After a somewhat surprising relegation from the Premier League in the previous campaign, Leicester City have justified their status as favourites for promotion, and the quality of players like Wilfred Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira and former Tottenham man Harry Winks has shown in the Premier League.
Barring an unexpected collapse, the Foxes will return to the Premier League and are on course to win their second league title in the last decade, having won the second-tier trophy in 2014 and then the Premier League in 2016.
Overall, all is well for the high-flying Foxes, but success does not come without challenging by-products, such as higher-ranked clubs interested in key players, and those short of playing time may be unhappy.
With this in mind, the King Power Stadium will not be without departures in the upcoming January transfer window, so Enzo Maresca and co. will be preparing for any big changes in the East Midlands.
Barcelona’s interest in Ndidi will not disappear:
One of the players who could leave Maresca’s team against the Foxes’ wishes is midfielder and Nigerian international Ndidi, who can rightly claim to be the best midfielder in the Premier League, as he has found a creative side to his game that was probably missing in the Premier League.
Moreover, the ace has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League in recent years, especially when the Foxes finished fifth in two consecutive seasons in 2019/20 and in 2020/21, a season in which the team then managed by Brendan Rogers won the FA Cup.
Barca are far from favourites to win the La Liga title this campaign, as Jude Bellingham has become a goalscoring sensation and has revitalised Real Madrid.
Nor can Girona’s ability to lift the La Liga trophy, which has been the surprise of the season, be ignored, as the Catalan team has already beaten Barca this campaign and will take on fellow champions Atletico Madrid in early January.
La Blaugrana therefore needs all the help it can get and the signing of Ndidi could help strengthen a squad that is no longer the indestructible force it has been in recent years, as Xavi comes under pressure for the first time in his tenure as Barca boss.
The lack of playing time could lead to the departure of Daniel Iversen:
Maresca also has arguably the best list of goalkeepers in the championship: Alex Smithies, Danny Ward and Daniel Iversen, who can choose from Hermansen’s backup goalkeepers.
Last season Iversen would have been relatively happy with 12 Premier League appearances, while this season the Dane has not recorded a single appearance in any competition, and as he is only 26 years old, it is likely that the former Preston loanee will demand a departure more than Ward or Smithies, aged 30 and 33 respectively, which also makes Iversen more saleable for the Foxes.
It could be argued that the Foxes should sell Iversen for a mid-career player for his own good, and he is unlikely to run out of buyers given his recent performances in League One.