The January transfer window has hit the midway stage and Leicester City are closing in on their first signing.
Woyo Coulibaly is close to joining the Foxes after completing his medical, though, the Crystal Palace game this evening will likely come too soon for him to make his debut.
Coulibaly is set to join in a £3m switch and will be Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first Leicester signing but there’s still plenty more to do.
The Dutchman wants four new additions, with a left-sided defender, a winger and a striker still on the shortlist.
Leicester have recalled Tom Cannon from his loan spell and he could be sold on to Sunderland to help fund new arrivals.
So there’s lots of moving parts going on at City right now and with that said, it’s just emerged that Chelsea have joined the race to sign one of their rumoured targets.
Chelsea make contact to sign Leicester target Mathys Tel
Back in November, it was reported that Leicester were targeting a January move for Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel.
It was suggested a loan deal was on the cards for Tel and Leicester had an eye on his situation at the Bundesliga giants.
Those rumours have since gone quiet and now it’s emerged that Chelsea have made contact to sign the 19-year-old, according to The Guardian.
Former Leicester and current Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca is keen to land the Dutch wide player and a bid will be launched if Chelsea receive encouragement that a deal can be struck.
It’s thought £40m could be enough to lure him to West London, so, at this stage, it seems Leicester’s bid to sign Tel is extremely unlikely.
Leicester simply don’t have the finances or pulling power to compete with Chelsea.
Leicester should give Will Alves a chance
With the Tel deal off, Leicester really should give talented teenager Will Alves the chance the shine in the first-team.
Alves has been tipped for a bright future and van Nistelrooy is well aware of his ability, having handed him his Premier League debut last month.
The 19-year-old has been a regular in first-team training since returning from injury at the start of 2024, so clearly the club believe in his abilities.
Now is the perfect chance to give Alves the platform to shine.