Marti Cifuentes has fixed key Leicester City issue with Fran Vieites | OneFootball

Leicester City needed a new goalkeeper, and the signature of an experienced free agent has plugged that gap after the transfer window closed.

Leicester City completed three new signings on transfer deadline day, but they've had to wait until after the window closed before they could fill one final gap in their squad.

Relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2024-25 season has hit Leicester quite hard. They lost a lot of talent and experience over the summer, while the risk of a points deduction continues to hang over the club's head, with no indication of when that might be announced.

Despite these issues, new manager Marti Cifuentes has made a solid start to his time at The King Power Stadium, with Leicester having won three of their first four League games of the season. But it took a signing made after the closure of the transfer window that has allowed them to add a final piece to their jigsaw and add some much-needed competition for their all-important goalkeeping position.

Fran Vieites' arrival at Leicester City was something of a surprise

The arrival of Fran Vieites at Leicester came as something of a surprise. The 26-year-old had his contract at the Spanish club Real Betis cancelled during the summer following the arrival of Pau Lopez, having spent the previous two years there as back-up goalkeeper.

He's now arrived at The King Power Stadium to provide a little competition for the club's two other goalkeepers, Jakub Stolarczyk and Asmir Begovic, following the sale of Mads Hermansen to West Ham United for £20 million in August.

Leicester had been linked to a number of goalkeepers on deadline day - Anton Saletros of AIK, Eric Smith of St Pauli, Amine Chabane of Amiens and Moussa Sylla of Schalke 04 - but none of these came to fruition, meaning that the club had to scour the free agents market for an available alternative who could be brought in outside the normal transfer window regulations.

Fran Vieites couldn't break through at Real Betis

Francisco Vieites may have had his contract ripped up by mutual consent during the summer, but he's used to being around bigger clubs, having previously spent time with the 'B' teams at both Celta Vigo and Real Betis. He was promoted from the Betis 'B' team into their first team squad for the start of the 2023-24 season, and made eight League appearances in their first team over those two seasons.

But throughout 2024-25, he made more than four League appearances. He was in goal for eight matches of their Europa Conference League campaign before being replaced by first-choice goalkeeper Adrian for the latter stages of the competition. They were beaten 4-1 in the final by Chelsea. Vieites also kept goal for all four of their matches in the Copa del Rey, where they were beaten 5-1 in the Round of 16 by Barcelona.

Options for clubs looking for players outside transfer windows are severely limited. Even loans can only be sanctioned when they're an emergency, and Leicester already had two fit goalkeepers. But Begovic is now 38-years-old and, while Stolarczyk has had a decent start to the season as their first-choice goalkeeper, Leicester remained only one injury from having a space on their bench which might have had to be taken up by a youth team player in the event that Stolarczyk got injured.

As such, the decision to bring in a third senior goalkeeper is a smart piece of business for Leicester. He's a layer of extra cover in the event of an injury to Stolarczyk and Begovic, and the competition that he provides to both may well improve all three of them. Considering that Leicester got to the end of transfer deadline day without securing a third goalkeeping option, bringing in a goalkeeper who had European experience last season might be considered a bit of a coup.