Peltier Move Exposes Leicester’s Flawed Transfer Policy

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

The proposed exit of Leicester City defender, Lee Peltier, has exposed just how flawed the Foxes’ transfer policy was last season.

The previous summer, Leicester spent over £10m on nine new players, in a bid to reclaim a place in the Premier League. Their plan backfired spectacularly, with boss, Sven Goran Erickson, sacked by October, leaving a squad unfamiliar with each other to battle on their own.

The Foxes finished ninth in the Championship last season, far off the pace for promotion, and in defiance of the early football tips on Betfair. Their big-name signings failed to live up to the cash spent on them, with Jermaine Beckford a harsh £4m example.

Of all the signings to come in, Peltier was, in fact, one of the success stories. With 47 appearances, the midfielder was slowly further developing his trade at the King Power Stadium. But with speculation that bids from former club, Huddersfield Town, and Leeds United are on the table, suddenly Leicester’s transfer policy is under even greater scrutiny.

Why is a player, who joined just last season, being allowed to leave when Leicester spent so much on him in the first place? Last year’s nine new signings have had additions this summer, with Zak Whitbread and Marko Futacs being just two of five newcomers in a month.

Peltier has had no chance to grow into the team, instead, being relegated to a bit-part player. Now, it seems his short time at the Walkers is already up, suggesting Leicester’s current transfer policy is far from sustainable.

For, if the Foxes can allow players to leave after just one season, they are on a dangerous financial slope. Squad cohesion has already proven to be a difficult achievement for the side, and further transfers can only be to the detriment of a club looking to claw its way out of the Championship.

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Tagged as: jermaine beckford, Lee Dixon, Lee Peltier, Leicester, Leicester City F.C., premier league, Zak Whitbread

{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

Ryan Betts July 23, 2012 at 3:00 pm: This is utter nonsense as a season ticket holder and someone who travels away I can tell you that Lee Peltier is far from a success story he was average last season and is being sold because he is a dislikable character off the pitch aswell. Danns, konchesky, schmeichel, st ledger and nugent were all better than peltier last season and ketamine Beckfords goals to game ratio is good. This is a pointless story and a waste of time even reading.
Adam July 23, 2012 at 3:03 pm: This is rediculous, as a leicester fan, we already knew we had to cut our wage budget and thats why we have let mills,bamba,tunchev,moussa,chamberlain,weale,oakley go at least we have not spent millions as we did last year, leicester are now in the right hands once again.. and with links to huddersfield and leeds are just rumours, peltier was in a open training session at weekend and looked happy.
Rumours and a vicious thing
Ed July 23, 2012 at 3:12 pm: Peltier is a defender, we only paid £1m for him and he is not good enough for a promotion team, though is most likely good enough for mid table. We are getting the same value back for him as was paid- hence the hold up in the transfer to leeds/huddersfield.

Beckford was £2.5m.
1uca86 July 23, 2012 at 3:23 pm: The problem is when these 9 new signings came to Leicester last summer, they were under the managment of Sven, all of whom joined on extreamly large wages. I know the Leicester executives have a case to answer for but Sven was clearly the catalyst for this. (We have seem him being walked over in the past).

I undestand that Pearson has not only had a job of trying to get Leicester into the Premier League but to also significantly reduce the wage bill ready for the Fair Play Rules which are due to come into place. Pelteir was offered a new contact albeit on reduce terms which he rejected, Pearson has then made the decision to listen to offers. This is the reason you have quickly seen players such as Pantsil, Mills, Fernandes, Johnson all leave.
Serge July 23, 2012 at 3:36 pm: As other people have pointed out, peltier is a defender not a midfielder. He came to Leicester with lots of promise like a certain mr mills but failed to deliver getting caught out on numerous occasions down the right hand side and proving to be a weak link. There were frailties throughout the side a few prima donnas to boot who needed a clip round the ear to bring them back down to earth i.e beckford, so not all the blame can be placed on peltiers shoulders but Pelts is just a good player full stop. Just good. Leicester need more than just good and besides pearson doesn’t really like pelts hence he’s offloading. Oh and 1 last thing we may have brought in 5 new faces in a month this season as well as 9 last season but since pearsons arrival he’s let go of at least 20. It’s called balancing the books.
darth vodka July 23, 2012 at 3:58 pm: >Why is a player, who joined just last season, being allowed to leave?

because he’s not very good
Glenn Murphy July 23, 2012 at 5:17 pm: What a joke of an article.
we spent closer to 2 million of Beckford rather than the 4 reported, any respected journalist would know this.

We play at the king power stadium not the walkers stadium.

Peltier is a defender not a midfielder.

