Leicester City preseason squad report - Goalkeepers

Leicester City begin their preseason preparations in earnest today, with the start of the training camp in Austria. With last season behind us and a new one appearing in front, we’re appraising the current status of the playing squad, starting today with the goalkeepers.

16/17 Performance

Kasper Schmeichel, penalty saving Champions League hero, was named as the fans’ and players’ player of the season at the Foxes end of season awards. He was pretty spectacular, even by his own standards.

The only negative to his season was nine games missed through injury in November and December, but a broken hand is a freak injury; hard to control and unlikely to reoccur.

While out, his place was taken by summer signing Ron-Robert Zieler. The German disappointed somewhat, conceding 23 goals in his 13 starts, but remains a good backup keeper. 3rd choice Ben Hamer played mostly with the reserves. His only first team appearance was the 5-0 thrashing by Porto.

Transfer News

The early rumours promised lots of movement here, but nothing has happened as yet. Zieler is unhappy with his playing time last year (he played in all the cup games, so presumably he thought he’d be starting over Schmeichel. I can’t imagine why) and is looking to move away, preferably back to Germany. There’s been talk of loan moves, but it doesn't look like it’s coming soon.

Rumours about Schmeichel also seem to have died down. Gianluigi Donnarumma’s decision to stay on in Milan leaves open the possibility of David de Gea moving to Real Madrid, creating a need at Manchester United, the one team the Dane surely couldn’t say no to, but interest in those moves has mostly gone away.

Hamer will probably stay with the team because who would buy him?

17/18 Outlook

With Kasper onboard, about as good as could be. Zieler is also an above average back up, but I wouldn't be too worried about losing him.

If Kasper were to leave, it’s impossible to say how the next season looks because it would likely be all change at the position, but we can be fairly sure there would be a drop off of some sort.