Leicester City: Duncan Castles discusses potential Ryan Bertrand deal

Journalist and transfer insider Duncan Castles has been sharing some details on Leicester City’s interest in signing Southampton full-back Ryan Bertrand during the upcoming summer transfer window. 

This comes after Castles co-hosted a recent episode of The Transfer Window podcast, where he spoke about a variety of transfer-related subjects.

On the topic of Leicester’s interest in bringing Bertrand to the King Power Stadium, Castles had this to say on the matter.

He said: “They’re in discussions with Bertrand and are confident of securing him under freedom of contract, which should be [an] experienced addition to what’s already a pretty well-provisioned defence.”

Bertrand originally signed to Southampton on a loan deal from fellow Premier League side Chelsea back in the 2014 summer transfer window before securing him on a permanent deal in the following February for a fee of £11.97 million.

Overall, the 31-year-old, who is currently valued at £9 million, has made 240 appearances for the Saints across all competitions in which he scored eight goals and provided 20 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).

TIF Thoughts on Duncan Castles’ comments on Leicester’s interest in Bertrand…

Taking into account his vast experience of playing in the Premier League and the fact that his current contract at Southampton is set to run out at the end of June, perhaps a move for the defender could be a smart and relatively low-risk transfer from the Midlands club if they can get him on a free transfer, so this claim from Castles is potentially a huge step to securing what could be a fine piece of business.

However, with the Englishman only managing to earn himself a fairly disappointing overall season rating of 6.41/10 for his Premier League performances throughout the 2020/21 campaign according to WhoScored – which would have made him one of Leicester’s lowest-rated players for the past season – we feel that Bertrand would need to raise his game if he were to become a regular starter for Leicester should he make the move there this summer.