Leicester City flop sold for £10m has 13 goals in five games

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They do say that to take a step forward you sometimes have to take a leap backwards first.

Andrej Kramaric has taken that advice rather literally.

A classic penalty box poacher when his ill-fated spell at Leicester City began five years ago, this classiest of Croatians is now the very definition of what the great Michel Platini famously called a ‘nine and a half’.

Not quite a centre-forward, not quite an attacking midfielder, but a fearsome beast whose perfectly blended DNA makes him the apex predator in almost every habitat.

But perhaps the best compliment that can be bestowed on Kramaric right now is not even two of the most feared forwards in world football, let alone the Bundesliga, can keep up with him at the moment.

In his last five Bundesliga games, either side of the summer break, Kramaric has hit the net 13 times. That includes a clinical hat-trick against Cologne, a deadly double against Bayern Munich and a stunning four-goal salvo that left Borussia Dortmund looking as yellow as their sunshine-coloured kit.

It’s fair to say Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski would kill for those numbers.

“He is a player who, in my opinion, definitely has the potential for Bayern Munich,” 1990 Ballon D’Or winner Lothar Matthaus told Sky, suggesting Kramaric could be the man to compete for Lewa’s crown at the Allianz Arena.

Leicester deserve every ounce of praise after another summer of intelligent recruitment.

But selling arguably the hottest striker in European football right now for just shy of £10 million – after handing him a total of six Premier League starts no less – remains a blot on an otherwise pristine copybook.