Harry Souttar only joined the Foxes in January, but he must already be considering departing after less than a year at the club
Highlights
Leicester City is dominating the Championship with 10 wins out of their 11 league fixtures, putting them at the top of the standings.
Despite previous high hopes, Harry Souttar is struggling to find playing time and is now well down the pecking order under new head coach Enzo Maresca.
Considering Souttar’s lack of game-time and potential value, it may be beneficial for both the player and the club to consider a loan or possible transfer in the January window.
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As expected by many, Leicester City are making easy work of most of their Championship opposition in the early stages of the 2023-24 campaign.
Having kept plenty of the squad that came down from the Premier League earlier in the year, new head coach Enzo Maresca has had a lot of experience to work with as well as adding fresh faces to his squad.
And after 11 matches, 10 wins out of their 11 league fixtures means the Foxes top the standings going into the second international break of the season, and they are some 10 points clear of the chasing pack in the form of Preston North End in third position.
Championship Table (As it stands w/c October 9th)
Team
P
GD
Pts
1
Leicester City
11
17
30
2
Ipswich Town
11
12
28
3
Preston North End
11
-2
20
4
Sunderland
11
8
19
5
Leeds United
11
6
19
6
Birmingham City
11
4
18
7
Norwich City
11
2
17
8
Cardiff City
11
2
17
Players who featured regularly last season, such as Wilfred Ndidi, Wout Faes, Jamie Vardy, Ricardo Pereira and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are all playing a major part in the success that City are finding so far.
One player who isn’t doing much though in Maresca’s squad is Harry Souttar, who is currently finding life hard at the King Power Stadium.
Due to his sheer size and presence, standing at 6 ft 6 in, Souttar was always going to attract attention the more he developed as a youngster, and after shining for Stoke City, both before and after a serious knee injury picked up in 2021, Leicester splashed the best part of £15 million out on the Australia international defender last January.
How has Harry Souttar performed for Leicester City?
Harry Souttar of Leicester City
And whilst Souttar was thrown straight into Premier League action by then-manager Brendan Rodgers in February 2023, Leicester failed to win in seven matches in succession with the centre-back in the starting 11, and his game-time dwindled after both Adam Sadler and then Dean Smith took charge for the remainder of 2022-23.
And it is now clear to see, despite starting against his former club Stoke this past weekend for the first time in league action this season, that Souttar is well down the pecking order under Maresca, with his only other outing coming in the EFL Cup against Liverpool.
Souttar was afforded an opportunity because of Maresca’s squad rotation following three matches in the space of seven days, but Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard and Conor Coady are all ahead of the 24-year-old in the Italian’s thoughts.
Whilst having a solid enough game against Stoke, Souttar’s position at Leicester is unlikely to change, and that is why he needs to think about his future.
Should Leicester City think about letting Harry Souttar depart in January?
He is likely to get barely any game-time between now and the January transfer window, and that is a period of time in the current campaign that should be in Souttar’s thoughts.
The defender would walk into the majority of Championship sides and there would be plenty of top flight teams overseas that would probably snap Leicester’s hands off if they were offered Souttar on loan for the second half of 2023-24.
That is something that the club hierarchy need to think about going into the next transfer window – they have a £15 million investment in Souttar either sitting on the sidelines or on the bench and if they want to protect his value, he needs to be playing.
Therefore, it should be in the minds of both Souttar and Leicester to get him out on loan somewhere from January onwards – but if a club comes in with an offer of around the £10 million mark for his services then it may have to be considered.
