Nampalys Mendy will not be leaving Premier League outfit Leicester City for Russian giants CSKA Moscow, the midfielder’s agent tells Sport24.
Well, it always felt that there weren’t enough room in this town for the two of them.
And after CSKA Moscow completed the signing of Jean-Philippe Gbamin on Monday – signing Everton’s £25 million forgotten man on loan until the end of this season – Mendy’s chances of escaping his King Power prison appeared to take a major hit.
Locked up until the summer, when his contract expires, the Senegal international has made no secret of his desire to find a club willing to hand him a more central role in their plans.
Mendy, included in the African Cup of Nations team of the tournament, has not played a Premier League game all season. A combination of niggling injuries and the arrival of Boubakary Soumare from Lille.
But while Mendy and Gbamin are hardly identical, there is enough similarities between the two to suggest that, as far as CSKA were concerned, it was a case of one or the other.
“CSKA interested in Nampalys Mendy? This is fake news,” says the midfielder’s agent, Ahmed Egal.
Stuck at Leicester City?
A £10 million signing from Nice during the ill-fated summer of 2016, Mendy was identified by then-Premier League champions Leicester as a replacement for N’Golo Kante.
But after struggling to settle on English soil, Mendy tumbled down the pecking order. Particularly following the arrival of another talented defensive midfielder in the shape of Wilfred Ndidi.
Ndidi himself has seen his future called into question recently too.
Steven Gerrard wants a tough-tackling enforcer at Aston Villa. He reportedly has Ndidi, as well as Brighton’s Yves Bissouma, in his sights.
Though, ahead of Leicester’s 4-1 Conference League victory over Randers, Brendan Rodgers made it clear that Ndidi would cost a damn sight more than £50 million.
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