Why Leicester City should offload Adrien Silva permanently amid interest
According to claims from Portuguese outlet O Jogo, as relayed by the Leicestershire Live, Leicester City midfielder Adrien Silva is the subject of interest from Russian giants Spartak Moscow.
As per the source, the 31-year-old has spent the past 18 months on loan at AS Monaco in France and the Foxes are likely to want to recoup a fraction of the £22million fee they had paid to acquire his services from Sporting Lisbon back in 2017.
Silva, who is set to hold talks with Leicester over his future, personally prefers a move back to his former club Sporting Lisbon but he is open to embracing a challenge in a different league. (O Jogo h/t Leicestershire Live).
Silva’s Leicester career so far
A veteran of over 200 career appearances for Sporting Lisbon, Adrien Silva came through the door at the King Power Stadium with a lot of expectations but endured the worst possible start to his career in English football.
The Portuguese international put in a string of decent displays under former boss Claude Puel towards the end of the 2017-18 campaign but fell completely out of favour in 2018-19 before completing a loan move to Monaco in January 2019, with Youri Tielemans going the other way to Leicester.
The Euro 2016 winner enjoyed a resurrection in the country of his birth before the Covid-19 pandemic led to the premature termination of the Ligue 1 campaign last term.
A fair deal for all parties?
It’s been ages since the 31-year-old last featured for the Foxes in a competitive fixture and with all due respect to his abilities as a central midfielder, Silva is unlikely to force his way back into the reckoning at Leicester.
That’s because Brendan Rodgers already has a wide array of talent in his midfield cavalry to choose from, with Wilfried Ndidi establishing himself as a virtually irreplaceable figure as a shield for the rearguard.
Tielemans and James Maddison continue to be the indispensable attacking midfielders for Rodgers, thus limiting the likes of Papy Mendy and Hamza Choudhury to bit-part roles in the first-team. Matty James made his comeback after a long-term injury prior to the lockdown but has found regular minutes hard to come by.
Taking the current midfield scenario at Leicester into account, Silva doesn’t seem to have a place at all. Given that he still has a lot to offer at 31, a permanent move elsewhere would suit him perfectly well.
Also, he’s in the final year of his contract at the King Power Stadium, so Leicester shouldn’t hesitate to cash in on their outcast. They face the risk of losing him on a free transfer next year.
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Verdict
Things have changed radically at Leicester since the appointment of Brendan Rodgers at the helm. After securing qualification to the Europa League, the Foxes need to show more ambition in the transfer window if they are to rub shoulders with the big guns in the Premier League once again.
That said, offloading Adrien Silva would certainly be a step in the right direction.
