Brendan Rodgers considers his moves carefully as he decides talking down any hope for fans to see an exciting addition to the squad in January, but there are names circulating and making it difficult to just ignore every talk of a player linked to Leicester City.
Embed from Getty ImagesNo secret that Demarai Gray and Islam Slimani are considering moves away from the club as they are at the moment playing “academy football”. Christian Fuchs and Wes Morgan are more or less certainties to be out of the first team picture when this season is over, with Morgan set to take on a role at the club and Fuchs moving on.
The club have a number of players out on loan and the light might be out for the likes of Matty James, Filip Benkovic, Darnell Johnson and Josh Knight, with Daniel Amartey slowly returning, but might be seen just as a cover and nothing else, as his career has gone down hill since joining Leicester City back in 2016.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis should see additions possible with Jesse Lingard being linked, the former England international who is one of a number of Man Utd players to reach full international recognition in the post era of Sir Alex Ferguson, being influential during the 2018 World Cup playing most games reaching the semi-finals. A year later he was part of the squad winning the bronze in The Nation League finals in Portugal. Lingard has fallen a bit out of favor at Man Utd under OGS and lost his place in the England set up but at 28 years of age still a player with a lot to offer.
A number of experts, and also website The Athletic, makes it clear that there might be need for a new central defender as well, and we just have to wait and see, with previous seasons seeing the January additions of Robert Huth (15), Daniel Amartey (16), Molla Wague (17) and Ryan Bennett (20) all being central defenders covering up, with Huth of course the most influential of the pack.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe key for Leicester City is to keep momentum and hopefully Caglar Soyuncu will be back in full contention, and with Daniel Amartey and Wes Morgan both available it might be difficult to find place for a new face, but looking a bit longer and with a bit of perspective it might be the right time to strike and James Tarkowski playing in a struggling team and with a desire to leave and just a year left on his contract at the season end.
We all know that Braga defender David Carmo is a name that has been mentioned lately, but with him making a long term contract extension until 2025 as late as in November this year makes it difficult to believe that he will just jump ship in January, and at the age of 21 probably better off with a number of seasons at Braga to get to another and more mature level.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut if James Tarkowski slips there are names out there and great footballers currently “drying” around in other clubs, and names such as John Stones, Alfie Mawson, Phil Jones and Shkodran Mustafi are just a few of them. Andreas Christensen and Fikayo Tomori are two players thirsty of first team football and they are brilliant footballers not really getting a look in at the moment.
We have seen it before, especially with a player like Robert Huth, totally overlooked and written off as a top player, but Nigel Pearson and later Claudio Ranieri made him a key player in teams that had a survival of the most fantastic and later the adventure of the century. The players mentioned above, besides Tarkowski, are all a bit off the radar at the moment, but has been internationals, played at the biggest scenes or been close to a great breakthrough, but in some way lost their “edge”.
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