Leicester City would regret transfer for player who brings groans and cheers

There was a list published in the national papers this week of players Leicester City may sell to generate funds for their summer transfers.

Three names on that list were unsurprising. Youri Tielemans, Caglar Soyuncu, and Ayoze Perez are contenders to leave this summer, partly because they are all out of contract in 2023 and City won't want to lose them for nothing. Each of them have additional individual reasons why their futures are in doubt, but it is definitely possible they could all be in the final two months of their City careers.

However, Kelechi Iheanacho’s name was also on the list as a player who could be moved on, puzzling supporters. After all, he is the club’s reigning top scorer after his superb finish to the last campaign.

And his performance at Manchester United suggested it would be a mistake to cash in on the Nigerian. Because in Iheanacho, City have one of the most effective strikers in the Premier League.

His display at Old Trafford was Iheanacho in extreme. It’s well-established that he can quickly switch from clumsy to classy, but he was jumping from one end of the spectrum to the other every minute on Saturday.

Every single one of his actions on the ball either generated a groan or a round of applause from the City supporters. There was no inbetween.

Just before his goal, you got the sense fans were turning their heads to the bench to see if Patson Daka was being readied, as City’s previous two attacks had ended with wasteful Iheanacho passes from good positions. But then he showed his striker’s knack to escape the attention of an expensively-assembled defence and find the net.

This is the thing with Iheanacho: even if there are a handful of moments where he looks two or three divisions off