Tottenham have been dealt a blow in their hopes of signing Youri Tielemans, with Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers revealing that “conversations are taking place” with AS Monaco to turn the midfielder’s loan deal permanent at the King Power Stadium this summer. Spurs had been linked with the 21-year-old before City signed him in January and now their hopes have been dashed.
Rodgers told The Sun: “The work is ongoing. Of course there is a hole in terms of the Head of Recruitment role. However work has been going on below that and conversations with Monaco are taking place. There are a lot of good people behind the scenes who are continuing the work. It is an important one for us because we want to strengthen in the summer.”
Tielemans scored and created six goals in 20 Ligue 1 appearances for a struggling Monaco side this season who have been embroiled in a relegation battle. After 65 games at the Stade Louis II, the Belgian international opted to move to the Premier League at the turn of the year and has been a regular for Leicester.
He’s contributed four goals in seven games for City and could be set to stay at the King Power in a £40m deal. Adrien Silva went in the opposite direction on loan when Tielemans came to Leicester and the Midlands club are hoping they can shave some money of the asking price if Monaco sign Silva permanently this summer.
It appears Tottenham could miss out on the highly-rated midfielder, but whether they have £40m to spend on one player remains to be seen.