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Why are Premier League sides overlooking Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater in the summer transfer window?

Crippy Cooke in Editorial, English Premier League 17 Jul 2016

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Leicester City Danny Drinkwater

Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater is yet to be offered a new deal, but has no intentions of leaving the club.

Leicester City have already seen bids come in for Jamie Vardy and N’Kolo Kante this summer, but one player seemingly escaping clubs’ radar is midfielder Danny Drinkwater.

The 26-year-old was outstanding in leading the Foxes to the Premier League title in 2015/16, so why aren’t clubs enquiring about his availability?

Rarely highlighted for his contributions

Danny Drinkwater was often overlooked for praise given how his midfield partner Kante stood out for marauding around the pitch intercepting and making tackles on the opposition. However, the 26-year-old brought a lot to the Leicester side that play a big part in their success.

Drinkwater played in 35 of 38 Premier League games for Leicester City, scoring and creating nine goals. He created 44 chances, while averaging 56 passes per game, and was outstanding combatively too. The Leicester man made over 100 successful tackles and 55 interceptions, while blocking 17 shots too.

He wasn’t given a place in the England side ahead of this summer’s European Championships, but there was no doubt he deserved one on performance compared to the players than made the team ahead of him. Drinkwater averaged a tackle or interception every 19 minutes in the Premier League last season, overshadowing a lot of players who were selected for the Euros.

Drinkwater ticks a lot of boxes

With the influx of foreign arrivals in the Premier League, clubs are unbalanced in regard to the amount of homegrown players (trained with an English club for three years before age 21), so Drinkwater would surely be a coveted player for sides looking for a central midfielder. He’s experienced in the country having played a lot of games for Leicester in the Football League and Premier League so it’s unlikely Drinkwater would struggle settling.

Leicester haven’t received genuine enquires for the player so they haven’t issues any indication of an asking price. The 26-year-old is likely to cost around £20M which could be a good piece of business given he’s outperformed the majority of his England counterparts, as well as that of the foreign talents in the Premier League. A proven midfielder who has shown combative qualities and creative talents would be coveted normally, but Drinkwater has been overlooked.

It’s good news for Leicester City that such an influential midfielder is going to remain with the club – with N’Kolo Kante leaving for Chelsea – but why are clubs not enquiring for Drinkwater this summer? He played his part in Leicester City’s title triumph last season but surprisingly doesn’t have a long line of suitors after his signature.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Crippy Cooke


Crippy Cooke has somehow written for the Telegraph, Independent, Huffington Post, Zoo Magazine, Daily Mail, ITV Football, MSN Sport, Yahoo Sport, London24 and Bleacher Report among others, despite knowing less about football than your average Fan TV member . The weekly accumulator enthusiast is saving up his winnings to pay for a much-needed hair transplant but grows more on his chin than his head. He lives and breathes football and somehow makes a living writing from it.

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