We brought the bloke for 750k and will at least make our money back at least.

he started the season well I agree but was shabby to say the least towards the end. We have just signed De Laet from Man Utd, this kid will easily fit into the right back spot.

ITo the author of this, do you work for the mirror?
Glover7 July 23, 2012 at 5:19 pm: Im not really sure about this article, a few facts and statements don’t really ring true. Firstly it states Pelts is a midfielder but is clearly a right back. Secondly it mentions him not being allowed time to grow into the team and became a bit part player. Again not true; in the article its self it shows he was first team and given a lot of chance by making over 40 appearances (mainly starts).

Pelts started well under Sven and im sure Derek Fazackerley had a big part to play in that as he was coached by him for a good few years at Huddersfield. He was given a lot of support from the fans and management.

When Pearson took over he didn’t want Pelts to wander forward as much and this really showed his weakness – Defending. Often out of position and therefore stretching the defence, you finally saw signs of a defender that had never played in the Championship.

Later in the season Pelts was responsible for a number of goals and really looked like he lost interest when there was no sight of promotion. Opposition teams would target him as they recognised he was a weak link. Even with these league 1 performances the fans and management stuck with him with only a few games SSL moving to right back. For a team looking to gain promotion he is at best a back up player and probably very useful on a 7 man bench.

Looking at the Leicester squad you would think then; why not keep him as backup behind De Leat?? Well with a number of years left on his contract his agent has been asking for a new contract with more wages… saying he was brought as backup to Pansil his wages wont be amazing and he now wants first team wages. Now that Pearson does not see him as first team this would never happen. Pelts has a look else where and a few northern clubs come running.

For Leicester this is no real big loss, Liam Moore looks like he could be getting to a standard to be backup and SSL can slot in there (if he stays). Also who knows if another DEF will be brought in. The money spent on Pelts was not massive, reported to be £750k with clauses. Guessing most of any additional money to be paid would have been based on promotion I would assume £750k is still the price paid. With Leeds and Huddersfield fighting for the player, the reported £350k looks to be more like £750 now and therefore a clean slate for Leicester.

The only part of this article I really agree with is the essence of title. The spending last year was shocking. Poor players with no real quality (bar 1 or 2). This year is slightly better in the sense we have not spent a stupid amount on 1 or 2 players *cough Beckford* but ambition is still lacking IMO and some star loan signings would be very welcome in my eyes.

Glover7
Jake Moore July 23, 2012 at 5:26 pm: Mate you haven’t got a clue have you. – that isn’t a question, it’s a fact! Lee politer is a defender! And we play at The King Power Stadium not the Walkers! Get your facts right before you waffle on.
Dan July 23, 2012 at 5:57 pm: What a load of tosh ! First of all lets get the facts right, peltier is a defender not a midfielder. Beckford was signed for 2mil not 4. You obviously dont go to leicester week in week out to realise how poor defensively we were last year, particularly down peltiers side. And why sell a player you have just bought, maybe because he is simply not good enough. And how you can call our transfer policy un sustainable is a joke… We arent paying high wages anymore, nor spending enormous amounts of money, but infact money we have made from the sale of players. So I suggest whoever wrote this article needs to stop and think
Brad July 23, 2012 at 6:04 pm: This is an absolutely awful article. From the get go you call Peltier a ‘midfielder’ and unfortunately it doesn’t get any better from there. ‘Bit-part player’ – did you watch any Leicester games? He was our first choice right back for the majority of the season.

There’s no sugar coating the fact that the journalist responsible for this ‘piece’ should be ashamed.
Morrissey July 23, 2012 at 6:25 pm: Pelts is not a defender. He didnt cost 1 million either (whoever suggested that?), Beckford didn’t cost £4 million. Pelts is not good enough and gets caught out of possession – he will leave and I hope he does unless he is happy to fight for his place. Poor article, you know little about how we are righting the financial and playing wrongs of last season. We are offloading expensive high wage earners and bringing in hungry young talent.
LCFC87 July 23, 2012 at 6:54 pm: As other comments say, this is a poor article. I wouldn’t say Peltier was a flop, but he’s average at best, and not many would be bothered if he left. There’s also numerous factual inaccuracies such as the stadium name, Beckford’s fee and even Peltier’s position.
Daver July 23, 2012 at 7:27 pm: Your article is FLAWED, Peltier is a defender. Do your homework
Colin July 23, 2012 at 10:16 pm: Peltier, midfielder? Did you get paid to write this article? Lead head!
Tin tin July 24, 2012 at 10:31 am: Dexy’s Den eh ? real football, real fans , real opinions . start by getting real over your facts first. Or is this a deliberate Troll article to drum up hits ? pathetic.

Peltier Move Exposes Leicester’s Flawed Transfer Policy

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