Leicester City Priced Out Of Edouard Transfer, Report Claims

It’s no secret that Leicester City were pursuing Odsonne Edouard until recent weeks, when they opted to sign Patson Daka instead. The France U21 striker is out of contract in the summer of 2022 and is widely expected to leave Celtic Park this summer. However, the reason as to why he won’t be rekindling his relationship with former boss Brendan Rodgers, according to The Athletic, may surprise a few fans.

Edouard was widely tipped to join the Foxes for a fee in the region of £18m, but The Athletic reported that the pursuit from the English club moved to RB Salzburg’s Daka as the deal was deemed less complicated and less expensive. In actual terms, Daka is set to move to Leicester for a much higher price of £43m, but in real terms Brendan Rodgers and his head of recruitment (Lee Congerton) reportedly deem that figure to be better value for money.

The Athletic’s Rob Tanner and Mark Carey also claim that any deal between Celtic and Leicester carries a “Rodgers tax”, following his mid-season exit back in 2019. Whether any purported tax was an issue in the deal is questionable, considering that Celtic were well compensated for the departure of Rodgers, but one thing that does seem likely to have been a factor in the collapsed transfer is Celtic’s resolve to hold firm and have their valuation matched.

Quite possibly, Leicester thought that they could get Edouard on a cut price deal because of the situation with his contract only having a year left to run. However, the Bhoys were keen to maximise the price tag for the player, who scored 22 goals in 40 games last term, as they look to rebuild their squad under the new management of Ange Postecoglou.

The fact that PSG have a 40% sell on fee for Edouard ensures that any offer to prize him away from Glasgow will need to be substantial, particularly as the Hoops shelled out a club record £9m themselves when bringing the French star to the club on a permanent basis in 2018.