Struggling Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita has reportedly registered on the radars of Leicester City ahead of the summer transfer window.
According to a report from Football Insider, Leicester City are keeping tabs on Liverpool star Naby Keita with an eye on a potential swoop in the upcoming transfer window.
Keita arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 2018 from German outfit RB Leipzig amid much hype. Almost three years into his stint at the club and he is yet to live up to the billing or the massive £52.5 million price tag which made him the third most expensive transfer in the Reds’ history.
Since joining the club, Keita has managed just 76 appearances, missing as many as 54 matches due to injuries. He has managed a paltry return of just seven goals and four assists in the process. Given his struggles, coupled with the emergence of Curtis Jones and the signing of Thiago Alcantara, the Guinean has been reduced to a bit-part player at Anfield.
So far this term, Keita has featured just 16 times across all competitions, without making a single direct contribution to a goal. Handed a rare starting berth on Tuesday in Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final contest against Real Madrid, the 26-year-old was taken off before half-time after a listless performance.
Heading into the summer transfer window, Keita’s future at Anfield is pretty much up in the air, with the report stating that Liverpool do not believe he will grow into the dominant midfielder that the club expected him to become after his breakthrough seasons at Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig.
To that end, a sale could very much be on the cards, given as Liverpool will need to strengthen multiple areas on the pitch ahead of the new season. And it is claimed that the current Premier League champions value the 26-year-old Keita somewhere around the £30 million mark.
Despite his struggles at Anfield, Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers remains an admirer of the former RB Leipzig man and is closely watching his situation at Liverpool. It now remains to be seen whether the Foxes act on their interest in Keita and if so, whether the Reds are willing to offload him to a direct top-four rival.
Furthermore, considering that Georginio Wijnaldum’s future is also up in the air, as his contract runs down, Liverpool may well be forced to think twice about offloading Keita as well.
