The departure of Danny Drinkwater has been a big blow for Leicester City after the English international completed his transfer to Chelsea on the deadline day. Leicester were now preparing for life without the star midfielder and had identified Adrien Silva as a potential replacement.
The Foxes reached an agreement with Sporting Lisbon for the player but the paperwork due for his transfer was submitted 14 seconds late on the deadline day and the FIFA cancelled the move.
The Foxes refused to give in and challenged FIFA’s judgment. Earlier everyone thought the player might not be able to don the Leicester jersey till January when the club could complete the transfer but according to reports, Leicester have won the battle against football’s ruling body and are likely to announce the signing at any moment.
They had been keeping a tab on the player’s movement and had waited for the deadline day to make the move as they were waiting for Chelsea to announce the transfer. A similar thing happened with John Guidetti when he was given the permission to join Celtic and Silva will follow the suit. Leicester will pay a sum of £22m and the player now is ready to ply his trade in the English top tier.
The move comes in at the right time as Leicester have had a tough time this season. Craig Shakespeare’s side have registered a single win so far and the problems of the last season seemed to have followed them in this season too.
The midfielder played an influential role in Portugal’s EURO 2016 triumph and will be looking forward to filling the void of Drinkwater once he completes the formality of his move. Shakespeare will have a sigh of relief following the positive news. The Foxes gaffer has been waiting for the player to sort out the issues.
Leicester need bodies in the middle of the park to create a synchronization between the midfield and attack and Silva can do the job with sheer ease. He can pick the ball from the deep and can organize the play according to the need of the game.
Vicente Iborra is not yet fully match fit and Silva’s arrival would be a big boon for him. The Foxes have a number of challenging fixtures up ahead and Silva would definitely give the team an uplift. Now that he has been given a green light Shakespeare can chalk out his plan finally. But can he get them back to winning ways?
