager at all.
The last two transfer windows have simply been a disaster, with fans witnessing money being thrown down the drain.
For example, Leicester’s £20 million signing of Oliver Skipp from Tottenham last summer has demonstrated how poorly the Foxes have recruited.
Sadly, shocking decision-making regarding transfers has been a long-term problem, as shown by the signing of Wout Faes nearly three years ago.
Brendan Rodgers 2022 comments on Wout Faes have aged like milk
In the summer of 2022, Leicester signed Faes for £15 million from Ligue 1 side Stade Reims and he was their only permanent transfer aside from goalkeeper Alex Smithies.
The Belgian arrived with promising potential and he made a brilliant start to life at the King Power Stadium, cementing his place in Brendan Rodgers backline.
Speaking in November 2022, Rodgers praised the impact that Faes had on his defence, citing some of his key attributes in the process.
“I’ve been very impressed,” Rodgers said via Sky Sports. “He plays as if he’s much older. He knows football – and having guys in your backline that know the game makes a huge difference.
“He’s well-educated in football, you can see that in how he plays and his game is suited to the Premier League. He’s aggressive for us. The types of defenders I like – he defends forward, he presses the game well, he’s good when it comes into the box, he gets his head on it and he can play football. He’s done very, very well and I’ve been really pleased with his start.”
Since then, it’s all been downhill for Faes, who suffered relegation from the Premier League with the Foxes in 2023 and could now have another one on his CV this term.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has thrown Faes under the bus
Faes has been woeful for Leicester. He’s prone to making a mistake, doesn’t react quickly enough to danger and isn’t dominant against opposition attackers.
Unfortunately, the Belgian displayed all of those problems in Leicester’s 3-0 defeat against Man United and was thrown under the bus by his own manager.
Ruud van Nistelrooy blamed Faes for Rasmus Hojlund’s goal, suggesting he should have done better to stop it.
“I think if Wout Faes can come across to block Hojlund going to the keeper it would have been better. The second one falls for Garnacho, falls in front of his feet and he doesn’t think twice,” Van Nistelrooy said.
It proves that even the Leicester boss is getting annoyed with the player and this summer, he could finally be sold.