Leicester City should plot transfer bid for £12m Crystal Palace star - here's why | OneFootball

Leicester City should try to opportunistically sign Crystal Palace attacker Romain Esse in the January transfer window.

Leicester City have put themselves into a position where they are legitimate challengers for automatic promotion this season and some smart January recruitment could help tip them over the line, with one player that the Foxes should absolutely be lining up being Crystal Palace attacker Romain Esse.

After a woeful campaign in which they endured a humbling relegation from the Premier League last season, Leicester went into this season with low expectations as a result of off-field issues which even included suggestions of a points deduction from the EFL.

The delayed departure of Ruud van Nistelrooy was followed by the appointment of former Queens Park Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes, to a mixed response from Leicester supporters.

Performances haven’t been top draw so far this season and there are concerns over the make up of the Leicester squad, with a bit of a mish mash of identities from the last few years in which they have circled the drain.

It is a squad, though, that has been left with undoubted quality, albeit they still lack a dynamism and ingenuity in the final third of the pitch, aside from the excellent but injury prone Abdul Fatawu.

In order to try and find some consistency in terms of their results in the second-half of the campaign, the Foxes will have to discover more of a spark in the final third and Esse could represent an excellent market opportunity.

In January, Romain Esse completed a move to the Premier League when he joined Crystal Palace from south London rivals Millwall for a fee believed to be in the region of £12 million.

At the time, Esse had become one of the hottest prospects in the EFL but, even then, there was still a lot of work to be done to make him the finished article after showing some brilliant moments at The Den.

In the rigid system-based approach of Oliver Glasner, a player with flair can absolutely thrive but they must have an understanding that they play at the alter of the 3-4-2-1 system, with all of what that entails in terms of the sophisticated pressing methods and ‘automatisms’ in terms of their attacking patterns of play.

Esse is someone who has found that jump up the top-flight and the higher level of coaching difficult for the time being, with a notable moment being when he was a substituted substitute on the final day of the season in a 1-1 draw at Anfield against champions Liverpool.

Even with the departures of Matheus Franca and Eberech Eze over the summer, Esse appears to have fallen further down the pecking order at Selhurst Park with Justin Devenny and Yeremy Pino filling those spots alongside Ismaila Sarr, and even Daichi Kamada often preferred to play in one of the two ‘number ten’ positions.

The UEFA Europa Conference League was expected to see Esse find some more minutes but he remained an unused substitute in their opening game of the league phase as they defeated Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv by two goals to nil at the Lublin Arena in Poland.

There was a concern at the time, that is now being realised, that Esse made the jump to the top-flight too soon and becoming a more effective and more consistent contributor to a top end Championship side would have been the better option.

That is where Leicester should step in and seek to exploit the underwhelming performances of Esse at

Palace by bringing him to the King Power Stadium in the January transfer window.

Romain Esse could provide Leicester with a much needed spark

There is immense potential in Esse and the former Millwall man was not a highly-rated player in the second-tier for no reason, but consistency will be key for his development.

Marti Cifuentes is renowned for his own tactically detailed style of football and so, from that side of the game, Esse could still be able to learn on the job but with more regular minutes at a level with less pressure.

Esse has played most of his football on the right-wing but he can also play off the left and in attacking midfield, and that level of attacking versatility would mark him out as an intriguing signing for any upwardly mobile Championship side, but particularly Leicester.

Their issues in the final third have been well documented with the fairly ineffective Patson Daka currently tasked with leading the line and a raft of players having to play slightly out of position to fill in in the so-called ‘number ten’, such as the excellent Jordan James or former Fulham man Bobby Decordova-Reid.

The left-wing is one where nobody has really nailed it down, despite the promise of Jeremy Monga, experience of Decordova-Reid and proven quality of Stephy Mavididi.

Fatawu occupies one wing and does give Leicester a point of difference but they need more to maintain themselves as a top two challenger and Esse can certainly provide that.

The 20-year-old attacker had scored four and provided one assist in the first-half of last season for what was then an underperforming Millwall side for large parts before the appointment of Alex Neil in mid-December.

He needs to rediscover his best form and continue to become someone that was sought after by Premier League sides and Leicester need someone whereby the ceiling of his potential is not yet known but what is known is that he could provide a much-needed spark in the final third.