Ben Chilwell Departure Does Not Spoil Encouraging Week for Leicester

Since Leicester surrendered their place in the Champions League on the final day of the season, an eerie silence has descended over the club.

Aside from a few essential pieces of pre-season housekeeping - kit launches, friendly updates etc - there has been very little to report.

Coming off the back of one of the best ever seasons in the club's history, Foxes fans were expecting the club to solidify their position among the Premier League big boys with a summer recruitment drive. Despite these hopes, no business seemed anywhere close to being completed - until this week that is.

Over the past several days, the Foxes have suddenly sprung into life, announcing a string of contract renewals and of course, one high profile departure.

Things kicked off in pretty mediocre fashion when Nampalys Mendy agreed a two-year deal. The announcement signalled the end of a bizarre COVID-19 enforced saga. Initially the Frenchman was informed to look for a new club, only for the financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic to force the Foxes to reconsider their options.

It seems the club shrugged their shoulders and thought "can anyone really be asked to go an recruit another backup centre-midfielder?"

While this is obviously not the most romantic piece of transfer business, it is a smart one. There's nothing wrong with Mendy. He plays the role of Wilfred Ndidi's understudy well, and perhaps even better than Hamza Choudhury - who is more effectively deployed in a more advanced role where his occasional lack of defensive discipline is not exposed.

With next season's increased fixture load caused by Europa League, the move also makes sense from Mendy's perspective. In the current climate he is unlikely to get better money anywhere else and he may even get to stretch his legs on a wet Thursday night in Bulgaria if he's lucky.

Following on from the Mendy news was a far more invigorating piece of business: Luke Thomas being tied down to a long-term deal. Ever since the 19-year-old burst onto the scene with a man of the match performance against Sheffield United last season, there has been quiet whispers that Leicester might have something special on their hands.

Although his 270 minutes of Premier League football is a pitifully small sample size, the youngster averaged just over five shot creating actions per appearance during the 2019/2020 campaign - the best of any defender in the division.

Thomas is clearly a star of the future and Leicester also tied down a key figure from their glorious past this week, extending Jamie Vardy's contract past his 36th birthday. The 33-year-old's ridiculous rags to riches story has been told countless times but his new deal is not an act of sentimental tokenism.

It is instead Leicester securing the services of one of the best strikers in England. Also, thanks to his obsession with prolonging his career, as evidenced by the cryo chamber he has in his home, Vardy seems set to be chasing down defenders like an unhinged greyhound for many years to come.

The cherry on top of Leicester's busy week was signing up creative phenom James Maddison to a new four-year contract.

The importance of Maddison cannot be overstated. The creative fulcrum of the side, the Foxes badly missed him knitting things together in the final third when he was absent towards the back end of last season.

No one in Brendan Rodgers' side averaged more shot creating actions per 90 minutes than Maddison last campaign. His total of 5.76 was also the third highest in the Premier League (excluding those with less than 450 minutes), bested only by world class talents Riyad Mahrez and Kevin De Bruyne.

After signing his new deal, Maddison waxed lyrical about how much he loves being at the club. However, only the most doe-eyed Foxes fans would not accept that this renewal is a ploy to improve Leicester's bargaining position when the big boys swoop in next summer - just as they did with Ben Chilwell.

Oh yes, Chilwell. We should probably dedicate at least a few words to the biggest story to come out of King Power Stadium this week. Confirmation that the England international would be joining Frank Lampard's Chelsea finally came on Wednesday evening with a reported fee of £50m plus add-ons being agreed.

Chilwell's departure means that in the last three summer transfer windows Leicester have moved on three players that they bought for a combined £17.4m for £200m.

These antics have seen the Foxes branded as a "selling club" - a label that has unnecessarily negative connotations. Of course Leicester are a selling club. Modern football's ridiculous bias towards the super clubs means the only way for City to sneak a seat at the top table is by thinking smarter and selling smarter than the big boys.

They've done this again with Chilwell shifting a left-back with considerable shortcomings for a very impressive fee. As long as an adequate replacement can be found - which seems likely given they have been linked with Alex Telles, Nicolas Tagliafico and most impressively, Robin Gosens - things should be rosy next season.

This is why Leicester should not let the Englishman's departure sully what has been an encouraging week.