Rodgers would be taking a big risk by allowing rarely-seen Leicester man to leave - opinion

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

There’s no place like home.

Although it’s not quite home, but it’s certainly somewhere he’s comfortable with. That’s the situation facing Leicester City defender Filip Benkovic as he goes on the search for more first-team football.

What’s the story?

According to a report from Football Insider, Benkovic would be open to leaving the King Power Stadium in the January transfer window and returning to Celtic.

Benkovic signed for the Foxes back in the summer of 2018 before being sent out on loan to the Scottish Champions on deadline day last season whilst Brendan Rodgers was still in charge at Celtic Park.

In Scotland, the Croatian made 27 appearances for them in all competitions (via Transfermarkt) as the Bhoys went on to win the domestic treble.

Check out the best fan reaction from Southampton 0-9 Leicester in the video below…

Leaving them short-handed

If Benkovic wants to leave they should let him, it’s never nice to have someone disgruntled in the squad who isn’t 100% committed to the cause.

But before they do they need to get some things in order first.

If they were to allow him to depart in January they would be taking a severe risk.

If you look at the makeup of the Leicester City squad at the moment, they only have four senior centre-backs on their books at the moment in the form of Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, captain Wes Morgan and the aforementioned Benkovic. Going through the rest of the season with just three, therefore, would be seriously unwise.

The report does later state that Rodgers would be happy to let him leave on loan, so he must surely be making arrangements.

One option for Rodgers would be dipping his toes into the academy, one that has started to produce some fine talent at Leicester already.

In recent years, Harvey Barnes, Ben Chilwell and Hamza Choudhury have all come through but the Northern Irishman might also choose to find a replacement from outside the club – either way, that would come at a cost and you might be unlikely to find someone that’s willing to play second fiddle.

Rodgers clearly likes him, as he was the one who took him to Celtic Park in the first place, but he just can’t seem to get ahead of Evans and Soyuncu at the moment.

With their contracts not running out until 2021 and 2023 respectively (via Transfermarkt) he’ll either have to wait for them to run out or either to suffer a serious injury before he can get some minutes.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/328zXdT