On fire under Leonardo Jardim at the beginning of the season, Islam Slimani looked like he had found himself the ideal new home in Monaco, on loan from Leicester City.
The striker managed to pick up six goals and seven assists in his first 10 league games, building a great partnership with Wissam Ben Yedder in the process.
There was early talk of the principality club being ready to pay Leicester the predetermined fee, but then Jardim got sacked and Robert Moreno came in.
The new manager didn’t appear to trust the Algerian international at first, only bringing him off the bench, which led to a whole month of rumours in January, with many big clubs trying to see if they could take over the loan for the rest of the campaign.
Slimani eventually stayed and even managed to wiggle himself back into the first-team for three of the five games prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, Robert Moreno, in an interview with RMC Sport, made it very clear he had nothing against the Leicester loanee.
He said: “I ‘left him out’ only for the first few games. When I arrived, after a week of work, I thought a 4-3-3 was the best system for the first cup game against Reims and then I picked the same team against Paris Saint-Germain to have continuity.
“After that, Slimani got injured, but as soon as I had the chance to have him back, I used him. At no point did I want to destroy what was working. He played many times with me. It’s was a question of tactics, of daily training, oppositions too…”
