Yahoo News Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall transfer makes Leicester City the odd club out amid mad PSR scramble
This week has been a mad scramble. And among those in the thick of it, Leicester City are the outlier. The nature of the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) means June 30 is now reminiscent of deadline day, with teams up and down the country desperately getting business done before the cut-off. But rather than bringing in last-minute additions to bolster squads, they’re offloading players to comply with financial regulations and avoid points deductions, scratching each others’ backs in the process.
But look at the deals City’s Premier League rivals are doing and the names of the players involved don’t jump out. Tim Iroegbunam and Lewis Dobbin, who have been traded between Aston Villa and Everton, are good prospects and could go on to have excellent careers in the top flight, but neither are key players for the teams they are leaving.
READ MORE: Business that must be done by June 30 for City to avoid PSR nightmare
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That’s also true of Omari Kellyman and Ian Maatsen, who could swap places at Villa and Chelsea. Maatsen’s already a proven talent having made the Champions League final while on loan at Borussia Dortmund last season, but he’s surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
But here City are, scrambling to sell their most influential player. Losing high-profile players is not unusual for City and, in fact, it’s been helpful for them in previous years, allowing them to spend the profits of their sales on strengthening the squad as a whole.
However, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s exit would feel different. When Wesley Fofana left for Chelsea, he was skipping training to force a move. When Riyad Mahrez moved to Manchester City, it ended six months of the Algerian seeking an exit. When Harry Maguire was sold to Manchester United, Leicester negotiated the deal from such a position of strength that they were able to get a huge fee. By the ends of those sagas, it was either a case of good riddance or good deal.
For a number of reasons, Dewsbury-Hall’s potential exit doesn’t have the same feeling. City don’t have as many excellent players in their squad as they did previously, and so the departure of any key man is going to be felt more considerably.
Plus, he’s a player who is reluctant to leave. It’s already hugely frustrating that PSR encourages sales of homegrown talents. For fans, it remains one of the biggest thrills of the game to see local lads blossom into first-team stars after 10 or 12 years progressing through the academy having been moulded since the age of eight. But with Dewsbury-Hall, there’s also a clear love for the club that has shaped him. He would be more than happy to keep representing City, and yet it feels like the club can’t afford that to happen.
And that hits on the biggest issue. Previously City’s big sales have been conducted as part of a plan, as part of a blueprint to improve the squad and help them slowly bridge the gap to the teams at the very top.
Dewsbury-Hall’s potential exit is not that. Instead, this feels like a move being done to make up for past mistakes. Even if selling Dewsbury-Hall is the smart move now in order for City to avoid another potential PSR breach and the possibility of a second sanction, it doesn’t change that it’s also their comeuppance for the bad decisions of the past few years.
