Leicester City have been linked with Besiktas’ Oğuzhan Özyakup and he could be their first signing of the summer. The Foxes need to do some reshuffling to the side after a miserable campaign where they have failed awfully to defend their Premier League title. Danny Drinkwater hasn’t played up to the mark this season and this move could be the outcome of his performance.
Özyakup is familiar with Premier League having spent a significant amount of his career with Arsenal. He played 41 matches for the Arsenal U-23 side scoring on six occasions and assisting 11 times for them. He did have the chance to play two games for the senior side but was restricted to only Cup games. He incidentally was on the bench in Arsenal’s 8-2 humiliation at the hands of Manchester United in the Premier League.
The North London club decided to part ways with him in 2012 and sold him to Besiktas. He has thrived in the last two seasons with the Turkish side and also played a major role this season as the club claimed the Turkish title in the closing stages of the campaign. He has one year left on his contract which naturally makes him a hot property.
Arsenal also considering bringing back the player to Emirates after a very underwhelming season. Santi Cazorla’s injury proved to be the biggest concern in this season as Arsene Wenger failed to deal with the matter properly. He did rope in Granit Xhaka in the last summer but he is nowhere near the quality of the Spaniard midfielder. Cazorla’s absence in the midfield has been heavily felt this season although Xhaka proved his mettle in the last few matches as he pulled the strings in the midfield.
Besiktas’ president’s recent comment though hasn’t been taken well by the Leicester City faithful. Fikret Orman made his intentions clear that he wants the player to move to a bigger club and not Leicester City. This thing could be very discouraging for the Foxes but they have been boosted by the player’s desire as he himself expressed his interest in playing outside Turkey in some of the top European Leagues.
Leicester haven’t been able to exploit the spaces in the midfield and the Turkish player has mastered this area very well. The 24-year-old possess a great technical ability and can control the pace of the game with his brilliant passing and vision of the game.
