Leicester City’s outrageous £203m transfer window as shock Nottingham Forest deal tipped in bold prediction

Leicester City is predicted by one simulation to have an incredible summer transfer window in 2024.
Leicester City is going through a strange time as they prepare to return to the Premier League without a manager. A lucrative offer from Chelsea lured Enzo Maresca away from King Power Stadium, just weeks after he had led the Foxes to the Championship title. It’s unclear what Leicester’s future holds, but several important players’ contracts are about to expire, so some significant decisions will need to be made in the upcoming weeks.

It’s unclear who will make those choices or how the Foxes might behave in the transfer market to try and reclaim their place among English football’s elite. Thus, at 3AddedMinutes, we thought it would be a good idea to try and obtain a preview of what might transpire in the upcoming months. In order to see how the most popular management simulation in the world anticipated the Foxes hierarchy to behave, we launched Football Manager 2024. It began with the unexpected hiring of Mauricio Pochettino, a former manager of Chelsea and Spurs.

Goalkeepers

Pochettino didn’t take long to instill his own style in the Foxes team, despite continuing to have faith in Mads Hermansen and Daniel Iversen. However, since their new manager gave Foxes £5 million to sign Swiss custodian Phillipp Kohn, there is a new threat to the current duo.
Goalkeeping choices for Pochettino include Mads Hermansen, Phillipp Kohn, and Daniel Iversen.

defenders
The former manager of Chelsea and Spurs would add roughly £77 million to the team’s budget while undertaking a bit of a defensive reorganisation. James Justin and Ricardo Pereira, two full-backs, signed with Bournemouth and West Ham United for a combined salary of about £52 million. Jannik Vestergaard (£3m to Norwich City), Harry Souttar (£5.5m to Brentford), and Wout Faes (£17m to Southampton) were among the other players who left. Pochettino moved quickly to replace them, spending £7.5 million to acquire Monaco’s El Chadaille Bitshiabu after spending £17 million to acquire Almeria star Cesar Montes. The new Foxes manager kept bolstering his team, spending a total of £16 million to sign Fulham full-back Kevin Mbabu, Sturm Graz star Max Johnston, and Gent’s Jordan Torunarigha.

Conor Coady, Cesar Montes, Ben Nelson, Luke Thomas, Kevin Mbabu, Max Johnston, Victor Kristensen, El Chadaille Bitshiabu, and Jordan Tornarigha are among Pochettino’s defensive options.

midfield players
Pochettino brought in two new players to the core of the squad, one of whom, Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest, will likely create quite a stir after the Foxes paid £32 million for him. Morten Frondrup of Genoa was also acquired for a considerably lower sum of £6 million. Midfield losses included the £13.5 million departure of Hamza Choudhury to Wolves and the free transfers of Wilfried Ndidi and Dennis Pratt to Lille and Roma, following the expiration of their King Power Stadium contracts.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Morten Frendrup, Harry Winks, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and Boubakary Soumare are Pochettino’s options in the midfield.

 Forward

Two players left Pochettino’s forward ranks: Kelechi Iheanacho, who was selected to lead the Clarets’ push to return to the top flight at the first opportunity, left for Burnley for a fee of £8 million. Sadly, Jamie Vardy’s tenure at Fox ended when he signed a free transfer to play for MLS team LAFC. Vardy was a former Premier League and FA Cup winner.
There were several new arrivals, including Brazilian striker Willian Jose, who cost £2.5 million to leave Real Betis, and Sergey Pinyaev, a winger from Lokomotiv Moscow, who cost £10.5 million to join Leicester. The Swedish winger Pontus Almqvist joined on a free transfer after leaving Rostov, and Rodrigo Riquelme, son of Argentina legend Juan Roman, joined from Atletico Madrid in a move reported to be worth £7.5 million.

Kasey McAteer, Stephy Mavididi, Sergey Pinyaev, Patson Daka, Tom Cannon, Rodrigo Riquelme, Pontus Almqvist, and Willian Jose are among Pochettino’s forward options.