Leicester City loanee showed Steve Cooper what he’s missing in ‘sensational’ display that made history

Steve Cooper had to run the rule over his Leicester City squad this summer after taking over from Enzo Maresca as manager.

With Leicester City preparing for their return to the Premier League Steve Cooper had to quickly identify the areas of his squad he felt required improvement.

This saw Leicester sign nine players in a busy transfer window which also saw their best player follow Enzo Maresca to Chelsea in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

With Patson Daka picking up an injury in the final friendly of pre-season, Cooper was desperate to get a striker through the door and he eventually got his wish with the loan of Odsonne Edouard on Deadline Day.

As well as Jamie Vardy, Cooper did already have another striker at the club but he made it very clear Tom Cannon did not feature in his plans before sanctioning a season-long loan to Stoke City.

Leicester City loanee Tom Cannon scores four for Stoke City

The treatment of Cannon seemed harsh given he is a young centre-forward who only signed for the club in summer 2023.

Whilst he was below Vardy, Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho in the pecking order, Leicester clearly felt Cannon was talented enough to spend £7 million to sign the 21-year-old from Everton.

That was off the back of a loan spell in the Championship with Preston in which Cannon scored eight goals in 20 games and he has returned to the second tier with Stoke to kickstart his career.

Having failed to score in his first three league games for Stoke, Cannon got off the mark emphatically as he scored four goals in a 6-1 win over Portsmouth on Wednesday night, including three goals in nine minutes.

With this haul Cannon earned his place in the Stoke history books too as he became the first player to score four in a game for the Potters in 24 years.