Foxes Duo Set For New Deals

Claudio Ranieri is set to offer new deals to Leicester City duo Kasper Schmeichel and Danny Simpson in a bid to keep hold of his side’s star performers.

Schmeichel, 29, has been a pivotal part of the Foxes success this season keeping eight clean sheets in twenty-five league games, whilst full-back Simpson, also 29, has pinned down a regular starting spot performing exceptionally in City’s 3-1 win at Manchester City on Saturday.

A fresh contract was struck with top goal scorer Jamie Vardy last week and now the Italian looks likely to ensure the future of two more of his key men during the title run-in.

A deal for Kasper Schmeichel would see his wages rise to £60,000 a-week from his current £40,000 contract and would keep the Dane at the club until 2019.

With speculation rife over the former Leeds United goalkeeper’s future, amidst reported interest from his father, Peter’s old club Manchester United, Ranieri has moved fast to keep hold of his Champions League chasing shot-stopper.

Danny Simpson’s wages will also increase and a new deal would see him remain in the East Midlands until 2018.

The Englishman signed for the Foxes in 2014 after they secured promotion back to the Premier League and has since been instrumental in the club’s rise to the summit of English football.

The former Manchester United and Newcastle defender’s efforts have been largely overlooked for large parts of the campaign due to the club’s leading stars Vardy and Riyad Mahrez stealing the headlines, but his work rate and commitment are now becoming recognised.

It is widely expected that both will remain at the King Power Stadium and put pen to paper in the coming days.

 

When Footballers Do The Stupidest Things

Ever wondered how it is possible to ruin your career in one boozy night? Ask Leicester City footballers Tom Hopper, Adam Smith and James Pearson.

The trio’s promising careers are almost certain to come to an abrupt end after they were disgraced, filmed taking part in a racist sex orgy during the club’s end-of-season tour in Thailand.

Amid vile scenes, Hopper, Smith and manager Nigel Pearson’s own son James were caught hurling racist slurs and taking part in sex acts on three Thai women in their hotel room in Bangkok.

Nigel Pearson, an outspoken ambassador for the Kick It Out scheme fighting against racism in football will undoubtedly be outraged at the news, especially in son James’ case.

The footballers’, although not racking up a single Premier League appearance between them, had a bright future in the game, all three graduates of the Foxes’ prestigious youth system will almost certainly face having their contracts terminated by the club they owe so much to.

The events stand as a grave insult to the club’s Thai owners Vichai and Top Srivaddhanaprabha who, under their ownership, oversaw Nigel Pearson’s men make a return to English football’s top flight for the first time in ten years.

To a club, a manager and owners they owe their footballing careers to, Hopper, Smith and Pearson have truly let themselves down.

This is not the first time Leicester City players have been involved in controversial events off the field however.

In February 2000, the team were kicked out of the Spanish resort of La Manga after striker Stan Collymore drunkenly let off a fire extinguisher in the bar of their luxury hotel at 4am.

He and other players had earlier caused outrage by badgering female guests, abusing bar staff and urinating in flower pots

Just four years later, in May 2004 again in La Manga, players Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie were arrested and held in jail for a week on charges of sexually assaulting three women while on a club training trip.

All the charges were later dropped.

Last year, after securing promotion to the Premier League, several drunk players brawled with bouncers in Leicester.

The boozed-up stars had to be restrained as punches were thrown after defender Liam Moore was thrown out of city centre nightclub Ghost.

In shameful scenes, again filmed on a mobile phone, Moore threw a punch and ended up on the floor and fellow defenders Ritchie De Laet and Marcin Wasilewski were manhandled by club security after they attempted to intervene.

The difference between these events, and the disgusting behaviour of Hopper, Smith and Pearson, is that racism is an entirely different evil.

In an age where football is making a concerted effort to remove racism from the game, actions like this must be dealt with in the harshest possible manner.

Collymore, Dickov and co. were the lions of their team; the stars, the key players. Hopper, Smith and Pearson are but new-born kittens, now open to the realities of failure in a tough outside world.

Front running stars of teams cannot be seen behaving irresponsibly, but academy graduates on the outside fringes of the professional game risk losing their entire career as a result of such a mindless act.

Leicester boss Nigel Pearson has been tough on his players before, the latest of which telling City full-back Danny Simpson he will not be considered for first-team action whilst a court case for assault on his ex-girlfriend is on-going.

To set an example to the footballing community, if not to his own squad, Pearson then must come down hard on the trio by releasing them from their contracts.