Leicester are confident of completing the club-record transfer of Youri Tielemans after the Belgium international flew to England with a view to training with the Premier League club next week.
It is understood that Leicester and Monaco have been negotiating over the fee – the French club were demanding considerably more than £40m earlier in the week – but with personal terms a formality, and Tielemans determined to sign, everything points to the deal being finalised in the next couple of days.
Although Tielemans had been due to report back to pre-season training with Monaco on Monday, it was always his intention to have joined Leicester by that stage. With Monaco resigned to losing the player and Leicester eager to make him their headline signing of the summer, the only stumbling block was the fee. Leicester’s valuation is around the £40m mark and they will hope to come to an agreement close to that sum.
Aged 22 and hugely talented, Tielemans is a real coup for Leicester. He excelled on loan there during the second half of last season, scoring three Premier League goals and setting up another four, and Leicester quickly opened discussions with a view to making the deal permanent.
There were fears that Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur might enter the race, yet nothing materialised on that front and Tielemans made it clear he wanted to join Leicester. Ideally, Leicester would have liked to include Adrien Silva, who moved on loan to Monaco last season, as a makeweight but they quickly accepted that was a non-starter. Monaco wanted a straight cash deal for Tielemans, who joined from Anderlecht for £21m two years ago.
