Leicester City are in a position where they can start to plan for life in the Premier League.
Enzo Maresca has orchestrated a winning machine at Leicester that is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Foxes, who are currently 12 points clear of third place Leeds United, are steamrolling their way to promotion and it doesn’t look like anyone can stop them.
Leicester have only lost four matches in the entire campaign; they would need to lose another four and for their rivals to win theirs to lose their position at the top.
The chances of that happening are very slim, so Maresca can start to look towards planning for the top flight.
Although the Italian has said that he’ll only enter contract discussions with players once promotion is sealed, there are a few who he should have offloaded in January.
Here are three players Enzo Maresca should have sanctioned in the winter window…
Danny Ward
Danny Ward is spending the prime years of his career warming the bench at Leicester.
The 30-year-old fell down the pecking order to third choice after Maresca signed Mads Hermansen and drafted Jakub Stolarczyk from the U21s.
It’s been known for a while that the best decision he can make in his career is departing the King Power, although there was little interest in his services in January.
Ward was encouraged to leave Leicester by Wales manager Rob last year but his £40k-a-week wages are proving difficult to shift as few Championship clubs, if any, have the financial leverage to take him off their hands.
Dennis Praet
Unlike Ward, whose contract expires in 2025, Dennis Praet sees his deal expire in June this year and Leicester should have done everything to shift his £75k-a-week wages.
The Belgian midfielder has only started once in the second tier this term, playing 54 minutes in their recent 3-1 victory over Swansea City.
Praet is another who has struggled to nail down a regular place in Maresca’s plans and they’ll likely take a huge loss on the 29-year-old after signing him for £18m in 2019.
For that reason, selling him in January was the best call to action.
Harry Souttar
Harry Souttar signed for £15m from Stoke City on a five-and-a-half-year contract in January last year and despite showing promise in the top flight, the 25-year-old has only featured three times in the Championship.
Maresca’s influential defensive duo of Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes have made it near impossible for him to earn his chance and he’s someone who the Foxes should have considered selling last month.
Although he is undoubtedly talented, Souttar is only going to be spending more time on the bench if Leicester are promoted to the top flight, so getting him off the wage bill in January could have been beneficial.