Daniel Amartey’s rise from forgotten misfit to Leicester cult hero

On a miserable Sunday afternoon, Amartey found himself no longer a starter, and coming on to shut up shop at right-back as the Foxes limped to a 2-0 defeat in South Wales in what proved to be Ranieri’s final Premier League fixture in charge. Craig Shakespeare took the reins, and the Black Stars man would only be awarded two more starts in the campaign’s final 13 games, with an aggregate score of 3-10 in defeats to Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.

If the end of 16/17 was bad for Amartey, the next three seasons were utterly disastrous. Just 35 minutes of action were afforded to him in the first half of the following campaign, a five-minute spell in which he picked up two cautions against Manchester United and therefore a suspension for the following fixture against Watford.

With Claude Puel now at the helm, a brief spell of five starts in the team, this time at right-back, showed signs that Amartey might have a future at the club, with the side keeping three consecutive clean sheets including in a 0-0 stalemate with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A poor team performance in defeat to Everton meant Puel felt a change was needed, with the defender being omitted from the squad entirely for the next three fixtures. That was before a hamstring injury put paid to his season altogether.