Leicester City still have a lot of work to do in the January transfer window to turn their season around.
A right-back was signed on Wednesday night as Leicester City confirmed Woyo Coulibaly’s £3m transfer from Parma.
Coulibaly, who could make his debut against Fulham, watched on as the Foxes were beaten 2-0 by Crystal Palace, leaving some Leicester fans resigned to relegation.
To stand any chance of surviving this term, further additions are needed, and there is a huge problem holding Ruud van Nistelrooy back.
Due to PSR constraints and worries about breaching the rules, Leicester are operating with a small transfer budget, requiring them to sell some players before they can shell out some money.
One of those is Tom Cannon, who could join Sunderland or Sheffield United, while another is centre-back Caleb Okoli.
- READ MORE: How Ruud van Nistelrooy truly feels about Tom Cannon’s future in Leicester City transfer hint
Caleb Okoli demands regular football at Leicester City
Despite only arriving for £14m from Atalanta in the summer, Okoli is the subject of significant transfer interest, with a return to Italy mooted.
Okoli is Parma’s priority transfer this month and it has been said Coulibaly’s move from the Serie A side could play a role in the centre-back making a switch in the opposite direction.
The 23-year-old is out of favour under Van Nistelrooy, who has preferred to use Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard and Conor Coady as his defensive options.
Okoli has played just 45 Premier League minutes in the last eight matches, with the Italian now demanding regular first-team football as his ‘priority’ or he could leave.
That is according to OK Calcio Mercato, who report that Parma’s contact with Leicester is ‘concrete’ and they’re deciding whether to offload him.
As Van Nistelrooy is unable to promise him a prominent role between now and the end of the season, selling him could be the best option.
The centre-backs Leicester City have targeted
Leicester won’t want to shoot themselves in the foot, and they’ll want to sign another centre-back first before facilitating the transfer of Okoli.
Luckily, several names have popped onto their radar since the window opened, with Leicester showing an interest in Valentin Gomez, the Argentine star who plays for Velez Sarsfield.
Gomez isn’t the only player being considered, with Thomas Kristensen also said to be wanted by Leicester in this window.
Those two links were drawn earlier in the window and rumours of signing a central defender have died down. However, Leicester inarguably need a centre-back regardless of whether Okoli leaves, and hopefully, they can get their hands on at least one.