Leicester City will not sell Youri Tielemans this month and will instead try to encourage the midfielder to sign a new deal.
Tielemans, 25, attracted interest last summer, particularly from Arsenal, and is one of seven first-team players who are out of contract this summer, but Brendan Rodgers, the Leicester manager, is adamant that the Belgium midfielder is not going anywhere.
Asked if Tielemans would be leaving the club this month, Rodgers replied: “No. We want to do everything we can to convince him to stay. He’s in a really good place. He’s a wonderful player for us.”
It is understood that Arsenal are unlikely to make a move for Tielemans this month. With his contract expiring within six months, Tielemans is now able to negotiate a pre-contract with clubs abroad but it is thought that he would prefer to stay in England.
Meanwhile, Jonny Evans, the club captain, has been ruled out until the start of next month with a calf injury and with Ricardo Pereira, James Justin and Ryan Bertrand also injured it leaves Rodgers down to the bare bones in defence. The club are looking to bring in a centre back, left back and a right winger.
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One problem Nottingham Forest do not have is a player shortage and the club are looking to offload Emmanuel Dennis this month after being unimpressed by the 25-year-old.
The centre forward was one of the 22 players Forest signed in the summer with the club agreeing a £15 million deal with Watford. However, because Dennis played for both Watford and Forest this season, he can only be sold to an overseas club.
Josh Bowler, another summer signing, is set to return to Blackpool on loan. The winger signed for Forest from the Championship club in the previous window and was immediately sent on loan to Olympiacos — the Greek club also owned by the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis — but has struggled for minutes, starting just three times in all competitions. Consequently the 23-year-old is set to rejoin Blackpool this month.
Loic Bade, another of the players who signed in the summer, had his loan move cut short and has joined Sevilla on loan.
With injuries to Jesse Lingard and Cheikhou Kouyaté, Forest are looking to bring in a defensive midfielder, centre forward and a centre back.
