September 15, 2018. Leicester City are having a torrid time against hosts Bournemouth, particularly new £22 million signing Ricardo Pereira, the Portuguese winger turned right-back.



Leicester are 4-0 down and chasing shadows, while Pereira looks every inch a player playing out of position as he is repeatedly caught in the wrong areas.



Bournemouth are rampant, especially down Leicester’s right side. It is only his fifth game in England after his summer move from Porto and it isn’t just the travelling Leicester fans who are left wondering if Puel has made a big mistake.



How things have changed.



“When he first came I think there were some questions over him defensively,” Danny Simpson, the title-winning right-back who lost his place after Pereira’s arrival, tells The Athletic. “But there isn’t any more!”



Lisbon-born Pereira was a striker from the age of seven to 10 years old at...