A price tag can often weigh down a player with enormous pressure.
Leicester City have spent big money on players over the years, all with varying degrees of success.
Islam Slimani joined for £30m in 2016 but never hit the ground running and failed to score at the same rate as he did during his Sporting CP days.
Youri Tielemans on the other hand was far more successful, scoring the most famous goal in Leicester history in the FA Cup final.
Some just aren’t cut out for it and back in 2000, shortly after Emile Heskey departed for Liverpool, the Foxes needed to find an adequate replacement.
That led to them spending big, but for the player and Leicester, it was a big mistake from all parties.
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Ade Akinbiyi admits he flopped for Leicester City
Not only had Heskey departed for Liverpool, Leicester had also lost Martin O’Neill to Celtic.
Peter Taylor was his chosen replacement and a new manager means new ideas. His choice to replace Heskey was Ade Akinbiyi.
The Foxes spent big money on the Wolverhampton Wanderers striker, breaking their transfer record by parting with £5m for him.
However, he failed to live up to the hype, scoring nine goals in the 2000/01 season and is regarded as one of the club’s worst signings of all time.
It’s not a tag anyone wants to be affiliated to, but even Akinbiyi admitted himself in 2018 that it was a move that went wrong.
He told FourFourTwo: “£5m was a massive fee for Leicester at the time, and naturally they expected me to score a lot of goals to justify that.
“I really can’t pinpoint why it didn’t work out. I think it was the right time for Leicester to come and buy me, although maybe I could’ve done with another year at Wolves. But, of course, I wanted to play in the Premier League.
“Back in the day, people expected a lot of goals from players like me. It didn’t happen. It was more or less a waste of money, if you want to call it that.”
Ade Akinbiyi’s Leicester career
Akinbiyi only spent two seasons at Filbert Street but ultimately failed to live up to expectations, scoring 11 goals in 55 league appearances.
His other two goals game in cup competitions but the forward ended up making over 60 appearances, averaging a goal just under every six games.
| Ade Akinbiyi’s Leicester City stats |
| Appearances – 66 |
| Goals – 13 |
| Assists – 0 |
Leicester fans lost their patience with the forward after one game against Liverpool where the striker missed four guilt-edge chances, one from six-yards out.
He was put out of misery in February 2002 when he was transferred to Crystal Palace but it’s fair to say that his career was somewhat something of a damp squib.