One signing during Leicester City’s phase of euphoria was Islam Slimani. The Algerian centre-forward, signed from Sporting Clube De Portugal, came for a fee reported to be around £30 million, a club record for Leicester City. He had impressed largely in his time at Portugal and scored an impressive 48 goals in 82 outings for the Portuguese club.
Slimani’s arrival was seen as a much-needed signing but for Leicester who was then preparing for an assault on domestic and European competitions and badly needed a backup hitman to the fan-favourite Jamie Vardy.
It has been almost a year and a half since Slimani arrived and things are very different from what it was back then. The club finished 12th in the title defence campaign, the worst defence to the title in English history and are now again stuck at 12th position in the league this season after eleven game weeks.
Slimani has not been able to deliver what he was brought in for and the Algerian has only made 46 appearances for the club scoring a paltry thirteen goals. It is this loss of form that has seen Slimani find it difficult to secure a first team spot and the striker has been left short on confidence, leading to the demise of his career at the club.
It is now being reported that Slimani might be on his way to Chelsea. Chelsea’s hunt for a striker this January has now seen them get linked with the Algerian. The winter window will allow Chelsea to redeem their mistakes from the summer when they failed to add adequate numbers to their squad to challenge for all trophies in Europe. The result was there for everyone to see with Conte’s men falling far behind in the English league and finishing second in the group stage of the Champions League, a result which will see them face Barcelona in the round of 16 next month.
With the Blues desperate to add another striker, reports have seen them get linked with some truly bizarre rumours. West Ham United’s Andy Carroll, Tottenham Hotspur’s Fernando Llorente and AS Roma’s Edin Dzeko have all been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge. Slimani’s arrival will see him play as a backup to Chelsea’s record signing Alvaro Morata. Morata is clearly struggling to cope up with the tenacity of his first full season as a top team’s number one striker and Conte will want to bring in Slimani to ease the load on the Spaniard.
