Cooper must now sell Leicester man who earns 2x more than Dewsbury-Hall
Leicester City will be fairly confident that they can adjust back to the Premier League well after the crushing blow of relegation greeted them at the end of the 2022/23 top-flight season.
Steve Cooper does have his work cut to prove to Foxes fans that he is the right man to lead them back up to the top league, having only mustered up 11 wins from 54 Premier League games as a manager to date.
Yet, he could become an instantly more likeable figure in his new surroundings by sealing some exciting signings and clearing out the deadwood.
That even includes a Foxes star who was brought to the Midlands for an eye-watering £15m sum.
Souttar’s time at Leicester
The overpriced player in question is former Stoke City centre-back Harry Souttar, who left behind the Potters in 2023 for Leicester, hoping he could become a Premier League calibre star at the back.
This move just hasn’t worked out whatsoever for the towering Australia international though, who has ended up amassing just 16 games in total over two full campaigns now, with ex-Foxes boss Enzo Maresca handing him just three league appearances on the way to Leicester’s promotion triumph, before heading off to Chelsea.
It’s been a sharp decline for a defender who had shone up and down the EFL before this big step-up to the top flight proved too much, with his reputation taking even more of a bruising in the East Midlands by Maresca freezing him out of his starting lineups.
Cooper will look to offload the Foxes dud as a result, but this could prove to be a challenge, owing to the newly promoted side no doubt wanting to recoup some of the wild £15m they splashed out on Souttar just a year ago.
