Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has today given his comments on the Filip Benkovic situation.
The former Celtic loan star has today been linked with a move to Derby County (The Telegraph). Derby apparently want to loan Benkovic for the rest of the season.
The Croat hasn’t played at all for the Foxes this season (Transfermarkt). He’s been resigned to Premier League 2 football with the development squad, and no route seems to be forthcoming for him into the senior squad.
His current situation and the Derby link appears to have led to Rodgers coming out and commenting on the speculation. Speaking in the Leicester Mercury, the former Celtic manager claimed that he could let Benkovic move to the right club.
“It depends. If there’s the right team for him and there’s the right possibility then of course we will look at that.
“He stayed behind, he’s offered us really good cover, he’s been involved in some of the Under-23s games, so he’s been playing football.
“We’ll see how that develops over the course of January.”
The message is clear from Rodgers
If you take Rodgers’ comments at face value, it’s very much just a case of waiting and seeing who comes in for him this January. It’s interesting to see that he didn’t comment on Derby specifically, or indeed the Championship.
Celtic may even be interested to take a punt if he’s available and if the deal could be done quickly. However, at the same time, ideally the Hoops would surely be wanting more permanent cover at the back.
Rodgers talks about how he’s been playing football, but under-23 matches are nowhere near the level of senior football. Not even the Premier League 2 is as useful as playing in the Scottish Premiership. Just ask Jeremie Frimpong for example.
Rodgers last spoke about Benkovic back in October and the message was the same (Scottish Sun). He was available for a loan then and still appears to be now.
It gives Neil Lennon another potential option in January if worse comes to worst. Again, we should ideally be looking at more permanent cover as opposed to anything temporary. Given Leicester splashed out £13m to secure him in the summer of 2018 (Sky Sports), it’s unlikely we could lure Benkovic here for a longer timeframe.
However, with Derby entering the fray, it’ll be interesting to see if anyone else joins in. Benkovic is clearly a talent, but the big question is whether he’s one we truly need right now.
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