In a quite remarkable show of incompetence from both Leicester City and Inter Milan, the transfer of Stefano Sensi to the King Power Stadium collapsed at the last minute.
The midfielder had been a target for Enzo Maresca all January long, and what seemed like a straightforward deal to pull off for a player whose contract was expiring at the end of the season turned into a very complicated mess.
Gazzetta dello Sport have an article on the matter trying to explain what happened between Leicester and Inter as the deal fell through ‘at the last moment’.
There is ‘anger’ at the Serie A side, because they will now have the pay the player’s wages and see the 28-year-old leave on a free at the end of the season, and the responsibility ‘lies entirely’ with the Foxes.
It’s said those in charge at Leicester did ‘everything possible’ to try and get the deal over the line, ‘coming to the aid’ of the Championship side on more than one occasion, but it was ‘all in vain’.
One of the early problems was with the player’s ‘resident permit’, which was then followed by issues with the ‘transfer formula’ and FFP, which is now ‘greatly feared’ in England.
The belief is that ‘not everyone at Leicester was convinced to close the deal’, and while Maresca was a great advocate of the move, it seems some above him ‘didn’t think like him’, because they otherwise wouldn’t have waited until the last moment to get the player to England to try and ‘sort out the paperwork’.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, with the player arriving at 4pm in England, then undergoing and passing the medical.
It’s after that point that ‘new complications arose’, and Inter even decided to try and help Leicester by turning the initial €500k loan fee into a bonus, allowing the Foxes to take the player on loan to then pay €2.5m upon promotion.
Sensi waited, and waited, but it wasn’t to be, and he will now ‘return to Appiano’, where he will finish the campaign as an Inter player, likely on the sidelines, and be released on a free.
