Leicester City can confirm that terms have been agreed with defender Michael Ball, who becomes Sven-Goran Eriksson's eleventh new signing of the summer. The experienced full-back joins the Foxes on a one-year deal with a one-year option, subject Football League approval. Ball, 31, has been training with the Foxes since July and travelled with the squad on their tour of Sweden and Austria last month. He is well-known to Eriksson from their time working together at Manchester City, while the Swede also gave Ball, then of Everton, his solitary England cap in a friendly victory over Spain in 2001. "Michael is another very experienced player that will add further depth to our squad," Eriksson told lcfc.com. "He is a good influence both on and off the pitch and has a positive effect in the dressing room. "He has come back from a spell out injured and has a good opportunity to recapture his previous form. If he can do that, he will be a bargain for us." Liverpool-born Ball has spent the last two years out of the game following his 2009 departure from Manchester City, whom he joined two years earlier from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. A graduate of the Everton academy, Michael made 121 of his 169 Premier League appearances during a five-year spell with the Toffees, which ended in 2001 when Rangers paid a reported £6.5million to take him to Ibrox. He went on to make 76 appearances in four years with the 'Gers, picking up an SPL winners' medal in his final campaign before his 2005 switch to PSV, with whom he won another league title in his very first season. After starting training with Leicester in July, Ball played a part in six of the Foxes' seven pre-season fixtures, operating as a centre-half and in central midfield, as well as his more familiar left-back role. He will be available to make his City debut in Tuesday night's Carling Cup trip to Rotherham United please log in to view this image
Good, just what we need, a good experienced DEF to help the younger ones out. We have very good options in GK, DEF & MID but still think our FOR is lacking. At 31, if he stays fit, he´s still got a good 3 years in him. I can only see him being a squad player though, but still good to have around.
We arent replacing Didi Hammann, instead Mike Stowell is going to get more responsibility so if Bruno wants a coach role it wont be here
Maybe waiting for Ball to officialy sign and be able to play matches before appointing Bruno as a coach?
I think Bruno could make a great coach for us here,highly respected by the players and the fans, Stowell is mainly the goalkeeping coach. There's no reason we couldn't have Mike and Bruno, after all, before he left Powell was a coach at the same time as Stowell.
He did have a couple of trials at Wigan and Blackpool (he reportedly did very well at Wigan) but nothing came of it so you could ask questions about that one. He has done well on the tour and looked okay against Madrid. I'm sure he'll be a perfectly adequate player as a back-up left-back. Although, if Konchesky were to get injured, I'd expect Pantsil to play ahead of Ball.
