Leicester City are looking to rival Everton for the signature of Benfica midfielder, Rafa Silva. Wolves made a previous approach for the 23-year-old but never followed up on the lead. Falling out of favour with the Portuguese outfit, a loan move for the remainder of the season is acceptable for Benfica to not hinder the growth of Silva.
The Forte De Casa-born midfielder developed his game while playing for Lisbon clubs, Atlético Povoense and FC Alverca. Silva started impressing scouts and pundits with his performances for SC Braga, netting the ball 25 times along with 17 assists in 127 appearances for them.
He arrived at Estádio da Luz in the summer of 2016 for £13.8m(€16.4m) and have struggled to replicate his previous form. Mostly coming on as a substitute, Silva has registered just 512 minutes of game time this season and has been hailed as a bust.
However, Leicester City view him differently and are eager to give the midfielder a chance to prove himself in top-flight English football. Ever since the departure of Danny Drinkwater and N’Golo Kante, the Foxes have suffered from a lack of stability in the midfield area.
The club is currently overflowing with strikers with no place in the starting lineup under Claude Puel. The manager has admitted that it is hard to rotate the squad around with an unbalanced attacking lineup and would be willing to offload a couple of players to make way for necessary additions.
Puel’s men have faced a season of highs and lows and finally ended their 4-game winless run with a 3-0 showing against Huddersfield Town last week. They are currently placed 8th on the points table and are a whopping 9 points behind Arsenal from the Europa qualification spot. This is a cause for concern and the January transfer window can help address their problems.
Vicente Iborra and Wilfred Ndidi are the first choices under Puel to pair up around the centre circle. The duo has been impressive but the manager does not have much strength from the benches. Recent arrival Adrien Silva is a proven talent and started in the side’s 0-0 draw against Fleetwood Town last night.
This begs the question as to whether the Foxes really need another Portuguese midfielder or should they look to sign a right-back. Danny Simpson is currently sidelined with an injury and his replacement, Daniel Amartey has struggled in the right-back role in recent times.
