Deeney: City tried to sign me for £25m

FORMER Premier League striker Troy Deeney has revealed he held talks with Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri about moving to the King Power Stadium, writes Amie Wilson.

City pushed hard to sign the Watford forward in the summer of 2016, a couple of months after lifting the Premier League title.

They had several bids for Deeney turned down by Watford, with the biggest being around £25 million.

But Deeney has admitted he was tempted to join the Foxes after talks with Ranieri.

“That summer (2016), Leicester, the reigning champions, made several bids to sign me,” the now Birmingham City striker wrote in an extract of his new autobiography featured in The Sun.

“I was flattered by that and tempted by it. I spoke to the Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri about it and looked at it as a win– win situation.

“I was the main man at Watford and was being mentioned in the England conversation but if I had gone to Leicester, I think I would have had an England call-up by now.

“I would have played Champions League there and my profile would have gone up.”

A move to City would have seen him link up with Jamie Vardy, a partnership Deeney believes would have been successful.

“Vardy was weighing up a move to Arsenal at the same time Leicester were offering Watford £25 million for me,” he said. “But I think our natural games would have complemented each other well.

“I knew I had to be realistic and understand that if the move did happen, I would never be able to be part of something that surpassed what Leicester had just achieved.

“I was never going to become a Leicester legend in the way I had become part of Watford’s history.”