Rodgers slams Fofana, demotes player to U-21s

Wesley Fofana

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Drama has been surrounding Leicester City since the start of the season. It’s been a poor run of results, with no summer transfers, and the polarizing transfer saga of Wesley Fofana.

Chelsea has been a real admirer of the Frenchmen this summer. They’ve sent multiple transfer offers for the player, the most recent offer being a £60m transfer plus £10m in add-ons.

Fofana has agreed to personal terms with Chelsea and Leicester is interested in getting a deal done. However, the foxes want to make Fofana the most expensive defender transfer of all time.

Unlike some transfer negotiations, this negotiation process has caused a lot of distractions for the team.

After the cryptic social media posts and quick exit to the tunnel after the Arsenal game, fans were starting to wonder how many days it would be until Fofana was wearing a Chelsea uniform. Although the day has not arrived, it has only brought more drama to the team.

Recently, Brendan Rodgers left the youngster out of the lineup against Southampton. Fofana would watch on from the crowd as the foxes would lose the game 2-1. This has spiraled to the youngster being demoted to training with the under-21s instead of the main team. Rodgers commented on this saying it was because Fofana missed training on Tuesday.

“He’s not training with the first team,” Rodgers said. “He’s training with the Under-21s so he can get his football fitness and keep working.

“It’s so important at this stage to control any sort of distractions that may be there. I can only pick players who give that full commitment to play for the first team. If not, he trains with the Under-21s.”

“He’s a good kid, Wesley, it’s just been a real challenging situation for him. I’ve had it a number of times in my career where players can cope with it and get on and want to help their teammates. There are others that can’t deal with the distraction.

That distracts them, it’s not quite right, and then they miss a training session.

It is unknown if Rodgers and the staff have any replacements lined up if the Frenchmen were to leave the team. There will be plenty of options to go with though, as LCFC will be gaining a lot of money in transfer fees and a big wage off of their books.

Fofana had signed an extension with the team in March that “kept” him with the team until 2027. With the fans and potentially Rodgers turning on Fofana, it is only a matter of time until the transfer goes through.