Report: Leicester eyeing £20m Barcelona target and ‘sensational’ Rodgers favourite

Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers is keen to raid Celtic for Ryan Christie in 2021 with Reading wonderkid Michael Olise another option for the Premier League outfit, as reported by Eurosport.

The Foxes may have a midfield most top-flight managers would give their right arm for but, with the January window only a fortnight away, it seems even more quality is being sought in the centre of the park.

Christie has emerged as a priority target, despite the fact he produced his best football in Celtic colours after Rodgers bid farewell to Parkhead in early 2019.

“Playing in midfield as one of the eights, his intensity, his quality, his pressing, everything – Ryan Christie was sensational,” Rodgers told the Belfast Telegraph of his reported January target in 2018.

A creative, left-footed player, Christie produced 19 goals and 16 assists as Celtic won their ninth successive Scottish Premiership title last term.

The Scotland international has already reached double figures for assists this season too, even in a Hoops side struggling under Rodgers’ successor.

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Christie is out of contract in 2022 and has shown little interest in signing an extension.

Eurosport believes Olise, another defence-splitting playmaker with an eye for goal, is also on Leicester’s radar.

The 18-year-old Frenchman has blossomed into a talismanic figure for promotion-chasing Reading, with no player in the Championship capable of matching his tally of six league assists so far.

The Reading Chronicle believes Olise, a set-piece master capable of unlocking a defence tighter than the Gordian knot, would cost £20 million.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have also taken a keen interest in a one-time Manchester City youngster.

Leicester, of course, invested a big fee to sign another second-tier playmaker in 2018 and, with James Maddison going from strength to strength, they have all the justification they need to repeat the trick.

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