Summer Shopping: The Latest (highly dubious) Links!

It’s official: Leicester City are the only Premier League club yet to make a signing during this window. As we’ve mentioned before, there are multiple reasons to have expected the club to be slow out of the gate, and all of those reasons remain in play: We don’t have a head of recruitment and the outgoing transfers haven’t happened yet.

Of course, we’re not going to let the fact that there is absolutely nothing happening get in the way of reporting on the players who are rumoured to be of interest to the club. The latest batch of links are...let’s be generous and call them puzzling. With nothing else going on, let’s take a look at them and try to imagine how they’d fit the squad.

Jan Bednarek

Last summer, we brought in two defenders from Southampton in the persons of Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand. In our apparent quest to bring in the entire defence that started the 9-0 defeat to the Foxes, we’re now taking a look at Bednarek.

Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images

The 26-year-old Poland international would apparently fill the Çağlar Söyüncü role as the “wild card” in the back line: He’s extremely aggressive, winning the ball before it gets into the box, but he is prone to conceding fouls in dangerous areas. He’s a better fit for our system than either Vestergaard or Bertrand, but that isn’t the highest bar to clear. Curiously, he normally plays on the right side of the defensive partnership, a spot currently occupied by Wesley Fofana.

Sofiane Diop

The 23-year-old Monaco winger is very clever on the ball, playing a lot of no-look one-touch passes in tight areas. He’s also an unusually resolute defender for a player in his role, a fact which has surely caught Rodgers’ attention. He’s capable of playing everywhere in midfield, but he’s most often deployed as a left attacking midfielder who cuts inside on his stronger right peg to shoot.

Photo by Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images

That last bit is why I question this rumour. His preferred role is the same one currently occupied by Harvey Barnes, and, should we exercise our option to sign him, Ademola Lookman. I really rate Diop and would love to see him at the King Power, but it is hard to believe that a left-winger is a priority given the current composition of the squad.

Marcus Tavernier

Leeds-born Tavernier is the younger brother of Rangers’ captain James Tavernier. Marcus currently plays for Middlesbrough

Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images

on the left side of the central midfield. He’s not blessed with terrific pace or size, but his work rate is excellent and he relishes physical battles with larger opponents. He’s left-footed to an almost worrying degree, but everything else about him screams “fan-favourite, hardworking midfielder.”

Does that remind you of anyone else? Tavernier’s role at Boro was almost exactly that of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for City, and his style of play is very similar. He’s a more-than-decent player, but it’s really hard to see him carving out a role in our squad.

Edin Dzeko

Why would City, who have three very productive strikers in the fold, be interested in 36-year-old Edin Dzeko? I mean, aside from the prospect of Jamie Vardy being the younger player in the partnership? This one’s easy: Dzeko has skills that no one else in our squad possesses: Scoring with his head and holding the ball with his back to goal.

Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

The 6’4” Bosnian scored 13 goals for Roma last year and provided 7 assists, so he still has something left in the tank. He would undoubtedly provide Rodgers with another vector of attack when “knocking the ball around outside the box” isn’t getting it done. The questions are:

• Would he be willing to accept a role on the substitute's bench?
• Would his wages be a problem? He’s currently on £150,000 a week.

I feel like it’s far more likely he’ll move to Champions League side than come to the East Midlands, but at least this one rumour makes a little bit of sense.

Look, I’d much rather be writing about just about anything at this point. We’re three weeks from the Brentford match. It’s not that I think we have a bad squad. I think we have a very good squad with some awkward bits and a manager who wants to make changes. If we’re going to do that refresh that Brendan Rodgers wants, we’re going to be leaving it late.

I am unconvinced any player on this list will be joining us, but just for fun, which of the lot would you most like to see in a Leicester shirt next season?