Wesley Fofana exit won’t lead to Leicester spending spree – Brendan Rodgers

Boss Brendan Rodgers admits Leicester cannot spend big even when they sell Wesley Fofana.

The Foxes are poised to sell the defender to Chelsea for around £70million after a transfer saga which saw him fail to turn up for training.

Rodgers has been waiting for the clubs to complete the deal so he can sign reinforcements, with only goalkeeper Alex Smithies arriving on a free transfer this summer.

But he has dashed any hopes of a spending spree before Thursday’s transfer deadline with Fofana’s former club St Etienne due a sell-on from the £32million deal which saw the France Under-21 international join the Foxes in 2020.

He said: “There has been discussions (about reinvestment) but it’s certainly not going to be the whole fee. I think there’s part of that with Saint-Etienne as well, plus the situation that the club is in.

“There will be some resources to be able to do some business.”

Rodgers left Fofana out of the 2-1 defeat to Southampton earlier this month after his failure to attend training and he was absent as the Foxes lost 2-1 at Chelsea on Saturday.

But the former Liverpool manager was still happy to keep the 21-year-old at the club.

“I was quite open about it, either way,” said Rodgers. “I was hoping he would be (staying) as he’s a top-class operator, he’s someone we’d like to have improved and developed.

“But football changes and it can change very quickly, you have to be able to adapt and accept that.”

Fofana’s prolonged transfer has added to the uncertainty at the King Power Stadium and Rodgers conceded several factors have hit the Foxes’ start to the season, which sees them bottom of the Premier League ahead of Thursday’s visit of Manchester United.

He said: “Any environment where you can develop has to be stable. Our environment and stability is not there for various reasons. That will change when the window closes but this window has been a very challenging one. There’s no question about that.

“Players who maybe thought they were moving on are not, us hoping to get players in to improve and help and obviously that hasn’t been done. Then you have players in the last year of their contract.

“What is important is the collective, it is so important. We have talented players but it doesn’t count for anything if you are not together.

“That is always something you have to enforce as a coach. Once the window shuts it will settle everything down.”