Retaining and using Dennis Praet at Leicester City is the preference

While being on the precipice of the January transfer window, Leicester City’s Dennis Praet has been once more linked with a move away from the club.

The 28-year-old Belgian who missed out on a place in Roberto Martinez’s Belgian World Cup squad  – most likely due to his lack of playing time this season – had many suitors from the Serie A. The dynamic midfielder looked destined for a move this past summer to one of the interested parties.

However, perhaps because of the seeming lack of funds at Brendan Rodgers’ disposal, the Leicester boss opted to keep the Praet in order to maintain some squad depth. Now teams are circling the water once more for the Belgian. What exactly should the east Midlands side do about these alleged offers?

Well, as reported by Sport Witness, the amount of funds supposedly offered for the services of Praet meant that the East Midlands club “had a laugh” at his former club Sampdoria’s offer. That derisive bid was alleged to be only half of the £6-10million asking price. The article also confirmed that “the only possibility for him to leave on a temporary deal is if there is an obligation to buy included in the deal.”

So it does seem very unlikely that fans will see the back of Praet in January. But the question really is ‘should LCFC look to be moving on from the midfielder at all?’, even if his frankly laughable asking price is met. The answer to that poser should be a resounding no.

What the Belgian international offers a top tier club is dynamism, technical competence and versatility. The midfielder covering for James Maddison as a right-winger multiple times this season epitomises the flexibility in his game. The Foxes could be making a serious mistake to let him go for such an underwhelming fee, especially with speculation surrounding LCFC’s potential lesser spending power in upcoming windows.