Report: Derby County remain keen on Leicester City’s Tom Lawrence despite £7m rejection

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Tom Lawrence shone on loan at Ipswich Town last season and the Leicester City attacker is a summer target for Derby County.

It wouldn’t have taken Gary Rowett long to identify Derby County’s biggest problem last season. The Rams were the lowest scorers in the top half of the Championship and, in the opening weeks of the new campaign, there is little reason to believe things will change overnight.

Derby have scored just one goal in the first 180 minutes of the new league season, drawing 1-1 with Sunderland before failing to find the net in a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Wolves on Saturday.

Therefore, it’s little surprise that Rowett has insisted that the club are in the market for attacking reinforcements. And, according to the Derby Telegraph, Leicester City forward Tom Lawrence remains on Derby’s radar, despite the Premier League club rejecting an opening offer of £7 million.

The report adds that the Wales international, who began his career at Manchester United, is keen to move away from the King Power Stadium and was omitted from the squad for their topsy-turvy opening day defeat to Arsenal on Friday.

Leicester’s reluctance to give Lawrence an opportunity has baffled some sections of the support. After all, the 23-year-old was in inspired form during a breakthrough loan spell at Ipswich Town last season, a number of heart-stopping wondergoals showing exactly why he was once rated so highly within the corridors of Old Trafford.

In total, Lawrence scored nine and set up another nine for an otherwise dour Ipswich outfit. And his addition would be welcomed with open arms at Derby, a club who are crying out for a player who can both score and create in equal measure.

Midfielders Bradley Johnson and Craig Bryson have both boasted impressive goalscoring seasons from central midfield in the past but their productivity in the final third left a lot to be desired in 2016/17.

Lawrence could be the sort of signing that makes Rowett’s Derby genuine play-off contenders.