Leicester City questioned over handling of Bilal El Khannouss situation - It's "frustrating" | OneFootball

Bilal El Khannouss exited Leicester City on deadline day

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Leicester City experienced a quiet transfer window following their relegation to the Championship.

The Foxes made just one permanent signing in the form of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic on a free transfer.

Aaron Ramsey, Jordan James, Julián Carranza all moved to the King Power Stadium on loan, providing Marti Cifuentes with more options as he aims to fight for promotion back to the Premier League.

The slow-moving nature of Leicester’s window was accompanied by a backdrop of potential embargoes and penalties, which meant that there was more of a focus on selling players.

Mads Hermansen, Kasey McAteer and James Justin were all notable sales, but Football League World’s Leicester City fan pundit, Louchlainn Martin, believes one of the Foxes’ outgoings made for a major blunder.

Leicester City criticised over Bilal El Khannouss' exit

“One thing I think the club got wrong in the summer is the Bilal El Khannouss situation,” stated Louchlainn. “With Bilal El Khannouss, we've let him go on a loan with an obligation to buy in a year's time for around €26 to €30 million.

“I think a lot of Leicester fans expected from day one of the window that El Khannouss would be leaving, so our expectations were already quite low. Leicester were in negotiations with certain other clubs for quite some time.

“I think Leeds United were interested, Crystal Palace were in discussions for a while, and we seemed to play hardball looking for £30m, £35m. To go and sell him for €26 million on a loan on deadline day is the frustrating part for me and for us as Leicester fans.

“I think we would have much rather gotten that deal done early in hindsight. We knew he was going anyway, and we know now that he was kind of kicking up a bit of a fuss to leave.

“We should have got him out the door early, maybe a couple of weeks ago at least, to Crystal Palace or whoever else, and then we would have had a bit more time to bring an attacking midfielder in.”

Leicester City’s Bilal El Khannouss gamble didn’t pay off

When negotiating sales throughout the transfer window, clubs balance a fine line between getting the most money for their asset whilst not risking ruining a potential deal by asking for too much.

There was vast interest in El Khannouss’ services throughout the summer, with Premier League clubs such as Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace all linked with a move for the 21-year-old.

However, Leicester’s valuation of the forward ultimately put those sides off and meant that, come deadline day, El Khannouss was actively pushing for a move.

This forced the Foxes into selling the Moroccan to German side Stuttgart on loan, with an obligation to make the move permanent inserted into the deal.