As Leicester City’s season draws closer to a dramatic end, the transfer speculation has already started ahead of a busy summer for Brendan Rodgers. We already know that City are looking at bringing in a new centre back, right winger, and a central midfielder. Now, if rumours are to be believed, the Foxes may have found their man for their midfield.
At 29, AS Roma’s Jordan Veretout has often been overlooked. He isn’t a flashy player and doesn’t draw the headlines. He does, however, do his job as a box-to-box midfielder extremely well.
In England, opinions of Veretout are heavily influenced by his failed move at Aston Villa. Signed in the summer of 2015, the Frenchman arrived in the Midlands for £8m but quickly found it hard to adapt to life in England. A miserable campaign saw his score no goals for the Villains as they were relegated to the Championship.
A loan move away to AS Saint-Étienne showcased the target’s ability, which led to Fiorentina signing him for £7m as he was rescued from his Midlands nightmare. Whilst he made a name for himself originally at Nantes in France – he made over 140 appearances for them – it was in the Serie A that we have seen the best of him.
Two excellent campaigns in Florence followed before a loan move to AS Roma. Roma, clearly very happy with his performances, signed him for £17m in 2020 and he since gone on to make over 120 appearances for Roma.
Robust in his passing, Veretout is adept in both attack and defence and has scored 22 goals, as well as creating 16 assists, in Rome. If Leicester are looking for a replacement for the – inevitably – departing Youri Tielemans, then they could do a lot worse than the cited athlete.
It’s not the first time he’s been linked for a move to Leicestershire. Whilst he moved to Villa in 2015, the Foxes were heavily competing with them to sign him. A move in 2015 didn’t result, but Leicester didn’t struggle without him as they won their first ever Premier League.
A move with a cost for Leicester City
Naturally, because this is City the story isn’t quite as simple as this. Whilst Veretout’s signature would be a smart one, it isn’t Leicester City that have approached Roma for him; it’s the other way round.
The Leicester Mercury are reporting that Veretout could be involved as a chip in Roma’s bid to sign LCFC’s Ricardo Pereira. Right back has been a long-standing issue for Roma and Jose Mourinho is prioritising his hunt for one in the summer.
Pereira is one of the names on Mourinho’s shortlist, with the Portuguese fullback slowly rebuilding his form after his recent injury issues. Currently 28, Pereira is entering the prime of his career and he has recently signed a new deal with the Foxes – extending his stay until 2026.
Because of his age and his contract extension, Pereira currently carries a fee of around £25m-£30m, much more than what Roma are hoping to pay. For that reason, they are reportedly ready to offer Veretout as part of the deal to slash down any transfer fee.
It is a deal that looks unlikely, with Rodgers preferring youth rather than wanting a midfielder approaching his 30s. Of course, LCFC won’t want to sell Ricardo either as – on his day – he can be one of the best right backs in Europe.
Through injury and transfer dealings, Ricardo faces week-in-week-out competition from both Timothy Castagne and James Justin for a place in the starting line-up, but so far it looks to be doing them all some good. I don’t think I need to remind you that it was Pereira who hit in the winning goal against PSV to set up a Conference League semi-final against, you guessed it, AS Roma.
Whilst I don’t think this move will happen, it is worth keeping an eye out for Veretout on Thursday as he faces the side he nearly joined over 7 years ago. As for Ricardo, he is expected to start against Roma as he shows off what he has to offer.