Harry Redknapp believes that the signing of Robert Huth

Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp believes that the signing of Robert Huth has been a major attribute in the club’s current form.

The former Chelsea defender may have become a journeymen in recent years after having played for clubs like Stoke City amongst others. However, he continues to be an impressive player wherever he has been. Redknapp saw Huth help Leicester City avoid relegation when he was on loan at the club last season. This appears to have convinced the club to make a permanent offer for the former German international.

Claudio Ranieri, who replaced Nigel Pearson in the summer, has been able to benefit immensely from the experience provided by Huth. The German was coming through the ranks at Chelsea when Ranieri was the first team manager. Hence, their relationship goes back to a long time rather than just at the King Power stadium. This relationship appears to have been a basis for this strong defence that the club has had in the last couple of months. Leicester have been able to fight alongside the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City because they have an impressive defensive record.

The team has conceded only 21 goals in 14 games, which is an extremely good tally considering that they were up against relegation trouble for much of last season. “Robert Huth was a big signing for them. He came in and helped Wes Morgan at the back, who I have always thought was underrated and has the potential to be a top Premier League centre-back,” said the former Tottenham manager, who is now working as a pundit across different verticals. Despite being a German, Robert Huth has been only involved in the Premier League throughout his career. He has represented clubs like Chelsea, Stoke City and Middlesbrough. The 31-year-old has more than 250 league games under his belt.

After a successful loan season with Leicester City, Robert Huth joins them permanently

Robert Huth signed a loan deal with Leicester City on February of the current year and with the arrival of the German defender, the club went through a positive string of results as Leicester City won 7 of their last 9 matches of the previous Premier League season.

Huth helped Leicester City fight for their stay in the Premier League and the German player was rewarded for his efforts by receiving a permanent contract offer from Leicester City as the 30 year old defender signed a 3 year long permanent deal.

When Huth arrived to the King Power Stadium, the club was located in the bottom spots of the Premier League but Leicester City still managed survive at least for another season in the top tier English League after an impressive run in the final stages of the past season and Huth played a big role in this accomplishment as his arrival to the team sparked life to the team.

This signing is the 2nd one that Leicester City has completed so far in this summer transfer window as they had already signed Christian Fuchs on a free deal back in June.

When Robert Huth’s transfer was completed, Leicester City launched a statement on their website which read: “The 30-year-old German’s move to King Power Stadium comes on the back of a string of stellar performances for the Foxes during a 14-game loan spell last season – displays which quickly endeared him to the City supporters.

“Alongside Wes Morgan and MarcinWasilewski, the 6ft 3ins German defender played a key role in helping guide the team to survival, and his presence for the 2015/16 campaign will certainly be welcome.”

This transfer benefits Robert Huth in a huge way as the veteran player was struggling trying to snatch a regular starting role in Stoke City. In his last 2 seasons at the Britannia Stadium he only managed on making 13 appearances but now with Leicester City, he is expected to have a starting role.

Nigel Pearson says Robert Huth will make Debut against Arsenal

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson has confirmed that the club’s new acquisition, Robert Huth, is in line to make his debut against Arsenal.

Leicester travel to the Emirates stadium to take on Arsenal and the relegation threatened outfit are not being given much of an opportunity. The 30-year-old arrived from Stoke city on a loan deal till the end of the season, but he was immediately prevented from making a debut after receiving a two match suspension from the English FA. That suspension has now expired and Huth is now free to appear for Leicester. Pearson has confirmed that the former German international will be in the squad against Arsenal.

Huth said upon his arrival that he does not expect to go straight into the team because of his experience. Even though Leicester have one of the poorest defensive records in the division, the 30-year-old expects a stiff fight from the existing players at the club. However, it would be hard to think anything other than a straight way into the starting line-up for the match against Arsenal. Leicester can certainly do with the experienced provided by a player like Huth, who started his career in the Premier league with Chelsea. Pearson’s team will be hoping to recover from a 3-1 defeat against United in the previous match.

“Huth is in the squad, without doubt.We don’t have any fresh injuries from weekend.Preparation has been slightly different with a camera crew outside the gates, as you would expect.But the players have been great. They are looking forward to the game. We put Saturday out of our minds and move on.Games like Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City in some ways are bonus games for sides like ourselves.The spirit in the dressing room remains very good,” said Pearson.

Stoke City vaccant without Robert Huth

Stoke City have so far been able to manage without the presence of Robert Huth at the back.

The big German formed an impeccable partnership with Ryan Shawcross, while his versatility also allows managers to provide physical presence in the right back positions. He has been trying to overcome a long-term injury problem that has limited his league appearances so far this season to zero. He was widely expected to start his comeback by making an appearance in the Capital One Cup match against Southampton. This fourth-round match will be at home for the potters.

