JibrinLeicester City’s absence of a prolific striker has been one of the sorest points of a dismal campaign so far.
Jordan Ayew may have inherited Jamie Vardy’s number nine jersey, but he has not offered any of the cunning or penalty-box menace of the club’s iconic forward.
Patson Daka may have ended his year-long goal drought in November, but he has been unable to build on that moment.
If not for Jordan James’ late runs into the box and Abdul Fatawu’s thunderbolts, City would be in real trouble going forward.
What is perhaps compounding the frustration is the exploits of one of the club’s former prospects north of the border.
Motherwell’s Tawanda Maswanhise netted twice more over the weekend to take his Scottish Premiership tally to a league-leading 16, while he has 21 goals in all competitions.
The 23-year-old is in his second season at Motherwell and his goals are keeping them in the title race in what is potentially the most thrilling conclusion to a Scottish Premiership season in years.
And it feels like a return that is going to secure him a lucrative transfer over the summer. Rangers, Celtic, Anderlecht and Blackburn were all credited with interest in January, with suggestions of seven-figure bids tabled for the Zimbabwe international.
“Tawanda has attracted an extreme amount of interest from all over the world and from the UK,” Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou said at the start of February.
“There have been offers but they have been at an amount that is nowhere near the valuation put on him. It has been very easy to say, ‘Well no, now is not the time to sell’.
“Did anyone try late on? Yes, but there was no discussion. The plan was never for him to leave now.”
But when asked if summer interest was likely, Askou replied: “We absolutely expect that to be the case.
“We also expect clubs to start coming in earlier as they will have to be in a little bit better time than some were now.
“The interest is only going up for him, because he’s a good player and he will keep scoring goals and developing.
“The summer window is also usually a little bigger and all eyes are on him. More clubs will be interested in him, probably in bigger markets. So I expect it to be a busy summer around him.”
It’s not merely that Maswanhise is scoring consistently; it’s that they allowed him to depart for nothing. The forward could be the subject of a multi-million pound transfer this summer, all for a player they could have retained.
Often deployed as a winger during his days in the youth set-up, Maswanhise was always highly-rated as a teenager, and caught the eye in his appearances for the senior side in pre-season.
Once in the Under-21s, he found the net regularly. But it never translated to first-team chances, with Maswanhise only making one senior appearance for the club, as a substitute in the FA Cup under Enzo Maresca.
If greater faith had been placed in him, and more opportunities granted to him, he could still be at the club now, and it may have been City benefiting from his immense progress and his goals.
City have not let many players slip through the net, but Maswanhise’s potential does mirror the rise of Calvin Bassey.
He also left City for nothing to move to Scotland, performing so well for Rangers that he earned a £20m move to Ajax. While that did not pay off, he has since moved to Fulham, where he has cemented his place as a Premier League regular.
Jibrin
