Burnley defender James Tarkowski in action. (Getty Images)
Home » Teams » Leicester » This is why Leicester City have committed a massive blunder by not signing this solid defender for £40m

This is why Leicester City have committed a massive blunder by not signing this solid defender for £40m

by

Why Leicester City have missed a trick by not signing James Tarkowski

According to a report from the Sun, Leicester City were priced out of a move to replace Harry Maguire with Burnley’s James Tarkowski.

The Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers was considering his options after Harry Maguire’s world-record £85million move to Manchester United. And his club made an enquiry about Burnley centre-back Tarkowski earlier this week.

They were reluctant to pay a substantial fee in excess of £40 million and eventually, Leicester failed to add a defensive reinforcement on the transfer deadline day.

Leicester City have had a hugely impressive transfer window, with the likes of James Justin, Ayoze Perez and Dennis Praet arriving at the King Power Stadium, whilst the club also making Youri Tielemans’ loan move permanent.

Rodgers’ side looks dangerous going forward but their defence remains to be an area of massive concern.

The departure of Maguire has been a massive loss to the Foxes, leaving Rodgers with the likes of Jonny Evans, Wes Morgan, Caglar Soyuncu and Filip Benkovic as options in central defence.

Evans and Morgan are in their 30s, while Benkovic has returned to the club after a successful loan spell with Celtic. Soyuncu endured a tough debut Premier League campaign and couldn’t make much of an impact as he would have liked to.

While Soyuncu and Benkovic will be given opportunities to shine in the upcoming campaign, Rodgers failing to replace Maguire with James Tarkowski could prove costly for the former Premier League champions.

Tarkowski, 26, has grown in stature in the past couple of seasons at Burnley. The 26-year-old is currently one of the reliable defenders in the Premier League and his impressive performances for the Clarets have also seen him earn a call-up to the England team by Gareth Southgate.

In Tarkowski, the Foxes would have got a central defender who knows the league very well. He is strong, experienced and a reliable player, known for his tough-tackling and no-nonsense defending.

The two-cap England international is currently operating in his prime and is ready to take the next step up in his career. The Manchester-born stopper would have brought stability and authority to Leicester’s defence.

Tarkowski was exactly the man Leicester needed in their team this summer. The player himself would have relished the challenge of moving to a club of such stature to prove just how good he really can be.

Verdict

It was very crucial for Leicester to replace Maguire ahead of the start of the new campaign.

Tarkowski was apparently the main target and after making such a huge profit by selling Maguire to Manchester United, the Foxes’ reluctance to pay the £40million valuation of the Burnley defender is really baffling.

Read more Leicester City news, click here – Leicester City latest news

Rodgers can only hope now that it doesn’t come back to haunt his team during the 2019/20 campaign.