Aston Villa emerge as frontrunners for £40m Leicester star Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with Foxes under pressure to sell
Aston Villa will rival Brighton in the race for Leicester City midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The 25-year-old is valued around £40million by Leicester as he still has three years left on his contract and was a key figure in their promotion campaign last season.
Brighton made a move to sign the England U21 international in January but Leicester were not prepared to sell unless they received an extraordinary offer while Dewsbury-Hall, who has been at the club since he was eight years old, was reluctant to go.
Brentford remain in contention while other sides in the lower half of the Premier League are monitoring developments.
Leicester are under pressure to sell amid ongoing PSR concerns.
Midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is due to leave as a free agent amid interest from Everton.
The Merseyside club are also wrapping up the signing of forward Iliman Ndiaye from Marseille in a £17m deal, pending his medical.
When Leicester City sell a valuable asset as part of their summer transfer blueprint, the players don’t need convincing. Even if they’re co-operative, like Harry Maguire, or skip training to force a move, like Wesley Fofana, the prospect of a switch to a better-placed club is tantalising. They want to leave City.
This summer, that might not be the case. City’s most profitable player is Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and in the only public comment he has made over his future, he said he has “no intention” of saying goodbye.
This is a problem for City. They are at risk of breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), and unless they make a sale before June 30, they could receive a sanction from the EFL next season. They also need to strengthen their squad in the transfer market and funds need to be raised for that.
Dewsbury-Hall is the obvious man to sell. After a combined 27 goals and assists from midfield in the Championship, with his mixture of youthfulness and experience, and as an English player, City can charge big money for him. Plus, as an academy graduate, his sale would go in the books as pure profit, helping greatly in their bid to comply with PSR. Brighton, who made a bid in January, are said to retain their interest.
But Dewsbury-Hall’s predicament is not unique. As a local lad moulded by the club’s academy from the age of eight to become a fan favourite who may be sold against his wishes to help the club’s financial interests, his situation mirrors Matt Piper’s 22 years ago, when the winger turned BBC Radio Leicester summariser left his boyhood club for Sunderland.
There are a few differences. In 2002, City were heading down into the second tier, rather than in the other direction. The fee at play back then was £3.5m, when Dewsbury-Hall’s could be 10 times that. Plus, Dewsbury-Hall’s sale would principally be to help the club meet financial guidelines, back then it was to save them from administration.
