When the news broke that Jordan Ayew was being signed from Crystal Palace, the reaction of many Leicester City fans was underwhelming.
They questioned the wisdom of promoted Leicester spending £5million ($6.5m at the current exchange rate), plus potentially £3m more in add-ons, of what was already a limited summer budget due to existing profit and sustainability rule (PSR) concerns, on a 32-year-old, despite his nine previous seasons of service in the top flight.
It was a departure from the approach the club had adopted previously, with some success, of finding young, up-and-coming talent they could develop and turn into an asset who could repay their investment when sold on.
There will be little, if any, residual value at the end of Ayew’s two-year contract. This deal had the potential to be another Ryan Bertrand-style disaster.
But now it is time for many, and I’m among them, to eat some humble pie.
Leicester may not have targeted Ayew for his overall goals record — he had scored just 37 times across those nine Premier League seasons (and his assists total was even lower at 25 across his career in the division) — but there is no doubt he knows how to score important and dramatic goals.
His winner at Southampton last month, completing a remarkable comeback was, at 97 minutes and 34 seconds, Leicester’s latest Premier League winner since Opta started recording that metric in 2006, and he repeated the feat with a 94th-minute equaliser to snatch a point at Ipswich on Saturday.
Ultimately, with 275 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Swansea and Palace since coming to English football in summer 2015, Leicester manager Steve Cooper wanted Ayew for that precious top-flight experience. At the time, Leicester had too few players, especially in forward positions, who had tasted Premier League action before. The squad includes talents such as Abdul Fatawu, Bilal El Khannouss and Stephy Mavididi, but none of those three had played in the division before this season.
Ayew was recruited to have an influence on those around him, on and off the field, and in the past few games he may have found his niche.
Undoubtedly, he will have signed for Leicester thinking he would be making an impression from the start of games, to be a leader from the front rather than an impact player, but the latter is a role he is proving to be adept at.
Ayew may have only scored twice in the league, but his non-penalty goals ratio of 0.42 per 90 minutes is joint-highest of any of Leicester’s attacking players, alongside Brighton loanee Facundo Buonanotte.
“He won’t want that to be his Leicester career — coming off the bench and scoring goals,” Cooper said after Saturday’s 1-1 at Portman Road.
“It’s tough not starting him, to be honest, but we felt like we needed the two wingers on at the start of the game. We felt that we could hurt Ipswich down the sides. We wanted to take it and get our wide players in areas where they could make a difference. That was the plan, so we went with Abdul and Stephy.
“It was tough to leave him (Ayew) out, but at the same time, it was brilliant to be able to bring him on (with four minutes of the 90 to go).”
Back-to-back @premierleague away games ⚽ ⚽
Jordan Ayew was our late hero again on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/dpRJ5nstdj
— Leicester City (@LCFC) November 5, 2024
Ayew’s versatility may be to his detriment in Cooper’s current setup. The manager has moved away from the system he began this season with, where one of the full-backs would go high and one winger, usually Mavididi, would move inside to be a second No 10. The latter is probably the role that suits Ayew best.
Now, with Ricardo Pereira back in the side, the two wingers provide the width and the defensive players stay back. Ayew could operate as a winger or as a No 9, but would be hard-pushed to dislodge Jamie Vardy as the main striker or the side’s current two fast wingers, although he provides good backup in all those roles.
🎬 🤩
This move, this angle 🤌 pic.twitter.com/3uNGsQQCBt
— Leicester City (@LCFC) November 4, 2024
There is no shame in being an impact substitute, especially in the contemporary game, where managers have the option to bring on any five of the nine men they’ve named on the bench. Squad depth becomes incredibly important in these circumstances, as striker Jhon Duran is proving for Aston Villa — all four of his Premier League goals this season have been scored late in games when he has come on as a substitute, as did his winner against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Duran is the main reason why Villa manager Unai Emery’s 48 Premier League substitutions have produced eight goal involvements, including five goals. That is the best return from impact subs in the division but Cooper’s return is the third-highest, with five goal contributions, including three goals, from 38 changes. Ayew has two of the three.
The first substitute to ever score for Leicester was Tom Sweenie against Blackburn Rovers in a league game in April 1966, but it is in recent years that subs — or ‘finishers’ as they are now sometimes called — have played a bigger role.
Kelechi Iheanacho is the most-used replacement in the club’s history, with 118 of his 232 appearances coming from the bench, and he scored 15 of his 61 Leicester goals after being sent on mid-game. Marc Albrighton is their next-highest appearance-maker as a sub with 101 in all competitions and while he certainly wasn’t as prolific in front of goal as Iheanacho, he consistently made an impact and multiple Leicester bosses used his experience to manage games in their closing stages.
Both Iheanacho and Albrighton left the club in the summer, so new appointment Cooper was in need of an older head to help sway matches in crucial moments.
Ayew, one of the most fouled players in the Premier League last season, is adept at carrying the ball and holding it up, drawing challenges that relieve pressure in the final moments of games when his team is under pressure. Now, with late goals in consecutive away games earning vital points from losing positions after the opposition had gone down to 10 men, the 104-cap Ghana international is demonstrating he can also keep a calm head at the crucial moment in front of goal.
His arrival may have drawn a mixed reaction from Leicester fans in the summer but they are now seeing why Steve brought him in.
(Photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
