Rodgers has faith in transfer-linked trio
FOFANA, MADDISON AND TIELEMANS CONTINUE TO PLAY KEY ROLES
LEICESTER City’s transfer-linked trio are set to continue featuring even as the club ready themselves to receive more bids.
Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans all started the 2-2 draw with Brentford amid interest from Chelsea, Newcastle and Arsenal in their services, manager Brendan Rodgers feeling they were capable of putting aside the transfer talk to focus on their performances.
City’s public stance is that Fofana and Maddison are not for sale, albeit the club are likely to be open to selling Tielemans, who can leave on a free transfer next summer when his contract is up.
They have so far rejected two bids each for Fofana and Maddison, but with Chelsea said to be readying a third bid the Frenchman, the transfer talk is not about to quiet down.
Still, Rodgers has faith they can continue to perform.
Asked how he thought Fofana and Maddison played against Brentford, he said: “Outstanding. I thought Wesley had a tough opponent in (Ivan) Toney, he’s aggressive and strong, but I thought he was very good. For 21 years of age, he was excellent, defending forward and strong. He was a bit tired at the end but he was good.
“James picked up the space really well in the midfield. We were able to use him and find him and he was able to get the assist from the corner.
On Tielemans, he added: “I thought he did very well. He had a couple of great opportunities and I thought his passing was excellent.” Despite the presence of their star players, City could not see out the victory though, and with two late goals conceded, there was a smattering of boos at full-time.
It did not help an anxiety in the fanbase, with concerns over the lack of signings and the interest in the team’s best players.
Rodgers said: “If you’re 2-0 up and you draw, whether you’ve signed a team of players or not, it doesn’t really matter. For us, the mood and the spirit with us… you see the team and how they played, and the joy in the stadium at that point.
“It’s a missed opportunity to get three points. If you leave the stadium drawing two each having been 2-0 up, it will be disappointing. But we come away and reflect on the game.
“The supporters will probably have been thinking what the commitment was going to be like, how good they were going to be, and for large parts of the game they were excellent.
“We wanted to bring in signings but we haven’t.
“But we’ve seen today we’re still a very cohesive team that played with good organisation and played with quality, and just needed to manage the game better at 2-0.”
The supporters will probably have been thinking what the commitment was going to be like
Rodgers