Yahoo News Leicester City loanee addresses his future in end-of-season message
Yunus Akgun will not be returning to Leicester City for the new season with the winger wishing the club well in the Premier League.
The Galatasaray loanee has issued a thank you to City and their supporters for this campaign and “for making me a better player”. But it’s also a farewell and an acknowledgement that he won’t be returning to the King Power Stadium.
Yunus wrote on social media: “Dear fans, thank you for believing in me, for guiding me for 90 minutes, for being my energy. I have nothing but a lot of respect for you.
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“Thanks to everyone within the club, coaches, my team-mates, physios for helping me, pushing me and making me a better player. I’m happy that I’m part of the history. I wish you a successful new season.”
That City are not taking up an option to sign Yunus permanently from Galatasaray is not a surprise with the 23-year-old never truly acclimatising to the Championship. He arrived at the club as a right-sided winger, but Enzo Maresca quickly deemed that his best position was as an attacking midfielder.
However, while he showed some lovely footwork, an eye for a pass, and boundless energy in the press, he found it difficult to impose himself physically on the game. That led to performances where he wasn’t able to influence proceedings.
Maresca revealed at the end of December that Yunus had admitted to struggling with the pace of the Championship. The manager said: “Yunus is struggling a little bit with the rhythm, probably because he said in Turkey the rhythm is a little bit low. Here it’s more quick, the pace of the game.
“He is struggling. I like Yunus, I would like to give him more minutes, but he needs to adjust and understand how English football is, that it’s more physical.”
Then, after Yunus scored his first goal for the club in an FA Cup victory over Birmingham at the end of January, Maresca again asked for more from the Turk. He said: “I know Yunus very well and he’s not doing what we expected from him. He can do much more. He can do for 95 minutes what he did in the second half.
“So we expect much more. But at the same time, he has been injured for a long time, he came here from a different country, he needs to adapt. We are very happy in terms of he is improving, but he can do much, much, much more.”
In all, Yunus made 29 appearances for City across all competitions, with 13 of them starts. He registered two goals and four assists, including a brilliant cross for Stephy Mavididi’s vital late winner over Birmingham in April.
