Leicester seals last-day loan deal for German defender Huth

GERMAN centre-back Robert Huth joined Leicester City on a short-term loan from Stoke City on Monday, in a low-key start to transfer deadline day for Premier League clubs.

Huth, 30, has fallen out of favour at Stoke after injury problems and he now follows goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and striker Andrej Kramaric in joining bottom club Leicester during the January transfer window.

“I’m not expecting to walk in the team. I have to prove my worth,” Huth told the Leicester website.

“I have watched enough Leicester games to be happy to come here, certainly the 5-3 win against Manchester United. And they beat Stoke at home, which was an upset for Stoke.”

The final day of the transfer window has become a major event in the British football calendar due to a number of headline-grabbing last-minute deals in recent years.

Robinho, Fernando Torres, Mesut Ozil and Radamel Falcao are among the players to have completed spectacular deadline-day moves, but the current transfer period has bucked the trend.

Wilfried Bony’s move from Swansea City to Manchester City for a reported initial fee of £25 million ($37.6 million) is the biggest deal to have been completed so far.

Prior to Monday’s final day of transfer business, English top-flight teams had spent £15 million less on new players than at the same stage last year, according to financial analysts Deloitte.

But total spending over the entirety of the 2014-15 campaign already represents a new record.