Leicester City's first team ranks will look very different when the first ball is kicked to start the brand-new 2026/27 season in League One, from the camp that Gary Rowett regularly picked from.
Indeed, it's already common knowledge that Jeremy Monga won't be in and around the first-team picture as he nears towards sealing a Premier League move.
Alongside Monga, it's expected that Abdul Fatawu will be leaving, with the Ghana international - who is about to play at the impending World Cup - also on plenty of top-flight shopping lists.
It's a great opportunity for some fringe talents at Leicester to finally make a name for themselves in League One next season, with Sammy Braybrooke viciously banging on the first-team door, after a superb loan spell with Chesterfield last season in League Two.
Braybrooke's superb loan stint at Chesterfield
While Leicester fell to League One, Braybrooke was one of many attacking talents that helped the Spireites reach the League Two playoffs.
Paul Cook's men did get knocked out of the playoffs at the semi-final stages to eventual promotion winners, Notts County, but that shouldn't take away from the 22-year-old's sensational season away from his boyhood club.
Indeed, he would collect two goals and four assists during the regular campaign as a livewire presence centrally, with a mightily impressive nine big chances created across his 38 league games.
Averaging a tenacious 7.8 ball recoveries per league clash, as well, he could be just what the doctor ordered for Leicester in trying to renergise their midfield ranks, away from the stale faces of Harry Winks and Hamza Choudhury.
Sammy Braybrooke has been shortlisted in the top six for the PFA League Two Players’ Player of the Year 👏💙
— Chesterfield FC (@ChesterfieldFC) June 4, 2026
Further recognition for an outstanding season from Sammy! 🔝
The 2026 PFA Awards will take place on August 25 🗓️#Spireites | @PFA pic.twitter.com/Nl2Q3Lna0y
Braybrooke's success story at Chesterfield wasn't a well-kept secret, either, with the 22-year-old just voted as one of the six best players last season in League Two by the prestigious PFA Awards, which was voted by the actual players competing in the division.
He will be keen to light up the third tier, next, with his route into the first team picture next campaign hopefully not stunted by whatever new manager takes on the reins at the King Power.
He must be handed a chance whoever the manager is
Before the first team squad in League One begins to take shape, Leicester still needs to appoint a replacement for Rowett.
It's between Russell Martin and Rene Hake, according to the latest reports, with both manager targets hopefully enraptured by the Leicester-born playmaker enough to give him more significant gametime in the senior fold.
Martin does feel like the sort of managerial presence who would love to gift Braybrooke the first-team chances he craves, with the 40-year-old kickstarting the likes of Tyler Dibling's senior journies at Southampton, before being snapped up by Everton.
Moreover, the Scotsman was once referred to as a "father figure" by ex-Norwich City colleague Max Aarons, with Braybrooke succeeding in the first-team picture potentially if Martin is unveiled as Rowett's successor.
Hake's roots in the beautiful game could also mean the 22-year-old explodes into life in the first team next season at the King Power, having been an U19s and U21s coach with FC Twente during the early stages of his coaching career.
Whoever is trusted with the responsibility of guiding the fallen giants back to the Championship must know that promotion is the ultimate aim, and in attempting to refresh the ranks, Braybrooke looks as if he would be an inspired senior inclusion.
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