Towards the end of last season, it became increasingly clear what Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy had in mind for the team’s future.
Teenagers Jeremy Monga, Jake Evans and Olabade Aluko all made their debuts, with Van Nistelrooy saying he would be involving more young players in his pre-season plans.
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The Dutch manager has a reputation for developing youngsters, but in light of Leicester’s alleged profit and sustainability rules (PSR) breach and possible sanctions for the 2025-26 Championship, the club may need to put their faith in academy graduates.
The good news on that front is that several players who emerged from Leicester’s academy in the past couple of years went on loan last season, gaining first-team experience. There could also be fresh starts for returning — almost forgotten, in some cases — senior players who were also farmed out on temporary deals after being deemed surplus to requirements in the Premier League.
Here, The Athletic looks at Leicester’s returning loanees and their readiness to play a part in the upcoming second-tier campaign…
Harry Souttar, central defender, 26
The Scotland-born Australia international has had a rough time since joining the club in January 2023. He made 12 appearances for Leicester as they slipped out of the Premier League that season under Brendan Rodgers and interim successor Dean Smith, but just four more in the two seasons since.
A loan spell at Sheffield United in the Championship last season didn’t go to plan as he ruptured his Achilles tendon on Boxing Day, so was sent back to his parent club for treatment. Souttar still has three years left on his contract, but it would take a remarkable change in fortune for him to come close to spending that time with Leicester.
Hamza Choudhury, midfielder, 27
The prospects look better for Choudhury, who ended last season out on loan, again at Sheffield United, and played in their play-off final defeat by Sunderland. Choudhury’s versatility and ability at Championship level could mean he has a prominent role for Leicester in the campaign to come, especially if there is the expected clear-out of some senior, high-earning players following relegation.
Hamza Choudhury playing for Sheffield United in the Championship last season (George Wood/Getty Images)
Having come through the club’s academy, the locally-born Bangladesh international could provide much-needed leadership to Leicester’s younger players, too.
Ben Nelson, central defender, 21
The England Under-20 international (pictured top) had a taste of the first team at Leicester under Enzo Maresca in the 2023-24 promotion season, making eight appearances in all competitions. At times, he was preferred to more experienced colleagues Conor Coady and Souttar, two full internationals who were substitutes as Nelson started and scored in a home defeat by Queens Park Rangers that March.
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Elegant and agile on the ball, the club wanted him to gain experience, so sent him on loan to Oxford United last season in the expectation that the newly-promoted Championship side would have a fair bit of defending to do.
The theory was that Nelson would learn to protect his team’s penalty area and to stand up to physical, second-division strikers who could toughen the lad up. After signing in late August, he started eight consecutive league games before a November thigh injury kept him sidelined for four months, then made a further eight starts when fit again.
Nelson will be involved in pre-season, so has a chance to impress Van Nistelrooy.
Will Alves, attacking midfielder, 20
There had been a buzz around Alves at Leicester even before he was handed his senior debut, aged 16, by Rodgers in a January 2022 FA Cup tie against Watford.
A devastating knee injury suffered playing for the club’s under-21 side that December jeopardised his career, and Leicester have been extremely careful in nurturing him back to fitness ever since, but a new four-year contract, which Alves signed in August, was testament to how highly they regard him.
Alves went out on loan for the second half of last season at Cardiff City and was one of the bright spots of what was a desperately disappointing season that saw the Welsh side relegated from the Championship. Alves made 15 appearances, eight of them starts, and scored once, as well as supplying three assists.
He will begin pre-season with the first-team squad and is expected to be involved in the warm-up friendlies.
Will Alves, in grey, in action for Cardiff last season (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
Silko Thomas, winger, 20
Thomas has only been with Leicester for two years, after being released by Chelsea, but was one of the young players who had their contracts extended by the club. He spent last season on loan at Wigan Athletic in League One, English football’s third tier.
Manager Shaun Maloney, who told Wigan’s website he had been watching Thomas closely in Leicester’s under-21s for “the last 18 months”, gave him 23 starts until he suffered a knee injury in February and returned to Leicester to begin rehab. The Londoner didn’t score during his time there, but got three assists.
