Leicester City have four senior players out on loan this season – their fortunes have differed somewhat in the first half of the campaign
The respective experiences of Leicester City’s four senior loanees have thus far proven to be a mixed bag this season. The Foxes decided to loan out Boubakary Soumare, Luke Thomas and Victor Kristiansen in the summer, following the club’s relegation from the Premier League. City then permitted goalkeeper Daniel Iversen to depart in January, too, for nearby Stoke City.
Much like the futures of the players City have borrowed themselves – the likes of Abdul Fatawu and Yunus Akgun could remain at the club beyond the end of this season, although it remains to be seen what Manchester City’s plans are for Callum Doyle in the long-term and what City’s prospects of a permanent deal are – Leicester themselves must make decisions at the end of the season.
Much will depend on which division City find themselves, first and foremost, and which players – if any – does Enzo Maresca consider applicable to his long-term plans for the first-team, or whether those respective individuals instead do enough to earn permanent moves away from the King Power Stadium. At this point, it’s still uncertain on all four fronts. Here, though, is how those loan arrangements are playing out.
Boubakary Soumare
Midfielder Soumare briefly looked as though he might reinvigorate his Leicester career at intermittent stages prior to his departure, and he has rather been through the ringer in a turbulent campaign thus far in Seville. The serial Europa League winners are in a different sort of battle this year, one that involves looking over their shoulder towards the relegation zone.
Victor Kristiansen
The left-back only arrived at Leicester last January, but within six months he was allowed by Maresca to head to Italy and join Bologna in Serie A. He was told he’d be operating as a centre half if he remained at the King Power Stadium, which wasn’t something he was particularly enamoured with.
The 21-year-old has played regularly at Bologna, who are currently in sixth in Italy’s top tier and who still have an outside chance of upsetting the big-club cartel and booking a place in Europe come the end of the season. Under the teachings of Thiago Motta, the former Barcelona and PSG midfielder, Kristiansen is being granted a chance to thrive.
Luke Thomas
Of the four names on this list, Thomas has perhaps had to overcome more unsettlement than any of his fellows loanees. While Soumare’s issues in Sevilla have extended to the management, Thomas himself has been let go midway through the season – but now, hopefully, he has an environment in which he can flourish.
Daniel Iversen
The most recent temporary departure from Leicester, who have Mads Hermansen and Jakub Stolarczyk (who made his debut in the FA Cup win over Birmingham City last month) to call on otherwise, has been stopper Daniel Iversen, who isn’t exactly new to loan spells.
Iversen, now 26, has played plenty previously at Rotherham and Preston North End in the Championship while on City’s books, and at the beginning of January he completed the comparably short trip to Stoke, who had just been taken over by Steven Schumacher. Things began pretty well for Iversen, who kept a clean sheet against former club Rotherham in his first league game, but since defeats to Blues and Sunderland have followed.
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