Wesley Fofana completed a move to Leicester City in the final week of the recently concluded transfer window.
The Foxes fought hard to convince Saint-Étienne to sanction the defender’s sale, weeks after the 19-year-old publicly expressed his desire to move to King Power Stadium.
Brendan Rodgers’ side saw several of their bids turned down by the Ligue 1 side and this was then done through the insistence of their manager, Claude Puel.
Saint-Étienne finally accepted the Premier League club’s offer worth €35m plus €5m in bonuses to allow the youngster to seal a switch to England.
According to Le10 Sport, the French club’s management had decided to sell the teenager ‘several months’ ago, even though Puel privately and publicly stated otherwise.
It’s claimed that Saint-Étienne had plans to sell Fofana for ‘XXL price’ to ‘restore a very delicate financial situation’. They were in ‘financial turmoil’ and it was needed for them to let the defender despite the opposition from their manager.
Having sold Fofana to Leicester on October 2nd, Saint-Étienne had an internal meeting to discuss the possibility of making new additions in the final days of the transfer window.
According to Le10, the club’s management unanimously agreed to bring in players on a loan deal with an option to buy and the sale of Fofana was ‘entirely intended to support the club’s accounts’.
