Leicester City have identified four key positions to strengthen ahead of their return to the Premier League.
Steve Cooper has taken over Leicester City at a difficult time following the departure of Championship-winning manager Enzo Maresca to Chelsea.
The misery for Foxes fans did not stop there though, with Maresca also securing a £30 million deal to take the club’s best player with him to Stamford Bridge in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
That deal was necessary in order for Leicester to avoid a breach of Premier League spending rules, but now the focus has turned to building a squad capable of battling for top flight survival.
Cooper has already welcomed four signings, with Abdul Fatawu, Micheal Golding, Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Caleb Okoli all arriving.
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However, the Foxes are not content to stop there and have identified four priority positions this summer.
Leicester City know areas they need to strengthen in transfer market
Fatawu spent last season on loan at the King Power but the winger has now made the deal permanent.
Of the other three signings, Golding is a centre-midfielder, De Cordova-Reid is a versatile attacking player and Okoli is a centre-back.
Now, it seems Leicester have a clear plan on the areas of the squad they want to spend the rest of their transfer budget on, but Cooper’s arrival may mean this changes.
That is according to Sky Sports, who report that: ‘Before the end of the window, Leicester are understood to want a new left-back, central-midfielder, winger and a striker’.
However, the report adds: ‘That could change slightly following the arrival of Steve Cooper as manager and any ideas of his own he may have for the team’.
Leicester may not have enough money to secure all four positions
The problem Leicester may encounter is that funds are tight currently.
Even with the sale of Dewsbury-Hall, Leicester still have financial concerns and are waiting on the outcome of their appeal against a charge from the Premier League in March regarding a potential historic breach of PSR.
It has been estimated that Cooper will have around £50 million to spend this summer.
With Okoli costing £12 million, Golding £5 million, and Leicester paying Sporting Lisbon around £14.3 million to make Fatawu’s loan permanent, that takes up around £31.3 million of that £50 million figure.
De Cordova-Reid’s signing was free following the expiration of his Fulham contract and Leicester may have to continue to be astute in the transfer market to make their remaining £18.7 million cover the four priority positions identified.