According to David Ornstein, Leicester City were looking at bringing in Manuel Akanji as a replacement for Wesley Fofana but the deal did not come to fruition.
The Foxes had one of the worst transfer windows of any team in the Premier League as they lost two of their key players in Fofana and Kasper Schmeichel and were unable to replace either with a suitable player.
It took until deadline day for the midlands team to sign a player for a fee, with Wout Faes coming in from Stade Reims for £15m. They then looked to bring in Atalanta fringe player, Jeremie Boga, but the deal ultimately fell through before the deadline.
Since the end of the summer transfer window, it has been revealed they did have a target in mind to replace Fofana after he made his huge £75m move to the capital. Ornstein revealed the player to be Akanji, who ultimately made a move to Manchester City.
Ornstein told the FIVE Insider show: “I think Leicester City had been linked with him [Manuel Akanji] previously as a potential replacement for Wesley Fofana, but that didn’t come to fruition.”
TIF Thoughts on Ornstein’s comments…
This summer has been incredibly hard for Leicester, which has now seeped into their Premier League season as at the time of writing they currently sit bottom of the table with just one point after five games.
Things are only going to get worse for the side now they have lost Fofana and have failed to find a good enough replacement. While it is uncertain if Akanji – hailed a “complete defender” – would have needed up being a good replacement, the fact they couldn’t get the deal done when he eventually went for just £15m is egregious on the Foxes’ side.
He is a very experienced player who has made 158 appearances for Borussia Dortmund, including 29 games in the Champions League and won the DFB-Pokal with BVB. Leicester could use a player with this kind of experience to help them push up the table.
Unfortunately, they now have an uphill battle with Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Daniel Amartey, and Jannik Vestergaard as their centre-back options.
Will Leicester regret not signing Akanji?Yes
No
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It’s meaningless even if true because the player was never going to sign for Leicester if Manchester City were in the mix.