The business plan of football is not always easy to understand, and why a player move to one club instead of another could sometimes be clueless. Patson Daka (25) has been in limbo every since joining Leicester for a fee of £23million back in June 2021.
At the time of his arrival, among the hottest property in European football and a player Leicester fans believed would challenge both Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho for that single position up front.
But it never looked like Patson Daka should get a good look in and be a trusted player at this football club, not really being favoured by any of his managers so far, Brendan Rodgers, Dean Smith or Enzo Maresca.
No one believed he would still be around, earlier being close to a move to Bournemouth and also said having interest from Roma, Monaco and Everton.
Daka has been around in and out of the matchday squad this season, but almost never got a look in and getting minutes of the field. Despite his lack of league match appearances Zambia boss Avram Grant has given him trust and belief, being their number one top star.
In those international games played, he has scored, and shone up front, with Enzo Maresca having other alternatives used in Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho. It’s a difficult solitaire for Enzo Maresca possibly having strong belief that Patson Daka would have been out the door at this stage, and something we believe will happen.
To see Everton and Bournemouth back on the doorstep at Leicester, to try to win Daka over, and get him in by the close end of the transfer window, looks a possibility. There will probably also be plenty of interest from European clubs and German Bundsliga could be another option.
We will wait and see how this turns out, but with the AFCON coming up and Patson Daka being absent for a period during January possibly February, it will be a major surprise if he is a Leicester player by the end of the next transfer window.
His absent from the team this season was earlier rumoured being part of his contract and payments to be done if a certain level of games were reached, but that has not been confirmed anywhere, and since those speculation appeared, Patson has been fielded by Enzo Maresca, so the reason for him not playing, must be just part of Enzo’s plan of having others in there.
Leicester are in transition and it will be interesting to see how everything will look like after the January transfer window. Patson Daka is a player that can be sold for a fee close to £20million, and still has a number of years left on his deal, so a potential cash in looks the most obivious.