Leicester City’s stance on possible Wesley Fofana transfer

It has been Leicester City’s transfer model for numerous years now, to buy relatively unknown talents on the cheap and make copious amounts of profit selling to historically bigger clubs after developing said talents, so it may feel somewhat like DeJa’Vu to hear that Wesley Fofana has surfaced as a transfer target for both Manchester United and Chelsea.

According to RMC a sports news outlet in France, two giants of English football are very interested in adding the 20-year-old French centre half to their backline before the transfer window closes. With United’s new boss Eric Ten Haag looking to add some youth and quality the centre back position and Chelsea in need of centre halves with both Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger leaving on free transfers to Barcelona and Real Madrid after their contracts had expired at the end of the 2021/22 season.

Acquiring Fofana would undoubtedly be an excellent piece of business for either of the clubs, however with the Foxes’ having only just signed the Saint-Étienne graduate to an improved contract this season, which will keep him at The King Power till 2027, this gives the East Midlands club no reason or need to sell. This is why reports suggest that it would allegedly require a £68 million pound offer in order to persuade City to sell the young Frenchman.

Leicester fans will tell you that even for that price-tag it would be considered a steal, and some may say he should be in the region of around £100 million, which does not seem facetious at all when you compare that to the transfer of Harry Maguire for £80 million. The only possible hesitation for these clubs if “little Wes” is truly available for that figure, is that, coming off a serious injury like he suffered in preseason when he broke his leg against Villarreal back in August of 2021, is that it may have stunted his development.

This is mainly due to the amount of time off, as well as these two sides needing someone to come in a contribute immediately at that position. And those teams may have some questions marks over the Frenchman in that regard. Although Fofana’s career at Leicester would suggest that he would make a substantial impact on any side he was playing in.

The interest in the 20-year-old will be no surprise to anyone at City due to the maturity and abundance of quality that he possess’, he also fits all the criteria of what elite possession-based clubs look for in a modern day centre back; He has immense quality on the ball as he can consistently bring the ball out from the back in order create better angles for passing lanes, he is extremely quick which allows him to nullify many counter-attacks which is ideal for a team with lots of possession, as well as the fact that he is a superb and decisive 1-on-1 defender especially for a player of such a young age.

His player profile and youth is what makes Fofana such a desirable asset for any team in the world. But it would be more likely for a deal to be made perhaps a year or two in the future when other clubs are a lot more confident on whether “little Wes” will reach his astronomical ceiling to become ‘big Wes’.