Steve Cooper has the unenviable job of keeping Leicester City in the Premier League whilst trying to keep his whole squad happy.
The likes of Wout Faes, James Justin and Jamie Vardy, who are all guaranteed starters, will all be content with their role under Steve Cooper.
However, it is the lesser-spotted Leicester City players who could grow restless and resentful at their lack of involvement.
Players such as Ricardo Pereira, Abdul Fatawu and Odsonne Edouard all may feel they should be getting far more game time than they currently are, but Cooper must do what he thinks is best for Leicester.
Leicester City should send Will Alves out on loan
Whilst some of Leicester’s more experienced professionals may well be growing increasingly frustrated at their lack of involvement, a number of the club’s youth players will just be desperate for an opportunity.
One such player is highly-rated 19-year-old attacking midfielder Will Alves.
Alves was handed his debut by Brendan Rodgers in 2022 but suffered an ACL injury which sidelined him for the best part of a year not long after.
Now fit and raring to go, Alves has only featured once for the first-team this season; playing the last 18 minutes of a 4-0 win over Tranmere Rovers in the Carabao Cup.
If Cooper has no plans to utilise Alves, then the best course of action is surely for Leicester to find the England under-20 international an EFL loan in which he can add to his three senior appearances and continue his development.
Regular football away from Leicester would be invaluable to Alves
Football fans love it when an academy player progresses through the ranks to become a first-team player.
It has been a while since this has happened at Leicester, with Hamza Choudhury and Luke Thomas the only two examples currently in the senior ranks.
Alves has enormous potential but just needs to acclimatise to senior football and gain experience of playing regularly amongst more physical opponents than he will encounter at youth level.
Former Foxes boss Enzo Maresca was certainly a fan of Alves, telling Leicestershire Live in October 2023 as he stepped up his return form injury: “At the moment, because it was a very long injury, he has to work every day, train every day, enjoy every day, then slowly come with us.
“But we’ll see. For sure, we’ve had him for a couple of sessions and we can see that he looks like he has something important, something special.”
Cooper is in a difficult position as it may be considered too risky to throw Alves into a relegation battle, therefore a January loan is essential to continue the youngster’s development.
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