Roma deal breaker could open £15m transfer door for Leicester City

Leicester City could benefit from Roma’s need to meet Celtic’s asking price for Odsonne Edouard in instalments.

The 23-year-old forward is in demand as he approaches the final year of his contract and Brendan Rodgers – who signed him for Celtic from PSG in 2018 – is believed to be keen on a reunion.

Celtic are braced for interest and the Sunday Post reports that they will be able to demand £15m-£20m upfront, which will put Leicester and AC Milan ahead of Roma in the queue.

The idea of Leicester making a move was put to Rodgers in January, and the manager, who usually shies away from talking about potential transfer targets, said: “I know the level of player Celtic have.”

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Rodgers is expected to target a new frontman this summer but there will be a fight for Edouard, who has scored 83 times in 161 appearances for Celtic.

“When you’ve got good, talented players, there’s always interest. There always is,” interim Celtic manager John Kennedy told the Daily Record.

“That’s what happens, you see it around Europe now in terms of big clubs making moves quicker on players, especially in Germany with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. They move very quickly on players and pay the fees early.

“I’ve no doubt there will be interest in Odsonne, as there was last season and all the time he’s been here because of the amount of talent he’s got.

“But ultimately the club will do the right thing for ourselves. We want to keep him for as long as we can because of the talent he’s got, and the ability he’s got.

“There ultimately comes a point, whether it be contractually or the players’ motivation and everything else, you have to sit down and address that. And that’ll be done in the summer.

“But he’s very focused, the way he’s trained this week has been superb – he’s very focused on what he can do from now until then. We’ll deal with that in the summer.”