What lies in store for Leicester City as the 2024-25 season starts?

Leicester Voice editor Colin Hall spoke to the Foxes Trust about the prospects for Leicester City on the club’s return to the Premier League.

FT: What changes (if any) to our playing style would you like our new manager to develop for our first season back in the Premier League?

CH: Steve Cooper needs to find a system which suits the strengths of the squad he has. If he can build a solid, disciplined, organised defence – and there is more than sufficient quality in his squad for him to do that – then that will provide a platform for the team as a whole to compete at a higher level.

FT: What playing positions do you think need strengthening and what do you consider the most important type of player needed?

CH: A striker (maybe even two) and a creative midfielder to replace Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are absolute musts for the coming season. We also need players with a strong, positive mental attitude who will not shrink – as some have done in recent seasons – in the face of tough challenges that undoubtedly lie in wait for us. Whereas the 2016 squad was full of natural leaders, this one is far less so.

FT: Would you be looking to add some experience to a fairly youthful squad or would you continue bringing in younger players and develop them?

CH: If Cooper can maintain the balance between youth and experience that his predecessor at City did, that will be a definite plus. However, the well-documented financial circumstances may ensure that academy players are given more of an opportunity this season. Whether enough of them can step up to the standard that the top flight demands will be a key factor in the outcome of the forthcoming season.

FT: What are your expectations and fears for next season?

CH: The points deduction, if one is imposed, will be nowhere near as draconian as many fans are dreading. It would defy logic – and possibly the law too – for City to face a harsher penalty than either Everton (serial offenders) or Forest (whose efforts to comply with PSR did not appear to be unduly strenuous), especially as, unlike them, we were actually relegated and had to deal with the financial penalties that ensued from that.

But the pre-season games have already shown where the main issues are likely to arise. Unless and until we can find sufficient creativity and firepower, a long and unpleasant winter lies in wait for us.

FT: What is your prediction on where we’ll finish at the end of the season?

CH: My heart says we’ll show enough to defy the odds and the sceptics as we did in post-promotion seasons in 1997 and 2015. My mind, though, is giving me a rather bleaker message.

The full version of the interview will appear later this month on the Foxes Trust website.