Leicester City Opinion: Foxes should recoup what they spent on Nampalys Mendy

According to Leicestershire Live, Leicester City midfielder Nampalys Mendy has been linked with a move back to France, with the report claiming that Ligue 1 outfit Saint-Etienne have been credited with an interest in the 27-year-old Frenchman.

Leicestershire Live understands that Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers wants to keep hold of the defensive midfielder, although the French side are yet to firm up their interest in Mendy.

Mendy, who arrived at the King Power Stadium from French club Nice for a fee of £13million back in the summer of 2016, initially struggled to nail down a regular starting role and made only 4 appearances in the Premier League in the 2016-17 season before returning to his former club Nice on loan for the 2017-18 campaign.

However, the arrival of former Nice manager Claude Puel at Leicester City saw Mendy being drafted back into the first-team and the midfielder went on to play a key role under the Frenchman.

That didn’t last long, though, as he once again slipped down the pecking order following the arrival of Brendan Rodgers, with the new manager preferring to field Wilfried Ndidi as the lone holding midfielder. 

Mendy still managed a total of 31 appearances in the Premier League this past season, with a lion share of his involvement coming under Puel. The 27-year-old made only one start under Rodgers in the Premier League and was limited to playing cameos off the bench.

As a matter of fact, Rodgers seemed to favour youngster Hamza Choudhury to Mendy due to his ability to contribute to the attack in a more advanced role.

Meanwhile, Leicester have already made the headlines in the transfer window with the big-money deal for Ayoze Perez and the club-record signing of Youri Tielemans from Monaco, the latter joining the Foxes permanently on the back of a successful loan spell last season.

However, they are apparently keen to do more business before the deadline and the fans have every reason to anticipate a few more departures and arrivals over the next three weeks or so.

To put things into perspective, Leicester City have spent quite a lot on the likes of James Justin, Tielemans and Perez this summer and it is now time for them to recoup some of the money by offloading a few of the fringe players in the squad, which, in turn, would facilitate reinvestment in other areas.

While the Foxes are expected to land a huge windfall from the potential sale of Harry Maguire to any of the big-six clubs, they should not hesitate to get rid of the deadwood in their ranks. Well, it might sound harsh, but Mendy is unlikely to play a key role under Rodgers due to the style that he tends to prefer.

Even Adrien Silva and Matty James, for that matter, might only make up the numbers at the club if they stay on for another season. Not to forget Daniel Amartey, who spent large quarters of the previous campaign on the sidelines due to a long-term injury. 

Quite clearly, Leicester already have enough competition for places in central midfield, and if they are interested in adding another player in that area, they might as well move Mendy on because he doesn’t really have the technical ability and the dynamism in his game to make a big impact under Rodgers. 

Mendy made 140 appearances for Nice prior to his arrival at Leicester in 2016, meaning that he is quite well versed with the style of play prevalent in the French top-flight.

Hence, a move away from the King Power Stadium to any of the Ligue 1 clubs would make perfect sense for all parties involved, particularly because he has only 12 months left on his current contract with the Foxes. 

This summer might be the last opportunity for Leicester to recoup a good fraction of the money that they had spent to bring him to the club three years back.

Rodgers must keep the player in order to ensure that he has the right kind of depth in his ranks but offloading him would be in the best interests of both the club as well as the player. And Leicester should look to bring in a better well-rounded replacement for him.

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Conclusion

Taking all the factors into consideration, Leicester City should look to offload Nampalys Mendy to one of the Ligue 1 clubs this summer and reinvest the money elsewhere.