Over a week has passed since Leicester City missed out on the Champions League place and rumors have already begun to surface. But how much money will the club have to spend?
Previously, Foxes of Leicester reported that the Foxes will only be handed a £20m budget this summer. A fairly appalling budget for a club who received £80m from Manchester United last summer and finished fifth in the Premier League.
However, how much the club will receive from the Premier League prize money has now been announced and the finances available to Brendan Rodgers may be more. But will he spend it?
Despite missing out on the Champions League, LeicestershireLive have reported that the club will earn a decent amount from TV rights and merit money for their finish.
With the £330m COVID-19 rebate, that was agreed with TV companies, the Foxes will still be receiving a high figure when the prize money breakdown is announced.
According to the football finance blog, Swiss Ramble, Leicester will earn £147.4m for the 2019/20 campaign, £24.1m more than the 2018/19. This means, despite losing out on their top-four finish, King Power will receive a huge amount of money that will be available to spend to bolster the squad.
Clubs have a rebate to settle, thought to be weighed on where each team finished the season. The higher the team finishes, the more it will payback. So Leicester will pay more than Tottenham, but less than Liverpool. It is thought that the East Midlanders will have to pay out £19.4m for their fifth-place finish.
Furthermore, the club could earn £16.5m in facility fees (for being involved in 15 matches shown on TV in the UK) and £28.4m in merit payments for their second-highest finish in the Premier League.
So, now all the figures have been explained, Leicester City’s total prize money could be round £128m. But will they spend wisely?
The need to bring in top talent at Leicester City
After securing European football, for supporters, it has been obvious for the club to splash the cash to cement their place in the European places for the future.
Leicester legend Andy King, who has recently left the Foxes after 15 years, belives now “is the time to kick on and really cement the top six.”
With the likes of Said Benrahma, Nicolas Tagliafico, Luke Jovic, and more all being linked with a move to King Power Stadium, King has explained why his former club should bring in more talent.
Talking to Sky Sports, he said: “The manager they’ve got in now is an exceptional manager.
“He’s done a brilliant job pretty much wherever he’s been,” he said. “The lads all buy into what he’s doing. They believe in him 100 percent, they believe in his methods 100 percent.
“I think it’s an attractive club in terms of signing players and the club they’re trying to create. They’ve got some of the best young players in the country now. It’s a club only on an onward trajectory.
“They’ve qualified for Europe this year which is an unbelievable achievement. With that brings the opportunity to sign European and world-class players, because they really want European football. Now is the time to kick on and really cement the top six.”
King is right. It is an excellent club to sign for. But with the most recent signing being Ryan Bennett, who failed to impress enough to make the move permanent, there are worries that this transfer window could follow the same suit.
With Chelsea securing the services of Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, the clubs above and around Leicester are likely to improve their squad. Yet it won’t possibly be that standard or price of player for the King Power outfit.
If Rodgers’ side is to cement their name into the top six and go one better next season, a better summer of signings that followed the last time the club played in Europe is a must. However, with Leicester City’s track record for unearthing cheaper geams, it will be interesting to see the outcome.
The club failed to improve on their squad, massively, in the summer of 2016. The likes of Ron-Robert Zieler, Luis Hernandez, Ahmed Musa, and Islam Slimani all failing to impress throughout their careers in the East Midlands.
It is vital that recruitment is done correctly this summer. With rumours that James Maddison has signed an extension to his contract, if the right money is not spent on the right players, it could see the departures of Ben Chilwell, Kasper Schmeichel, and other key players for Rodgers.