Rarely used £7.5m Leicester City signing showcased sheer EFL strength: View

Leicester City spent just a season in the Championship, and the deal for Conor Coady last summer shows just how strong they were compared to the opposition.

Bringing in Coady, on the same day as Harry Winks from Tottenham, shows the Foxes were still operating as a Premier League side in all but name.

The disparity of resources between them and the rest of the division was made even clearer when it became apparent they had made the significant investment on someone who would only be a bit part player.

It still wasn’t easy for Leicester, but their strength made promotion almost certain.

The deal for Coady showed Leicester’s resources

Having spent the previous season on loan at Everton and only 30 years old, it seemed relatively early for the former England international to be dropping down a division.

But that’s exactly what he did, agreeing a switch from his former club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, to Leicester for £7.5million.

That in itself, recruiting a decently aged former England international for the second tier, showed strength. Not to mention that they already looked to have a very strong Premier League base having held onto the likes of Wilfred Ndidi, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jamie Vardy.

Added to the fact that on the same day the club brought in Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Winks for another £10million, a level of spending and quality rarely seen in the second tier.

However, recruiting a player like Coady to use as a backup, rather than a main feature of the squad, is what made Leicester’s strong position look like an embarrassment of riches.

It perhaps demonstrated why they have found themselves in difficulty

Coady made just 17 appearances across all competitions last season, including just eight starts in the league, but was almost always in the matchday squad so fitness was seemingly not the driver of his absence.

It nods to why Leicester may have found themselves skirting close to financial rules in the past, despite winning their appeal against a Premier League points deduction at the beginning of the 2024/25 season.

Coady was not exactly an unknown quantity before he arrived at the King Power Stadium. Enough data will have been available to assess exactly the type of player he is and where he might fit into Leicester’s side.

That he rarely featured last term, and injuries were not an issue, displays a certain lack of careful planning by the Foxes when spending such a considerable sum.

When spending that sort of money in the Championship, there should be a clearly defined rationale in making the deal. It feels as though the decision-makers at Leicester may have seen a big name and jumped at the chance, without careful consideration: the sort of deal that leads to wasted resources.

The Championship is still tough

Despite liberally splashing the cash and holding on to some top Premier League level talent, the Foxes found the Championship was still not a walk in the park.

There were moments towards the end of the 2023/24 season where the title win was anything but certain.

In the end, they only triumphed by one point, just pipping Ipswich Town, who had spent the season before in League One.

It shows that no matter how much money you have to spend, the Championship can be a gruelling division with intense competition.

Nevertheless, spending £7.5million on a back-up centre-back in the second tier, as Leicester did with Coady, is all the evidence needed to have the Foxes go down as one of the strongest outfits ever seen in the EFL.