After a protracted transfer saga, Chelsea have finally agreed a deal for Wesley Fofana with Leicester, in an update which could spell bad news for Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
What’s the story?
Well, you may have heard that Crystal Palace are interested in signing Boubakary Soumare from Leicester.
In regards to Newcastle, they are keen to sign James Maddison, and saw a £40m bid rejected by the Foxes.
Leicester are currently facing financial difficulty, and are the only side in the Premier League yet to sign an outfield player this summer as they struggle to find any spending money.
Therefore, it looked like Patrick Vieira and Eddie Howe had a good chance of forcing Brendan Rodgers to part with Maddison and Soumare, in a desperate attempt to bring some money to the King Power Stadium.
However, with Chelsea now set to inject the £75m Fofana fee into Leicester’s bank account, the Foxes will find themselves in much better shape from a financial aspect.
Of course, that isn’t to say that Soumare or Maddison won’t be leaving the Midlands ahead of the September 1st deadline, although we believe it is now highly unlikely that both will be sold.
Crystal Palace in better position than Newcastle after Chelsea breakthrough
In our view, Crystal Palace are more likely to land Soumare than Newcastle are to sign Maddison.
The England international is arguably Leicester’s best player, and it has already been said that he won’t be allowed to leave if Fofana goes.
On the contrary, Soumare is far less important to Leicester, and we believe Rodgers would jump at the chance to cash in on the Frenchman if Crystal Palace make a respectable bid.
The 23-year-old only made his first appearance of the season earlier today, after falling heavily out of favour with Rodgers last season following a £17m move from Lille – he wasn’t even named in the final five Premier League squads.
Keep an eye on this transfer merry-go-round as we approach the September 1st deadline, with more developments expected.
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