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Brighton have overtaken Leicester as transfer market supremes - David Connolly

Leicester used to be the model for building and rebuilding teams, but now it's Brighton. David Connolly joins The Football Show.



Former Ireland striker David Connolly joined The Football Show to discuss Leicester.

Wesley Fofana and Kasper Schmeichel departed Leicester City this summer. Nobody of note arrived.

Leicester are slowly decaying as a squad and Brendan Rodgers is in a difficult position. James Maddison is still there, but he expected to join Newcastle. Youri Tielemans will leave next summer. Maddison, Tielemans and Jamie Vardy are Leicester's three most important players and two of them likely don't want to be there.

It makes for a very difficult situation in Leicester, suggests David Connolly.

Connolly believes Leicester are unfortunate because they used to be a team that could replace players with cheaper, equal talents. They have built and rebuilt successful Premier League teams over most of the last decade. But now the money has dried up and the squad has become stale.

Instead, it's Brighton who are fulfilling that role in England.

"Everyone is saying how great Brighton are at the minute," Connolly said.

"Leicester were Brighton for a long time. You look at the players Brighton sold, your Ben Whites, your Cucurellas, your Bissoumas and they keep going. They're still doing well. Leicester were like that, right? They had to sell every crown jewel every year. And that was their model."

With Vardy leading the line and Johnny Evans at center back, Leicester are also an old team. Vardy is 35 now and Evans is 34. Even if you look at the likes of Nottingham Forest who have signed 15+ players this season, Leicester didn't need a superstar addition, they needed to build on their foundation.

But Leicester couldn't even sign players who were available on free transfers.

"I don't think they've become a bad team overnight, but they look like they're ageing a little bit. They look like they need some fresh faces. But apparently the money is not there. They're so reliant on selling players before bringing any others in.

"I'd just be mindful of not being too harsh on them. Leicester were the model and everyone tried to copy them.

"They might be in for a difficult few months because they do look low on confidence."

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Brighton David Connolly Jamie Vardy Leicester Premier League