Leicester City have been seeking a successor to Jamie Vardy for years. But before their latest potential heir can prove he’s worthy of the crown, they’re selling him.

Tom Cannon will move to Sheffield United shortly, just 18 months and five City starts after he was first signed. For many supporters, it’s a premature, short-termist decision.

In their eyes, City are giving up a hotshot striker for a quick payday, discounting a 22-year-old who could be leading their line for the next few years for a small profit. Cannon was signed in a deal rising to £7.5m and looks like being sold for £10m, with a portion of that profit going back to Everton.

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There have been plenty of signs that Cannon can develop into a star forward. Even in his game-time with City, he showed off great movement, composure, pace and strength, and he can strike a ball with some force too.

At Stoke, he’s scored 11 goals in 25 games, a decent return for a side that has struggled for much of the campaign. Given his age, conventional wisdom suggests those qualities are likely to improve as he gets older, wiser and more experienced.

There are fears in the fanbase that this is a deal City will regret. And there are fears that that regret will materialise in just a few months’ time, when they’re relegated to the Championship and can’t turn to an up-and-coming striker they know can score in the division.

So why are they going through with it? Perhaps it is short-term thinking. Maybe they are only focused on the here and now, and they have seen an opportunity to make some money that can be reinvested into the squad and potentially help keep them in the division.

Any signing is a gamble, it’s never known definitively if a new recruit is going to be a hit. But City have to try. Their best bet for future success is staying in the Premier League this season and they need signings to help them do that. A successful transfer in a key position will do far more for their survival hopes than not selling Cannon.

But equally, maybe they are thinking long-term. Maybe their assessments over the past 18 months suggest that they don’t feel Cannon will get to the level they are striving to reach and so selling him now, while his stock is high, is the best approach for ensuring City make their money back with a little on top.

Admittedly, from the outside, it would be difficult to see how they have come to that conclusion, but it is the case that Cannon, right now, is Premier League potential rather than Premier League quality. There are no certainties he will make the grade.

Plus, City have so often been criticised for failing to make money from their fringe players. They have found it difficult to move unwanted players on for fees, sometimes because of the generosity of the contracts they give out, and those who could be worth a few million here or there end up departing for nothing. At least this time they are making money on a player not currently in their squad.

The ideal situation would be, of course, that City were in a financial position where they could spend on players this month without needing to sell Cannon, so that they could assess his potential for a little while longer and so build a clearer picture as to whether he has what it takes. But that’s not where they are.

That’s not a great look for the club, but they can’t wallow in that. They have to be proactive to get out of relegation trouble. If the Cannon money is reinvested into a signing that plays a big part in keeping City up, the regrets of how the club have dealt with the striker’s situation will be considerably diminished.

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