The club’s assistant manager Mark Bowen has confirmed that the player has suffered a setback in his attempts to recover from the knee injury. The setback is not linked to the need, as this injury has occurred in his calf. The player is expected to shake off this problem in the next couple of weeks. This will make him available for first-team selection during the crucial December period. Mark Bowen has revealed that Huth has been extremely patient during this period and the same cannot be said of many players. There was an opportunity for Huth to be part of the German team at the World Cup 2014, but those hopes were destroyed after the injury.

“We’ve had a problem with Robert Huth.He trained yesterday and had a problem with his calf and has gone for a scan.It might put him out for a couple of weeks.He’s been patient waiting for his chance and it might have been a chance for him to go in tomorrow.But now he’s got a pretty bad calf problem.He finished the session and walked in and said his calf was really sore. All the fans know what a warrior he is,” said the Stoke assistant boss.

Moses might sit out next few matches

Victor Moses might have to miss Stoke City’s next couple of league matches as the Nigeria international sustained an injury in the first half of the away match versus Sunderland last week.
This injury will not let him represent Nigeria either in the forthcoming fixture versus Sudan.
After keeping him out of the last two games, Stephen Keshi, the Nigeria head, had given Moses a recall for the Sudan fixture, but, unfortunately, now, the 23-year old winger will have to wait a bit longer for his comeback for the Eagles.
Talking about Moses’ injury at the end of the game at Stadium of Light, Mark Hughes, the manager of Stoke City said, “Victor had had scan on his thigh and it was all clear. Nothing had been detected and he had been pretty comfortable in the training sessions as well leading to the game. So, we got him into action, but, he felt the pain right away and he had to be taken off. You don’t risk your top players especially with such injuries.”
Stephen Keshi also spoke about Moses in his press conference ahead of the Sudan game. In the words of the Eagles’ manager, “My call to Victor did not go through. So, I haven’t had a direct conversation with him, but, he has had a chat with the secretary and we believe it’s going to take him at least 20 days for being fit.”
There were actually rumours yesterday that the Nigeria management wants the player to take the flight home and get his injury verified there, but, according to Keshi, it’s not true.
Emem Eduok has taken the place of Moses in the Nigeria squad. The young striker is contracted to the Nigerian top tier club Dolphins FC.

Hughes Hopeful For Huth Recovery

Mark Hughes, the manager of Stoke City, is hopeful that Robert Huth would not miss the team’s pre season training which is going to get underway in a couple of weeks’ time.

Huth’s tenure at Stoke City had been largely injury free until last November when he got hit by a knee injury while playing against the Black Cats. He had to go under the knife twice to recover from that.

The centre back missed the entire second half of the previous season because of that injury and he is still not fully recovered. He is working hard though and it is expected that if everything goes well, he would get fit in time for the pre season training.

Talking to the reporters a few days back, Mark Hughes said, “Robert is looking fine at the moment and I believe he would be there at the training ground from the opening day.”

“Throughout the summer, he has been very careful about his recovery. It takes a lot of hard work for a player to regain fitness after two successive surgeries and he has certainly put in that hard work. I am not surprised to see him back in shape so quickly.”

“There are still about one and half months left before the matches to start and till that time Robert would be back at his pomp I reckon.”

Huth was known as an injury prone player in the first few years of his career. He had suffered ankle injuries quite a few times when he was a part of Middlesbrough, but, after arriving at Stoke, there was a considerable improvement in his fitness.

Before that knee injury in November last year, the defender hadn’t missed back-to-back matches ever for the Potters.

Shawcross ‘A Major Miss’

Stoke city manager Mark Hughes has stated that Ryan Shawcross will be a major miss as the club prepare to take on Fulham in their final home match of the season. Stoke will be looking to finish just about Newcastle United in the table and they have all the qualities to do so. They have managed to go on an incredible run of form over the last few weeks, which has seen the gap to Newcastle close to almost negligible levels in the last few weeks. Newcastle have also aided this progress by losing the last five matches without exception.

It is only because of the form that they showed in the first half of the season that they are still in the top half of the table. After the sale of Yohan Cabaye in the January transfer window, the club has totally collapsed in every area of the pitch. Since they take on the title chasing Liverpool in the final game of the season, not much is expected of Newcastle in terms of points from now till the end of the season. Hence, Stoke can move above Newcastle if results go their way. Finishing above Newcastle will help the club earn around £ 2 million more in TV money.

“Having lost Robert Huth early in the season, Ryan has had to show a great level of leadership. Maybe in a strange way losing Rob has helped Ryan to grow as a captain. Losing Rob was a big blow to us all and we’ve really missed him on occasions but Ryan and Marc (Wilson) have played well to fill that hole. We will miss Ryan tomorrow too, because he is a real leader and it would have been nice to have seen him play in every minute of every game. Unfortunately that wasn’t meant to be,” said Hughes.