Real Madrid ready to sign Neymar as Barcelona rule out move, Manchester City agree stunning swap deal with Juventus and more: Transfer Roundup, 5 August 2019

Leicester City priced out of Ake pursuit, will not sign Tarkowski either

AFC Bournemouth v Lyon - Pre-Season Friendly

Well, this has come a full circle, hasn't it? Leicester City's antics and insistence on Manchester United breaking the bank in order to sign Harry Maguire has now landed them in trouble. Leicester had enquired about the availability of Nathan Ake and were told that the Dutchman would cost them £75 million, forcing the Foxes to cool their interest in the player.

Ake is two years junior to Maguire. He has appeared a total of 10 times for the Netherlands side and has three years left on his contract. As a result, Bournemouth will not sell him for anything less than £75 million.

More than anything, Leicester do not have the funds to pursue a move for Ake as Hull had a sell-on clause on Maguire's contract when they sold him two years back and stand to earn upto £9.45 million from the sale.

Meanwhile, Leicester were planning on turning to James Tarkowski as their 'Plan B'. However, the Burnley defender will cost in excess of the £40 million the Foxes paid to sign Youri Tielemans and as such, they are being forced to look abroad for cheaper options.

The report goes on to claim that Leicester City could very well end up not signing a replacement for Maguire.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram