Soumaré (signed)

[Ric Flair]

Drives up the pitch like Kante

[Ian Nacho]

Looks the type of player we need. Not as technically gifted as Tielemans or Maddison but very direct. Likes to run at people. 

[moore_94]

Looks to have really good close ball control and skill, can time a tackle well, and certainly fast at breaking up the pitch with the ball

 

 

[enmac]

6 hours ago, moore_94 said:

Basically being told to wait and see if we get Champions League then

As reported by Foot Mercato and Fabrizio Romano, Premier League side Leicester City are attempting to accelerate negotiations to sign 22-year-old midfielder Boubakary Soumaré from Ligue 1 leaders Lille.

 

The player is on the verge of reaching a provisional contract agreement, but has yet to commit to the Foxes as a destination – advised by his entourage, the player intends to wait well past the end of the current campaign in order to assess all potential interest in him before completing a move to Leicester, which is very much on, even though the Premier League side have yet to agree a fee with Lille.

 

Brendan Rodgers’ outfit are on the other hand hard-pressed to get a deal closed as quickly as possible, conscious of the fact that the longer into the summer window that negotiations run for, the more competition they are likely to face.

 

Wolves, Everton and Aston Villa have also enquired for the player, and AC Milan remain attentive, having now made two failed attempts in consecutive windows to sign the player over the last 12 months.

 

Under contract with LOSC until June 2022, Soumaré’s departure is likely a formality.

 

 

 

Fabrizio Romano

 

@FabrizioRomano

·

May 8

 

 

Boubacary Soumaré has agreed personal terms with Leicester since February. #LCFC are close to complete the agreement with Lille to sign the midfielder on a permanent deal, negotiations ongoing.

 

 

#Leicester

[MPH]

so how does he fit in to the team? And what about when Barnes comes back? 
 

 

I know people say ‘ there’s no first 11’ but that’s not true is it? If we make it to the champions league you can absolutely guarantee our best 11 will start our first champions league game.

[NasPb]

43 minutes ago, Jaspa said:

Plays Wilf's position doesn't he?

At the worst hell be doucoure esque

[STUHILL]

8 minutes ago, MPH said:

so how does he fit in to the team? And what about when Barnes comes back? 
 

 

I know people say ‘ there’s no first 11’ but that’s not true is it? If we make it to the champions league you can absolutely guarantee our best 11 will start our first champions league game.

Got to factor in injuries and changes in formation/rotations. It's why Chelsea are finishing the season so strong now. They basically have 2 starting 11s. Not saying we can match that, but it's definitely a direction we should be heading in, if we want to stay in the top 6 consistently and doing well in the Cups. 

[MPH]

Just now, STUHILL said:

Got to factor in injuries and changes in formation/rotations. It's why Chelsea are finishing the season so strong now. They basically have 2 starting 11s. Not saying we can match that, but it's definitely a direction we should be heading in, if we want to stay in the top 6 consistently and doing well in the Cups. 

 Yes I see what you are saying, Chelsea have 22 quality players. But there won’t be any squad rotation for the champions league final, they will 100% pick what they feel are their strongest 11.

[moore_94]

8 minutes ago, MPH said:

 Yes I see what you are saying, Chelsea have 22 quality players. But there won’t be any squad rotation for the champions league final, they will 100% pick what they feel are their strongest 11.

They will likely make changes in the league games prior to the Champions League final to ensure they can play their strongest 11

[STUHILL]

4 minutes ago, MPH said:

 Yes I see what you are saying, Chelsea have 22 quality players. But there won’t be any squad rotation for the champions league final, they will 100% pick what they feel are their strongest 11.

But they have injuries, so technically can't. We would all pick N'didi in our starting 11 but if he is injured/banned, that's where we need top players in the squad such as Soumare. But I get it, it's difficult for us to get used to the idea of signing £30million pound players who don't necessarily go straight into our starting 11. This is the norm for the "big" clubs though 

[Reginaldo]

Back o’ the net...edit: see I’m a bit late to this party

Edited 9 May 2021 by Reginaldo

[OhYesNdidi]

19 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

But they have injuries, so technically can't. We would all pick N'didi in our starting 11 but if he is injured/banned, that's where we need top players in the squad such as Soumare. But I get it, it's difficult for us to get used to the idea of signing £30million pound players who don't necessarily go straight into our starting 11. This is the norm for the "big" clubs though 

And it’s the difference between playing soumare in midfield for a premier league game as apposed to Mendy or Hamza? 

[MPH]

32 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

But they have injuries, so technically can't. We would all pick N'didi in our starting 11 but if he is injured/banned, that's where we need top players in the squad such as Soumare. But I get it, it's difficult for us to get used to the idea of signing £30million pound players who don't necessarily go straight into our starting 11. This is the norm for the "big" clubs though 

 

Well, they’ll still pick their strongest 11, someone with an injury wouldn’t make your strongest  11 

[STUHILL]

3 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

Well, they’ll still pick their strongest 11, someone with an injury wouldn’t make your strongest  11 

but you asked how does Somare fit into the team.. My point was, he doesn't necessarily have to, as we need top players competing for the starting 11 and covering for injuries/rotation. 

[MPH]

3 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

but you asked how does Somare fit into the team.. My point was, he doesn't necessarily have to, as we need top players competing for the starting 11 and covering for injuries/rotation. 

I know exactly what your saying but like I said we will pick our strongest 11 for our first champions league game. We’ll definitely have a strongest 11, we’ll just not be able to play them every game as like you said there will be rotation needed throughout the season.. 

Edited 9 May 2021 by MPH

[Lambert09]

2 hours ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Nice.

 

He's a unit so you'd like to think he'd score a few set pieces, but then you look at his goalscoring record and you realise, maybe not

Nah he plays for Lille

[Clever Fox]

He looks very similar to NDiddi with a better first touch and a lot more skill on the ball and real pace.

 

He'll be a revelation here and exactly what we need.But

 

Get him in quickly.

[urban.spaceman]

1 hour ago, Reginaldo said:

Back o’ the net...edit: see I’m a bit late to this party

Charge your phone Reg it’s making me anxious. 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, turlo said:

Will give Arsenal fans something else to go into meltdown over (tweet from last year)

The sad thing is they seem to be starting to accept their fate now. 

[Nicolo Barella]

The money is mind-boggling considering we haven't wrapped up CL yet and this is a bit of a luxury signing

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, Muzzy_Larsson said:

£30m seems overpriced to me given his contract situation but he's a good player with a lot of improvement in him. 

 

....I thought the price was Euros as opposed to GBP!!!

Hope this comes off, he will make a big difference to the way we play and improve our fragility.

[Ric Flair]

8 hours ago, moore_94 said:

Looks to have really good close ball control and skill, can time a tackle well, and certainly fast at breaking up the pitch with the ball

 

 

It's absolutely staggering that his ability to drive up pitch and his long ball passing range has only resulted in 2 assists in nearly 120 league games for Lille. Some of the play in this video is impressive.

 

If he's costing £20-25m then we're going for it this summer.

[happy85]

6 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

The money is mind-boggling considering we haven't wrapped up CL yet and this is a bit of a luxury signing

With FFP relaxed clubs are allowed to incur more losses 
 

this is a opportunity for king power to spend 

[Ginger_Filbert]

27 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

It's absolutely staggering that his ability to drive up pitch and his long ball passing range has only resulted in 2 assists in nearly 120 league games for Lille. Some of the play in this video is impressive.

 

If he's costing £20-25m then we're going for it this summer.

All part of the plan with that ‘free’ Thailand sponsorship last season. 

[Finnegan]

45 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

It's absolutely staggering that his ability to drive up pitch and his long ball passing range has only resulted in 2 assists in nearly 120 league games for Lille. Some of the play in this video is impressive.

 

If he's costing £20-25m then we're going for it this summer.

 

It's not really staggering, the people that do that job often don't become statistical animals (in an attacking sense.)

 

Ngolo Kante and Shinji Okazaki basically won us a league title doing it in 15/16, neither is considered to have been much of an attacking contribution that year but both did the same thing and that's carrying the ball up the middle of the park. When Ngolo left, I remember saying this at the time, we actually missed his forward momentum more than we probably missed our ball winning. We were offensively impotent in 16/17, often resorting to smashing long balls in to channels for Vardy to chase where the year before Ngolo would have driven through the middle of the park carrying the ball.

 

But the player that does that role tends to end up laying it off to a winger or attacking midfielder who provides an assist. Kevin and Riyad did the vast majority of our chance creation setting up Vards.