BRENDAN RODGERS witnessed life without Harry Maguire for the first time since Manchester United agreed to stump up the Foxes’ £85million asking-price.
It’s probably fair to say Brendan has a rather large hole burning in his pocket this morning as he thinks about using a chunk of it to replace the world’s most expensive defender!
Second half strikes from £30million summer signing Ayoze Perez on his home debut and wily old Fox Jamie Vardy sent Leicester fans home happy – despite Atalanta nabbing a late consolation from a Luis Muriel penalty.
But Rodgers must know he must dip into his transfer treasure chest in the next five days if Leicester are to have a bright future – regardless of the fact the club are investing a fortune in a state-of-the-art lighting system for the start of the campaign.
Caglar Soyuncu is an experienced Turkish international with 24 international caps under his belt.
But the 23-year-old is a stylish defender who uses the ball intelligently and would benefit from spending some time in tandem with a powerhouse like Maguire.
Unfortunately Rodgers doesn’t have time to bring on a Premier League novice who only made six first team appearances last season, which is probably why sources in Turkey have linked Soyuncu with a loan move to Fenerbahce in recent days.
Soyuncu wasn’t brought to the club by Rodgers who will want his own man on board, someone with more stature, more experience and more aerial clout in both boxes, with Brighton’s Lewis Dunk and Burnley’s James Tarkoswki two suitable candidates.
The King Power was more than half-empty for the Foxes’ only pre-season friendly – despite the undoubted calibre of their Italian opponents.
Atalanta finished third in Serie A last season and Gian Piero Gasperini’s slick operators showed exactly why they will be gracing the Champions’ League next season with the quality of their play.
Fresh from turning Premier League new-boys Norwich over 4-1, they played keep-ball early on and we were almost half an hour in before James Maddison gave the home crowd something to get excited with a wicked free-kick which was beaten away by Pierluigi Gollini at full-stretch.
Leicester’s class eventually came through but the night ended on a gloomy note. Home fans turned on their mobile phone torches to help the temporary floodlights out!
Perhaps someone had told the last world class defender to leave the building to remember to switch the lights out!
