As far as Claudio Ranieri’s signings for Leicester City go, the £6m purchase of Yohan Benalouane lies near the bottom of the pile in terms of success.
Purchased from Atalanta in August 2015, the centre-back was unfortunate in having to watch Robert Huth and Wes Morgan lead the Foxes to an unlikely Premier League, spending the second half of the season on loan at Fiorentina.
His return to Italy was marred by a mystery injury, which saw him miss out on every single game for the Serie A club, returning to Leicester with zero minutes of football under his belt.
Now a regular for Leicester’s U23s, the 29-year-old is a target for another Italian side, as Gazzetta dello Sport report that Bologna are looking to bring Benalouane in as a defensive reinforcement this January.
The Italian newspaper say all the club are waiting for is the ‘OK’ from manager Roberto Donadoni, suggesting this would be a club signing, rather than a request from the 53-year-old coach.
Back-up plans have already been looked at in the form of Andrea Ranocchia, Marco Andreolli and 24-year-old Polish defender Rafal Janicki from Lechia Gdansk.
Considering Benalouane’s lack of game time at first-team level over the past year, Leicester must be willing to sacrifice a lot for the player to be top of Bologna’s list.
Then again, if he isn’t being used, might as well get him off the wage bill.
