There is Life After Fryatt for Leicester City

Fryatt’s two goals against Watford makes it eight goals in ten games for Leicester’s golden boy. He’s wasted no time in proving that his goal scoring talents exceed beyond the level of League One, and are actually just as relevant in the Championship too. In a way however it is also a bit of a shot in the foot for Leicester as the more goals he scores, the harder it will become to keep hold of him come January. As the unfortunate trend seems to go: if a lower league striker shows potential and goal scoring talents then it is usually just a matter of time before a bigger or higher league team comes along and snaps him up. For Leicester this is likely to come in the face of a lower Premier League team taking a punt on him to score a few goals for them. The chances are that Fryatt will be interested as a higher salary and the view from a Premier League bench tend to be enough to persuade top Championship players to the lower ends of the Premier League. For Leicester however this may not necessarily be the end of the world.

It might just well be that Leicester already have a replacement for Fryatt settling in at the moment. Though he’s certainly not ready to take on Fryatt’s reins yet, Danny N’Guessan is slowly and quietly making progress as a successor. The 23 year old Frenchman, who moved from Lincoln at the start of the season, has notched a modest three goals so far this season proving, even if only a little, that his talents stretch beyond League Two. When you consider that this is his first season in the Championship, then that isn’t actually a bad start. Also considering that Fryatt only scored 10 goals in his first two seasons with Leicester, and he was around a similar age to N’Guessan, it shows that there is certainly hope yet for the young Frenchman. Although he’s played largely on the right of midfield so far this season, he is more than capable as playing as a striker and has already shown sparks of a decent finishing ability. If Leicester manage to keep hold of Fryatt until the end of the season then that will have given him a whole season to find his feet without any particular goalscoring burden. From here he will be presented with a fresh season and a valued striker role, and could well take on this responsibility just as well as Fryatt did a year back. If all goes to plan then Leicester could well have an asset goalscorer and perfect replacement for Fryatt on their hands.

Of course if things don’t work out for N’Guessan then there are still other in-club avenues to go down. New signing Paul Gallagher for example has already shown that he has a fair amount of talent as a forward. He’s spend years bouncing between obscurity and has finally found a home to settle in. From what he’s shown so far, given time, he could not only act as a perfect aid to a main striker, but could potentially become a main striker himself. In particular he’s shown a fair amount of tenacity in the games he’s played in so far. This was revealed largely in the Peterborough game, where for periods he was Leicester’s most threatening man. If Fryatt can carry the goalscoring burden for long enough for Gallagher to settle in, then he could well end up being Fryatt’s worthy replacement.

Even if Gallagher and N’Guessan don’t work out, Leicester still might have an ace in the hole. This could come in the form of reasonably unknown striker Yann Kermorgant. This 27 year old Frenchman signed at the beginning of the season after impressing during a trail. Though he’s unknown in England, Kermorgant has built up something of reputation in France. A simple search on youtube for example will reveal numerous fan video compositions. He came to Leicester unfit after recovering from an injury, and so once he’s got his fitness back and is given a run-out in the first team, who knows what kind of impact he could make. He’s already got comprehensive experience of scoring in France’s top league, and so could well turn out to be an asset in the Championship.

Obviously it would be terrific if Fryatt decided to stay and try and get Leicester into the Premiership, but in case he doesn’t Leicester certainly still have options. This is even without considering the money that would be gained from his sale. If Leicester can just keep him until the end of the season, then this gives the other strikers a whole season to settle into their new club. His sale would certainly be a terrible loss for Leicester, but it is nice to know that it is not necessarily the end of the world.