The £17m ideal Leicester City striker signing who could be vital in winning relegation battle.
Leicester City are closing in on a signing which could make a big difference to their chances of survival in the Premier League.
With stringent financial constraints in place ahead of a season in which they face the possibility of a points deduction for profit and sustainability breaches, Leicester City have not made a huge impact on the summer transfer market as yet – but that could be about to change, with reports suggesting that the Foxes are on the bring of signing Bayer Leverkusen striker Adam Hložek. On paper, it’s a very exciting signing for a team expected to face a relegation battle, but can they get the Czech back to his best?
Hložek is expected to arrive on a season-long loan deal with a clause that obligates Leicester to buy him if they stay in the Premier League. Fabrizio Romano reckons he would eventually cost €20m (£17.1m) with only the “fine details” left to be sorted out, while other reports from Germany claim it’s closer to €18m (£15.4m) with up to €4m (£3.4m) as an initial loan fee. Whatever the damage, it’s certainly a deal with plenty of potential upside.
As a teenager, the now 22-year-old Hložek was smashing goals in for fun while playing for Sparta Prague and providing plenty for his team-mates, too. Equally comfortable playing as a number nine or on the left wing, he managed 26 goals and 21 assists over the course of 60 games across the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons – an impressive rate of return which persuaded Leverkusen to splash a reported €22m (£18.8m) on him. But things haven’t really got according to plan in the Bundesliga, and now they’re prepared to let him leave at a potential loss.
In 80 matches across all competitions, Hložek has scored 14 goals and set up 11 more, but he struggled to make an impact in big games and gradually slid down the pecking order and was largely restricted to a role as an impact sub during their remarkable recent double-winning campaign. He was struggling at international level, too, and has scored just twice in 34 senior caps for his country.
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There has been a creeping feeling of a player struggling to make the step up to the top level. At Sparta, he was able to bully defenders with his physicality (Hložek stands at 6’2” and packs plenty of muscle) and dribble past them with impunity, but at Leverkusen he’s struggled to hold the ball up when playing as a central striker and for all that he has plenty of pace, he’s struggled to beat defenders one-on-one in the way that he did as a teenager, especially when up against the very best.
