Leicester City wanted on-loan Celtic winger Patrick Roberts as part of a big-money deal to take Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City in January, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claim that City’s best bid for the Algeria international as the window ran down was £50million-plus-player deal, with the player rated around £15million.
The Mail report that 20-year-old winger Roberts, who is spending a second season on loan at Celtic, was the player in question.
It is said that sources believe it was the Foxes who proposed adding Roberts to the deal, but others suggest a straight cash offer of £80million would have been enough to see Mahrez head to the Etihad.
Roberts is reportedly rated very highly at parent club City.
OPINION
This is an interesting development in the Mahrez transfer story, which will no doubt run for a few days yet. The strange thing to consider here is the fact that Roberts has been injured for most of the season for Celtic, having played just 12 games so far. That must mean that he is extremely highly-rated in Leicester, who would have been looking at him as a like-for-like replacement for Mahrez. From Celtic’s point-of-view, it is lucky that Leicester did not accept the deal, as Roberts will be a big asset for the club in the coming months as he returns from injury. He was one of their best attacking players last season, and hopefully he can rediscover that form once again.