Leicester City must decide to stick or twist on seven fringe players

There will be fewer players in Leicester City’s squad in the new season than there has been in the campaign just gone.

That has already been confirmed by Brendan Rodgers, who said that without European football, there are not enough matches to keep everybody happy in what was a 27-man first-team squad. On top of that, the City boss is also hoping to bring in five or six new recruits to revitalise his group, which means there could be a significant number of departures.

Within that, there could be a couple of big names heading for the exit, with Youri Tielemans and Caglar Soyuncu the likeliest of those, both coming into the final year of their contracts at the club. But the majority of those that depart will be fringe players.

Here, we take a look at the City players who made fewer than 20 starts this season – aside from Wesley Fofana and James Justin, who only played so little because of their injuries, as well as back-up goalkeeper Danny Ward – to assess each of their futures.

The veteran goalkeeper has not played a senior match at City in the past four seasons, but as third-choice between the sticks, that is not a huge surprise. Nor will it have much bearing on his future.

He has been signing one-year extensions over the past couple of years and another is possible. Rodgers likes to have three senior goalkeepers in his squad, and Jakupovic is a well-liked member of the unit.

Daniel Iversen has plenty of promise, but there is little need for him to stay as third choice, and so if Kasper Schmeichel and Ward both remain, it makes more sense to sell or loan Iversen and keep Jakupovic in the squad for emergencies.

It is fair to say that City did not see the best of Bertrand this season, with injury ruling him out for the