Thomas can play on either wing and, although those are positions where Leicester have lots of options, will get an opportunity in pre-season.
Sammy Braybrooke, midfielder, 21
Highly regarded in the England junior pathway (he has played for his country at under-18, under-19 and under-20 level and is known as “Leicester’s Iniesta”), Braybrooke has made just one substitute appearance for Leicester’s senior side and his first loan was probably overdue.
James Maddison, the England international midfielder who took Braybrooke under his wing at Leicester, prospered on loan in Scotland’s top flight at Aberdeen when he was 20, and it was hoped a season at Dundee in the same division would do the same for Braybrooke. “If you look at Madders, his loan to Aberdeen was pivotal,” Tony Docherty, Dundee’s manager at the time, told local newspaper The Courier last August. “I am hoping this proves the same way with Sammy.”
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However, Braybrooke made just two starts in the Scottish Premier League and returned prematurely to Leicester in January, spending the rest of the season playing in their under-21s. (He was unable to go out on loan again as he had played for Leicester in the EFL Trophy in August before leaving for Scotland, so by rule couldn’t be registered by a third club in the same season.)
With Leicester’s squad currently packed with central midfielders — Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp, Wilfred Ndidi, Boubakary Soumare and Choudhury — opportunities with his parent club next season may be limited unless a lot of players depart before the September 1 transfer deadline.
Wanya Marcal, winger, 22
Marcal, who joined Leicester’s academy at age 12, came to the fore two seasons ago under Maresca, when he made eight appearances, scoring once, and he signed a contract extension until 2026 in December 2023.
Then, surprisingly, he was sent out on loan in August to De Graafschap, in the second tier of Dutch football, and became Leicester’s forgotten man. Marcal, who was born in Leicester and is of Portuguese and Angolan descent, didn’t make his De Graafschap debut until December and only appeared 15 times, scoring and assisting just once each.
It is likely he will start pre-season behind several other wide options, including teenagers Monga and Evans, on Van Nistelrooy’s depth chart.
Wanya Marcal spent last season in the Dutch second division (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
Brandon Cover, midfielder, 21
Cover is a versatile type who can play as a midfielder or as a right-back, and he had an interesting season out on loan.
He first joined League Two side Port Vale and was due to stay with the fourth-tier club for the duration but, after 17 league starts and two goals, Leicester recalled him in January, due to concern he wouldn’t get much more game time there as several senior players returned from injury. He was then farmed out to Fleetwood Town, in the same division, but only made four starts among eight appearances in the second half of the campaign, all on the right side of midfield.
Regardless, Cover — who made his Leicester debut under Maresca in January 2024 and trained with the first team under Steve Cooper after he succeeded the promotion-winning Italian in the summer — was one of the young players handed contract extensions last week.
Amani Richards, forward, 20
Having previously been with Arsenal and Chelsea, Richards joined Leicester in 2022, and was named the club’s academy player of the season after his debut year.
He went out on his first loan last season at Exeter City in League One but struggled to get game time, and was recalled in January after just two starts and 200 minutes of league action. Richards finished the season playing for Leicester Under-21s in Premier League 2.
Another loan seems likely.
Chris Popov, striker, 20
The Wales Under-21 international joined Leicester in 2021 after being released by Manchester United and made his first-team debut in the Carabao Cup at Tranmere Rovers last August, before being sent out on loan to Barrow in League Two.
It wasn’t a fruitful experience. Popov only made three starts and just 12 appearances in total.
As with Richards, another loan is on the cards.
Released players
Goalkeeper Brad Young, who was on loan at Hartlepool United in England’s fifth-tier National League, defender Ben Grist, who was a division lower on the ladder with Worksop Town, Arjan Raikhy, who made three first-team appearances during Maresca’s season in charge but went out on loan at Tamworth of the National League, and fellow midfielder Oliver Ewing, who had a spell at sixth-tier Buxton last season, have all been let go.
(Top photo of Ben Nelson: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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