adminLeicester City have been handed a major boost despite their disappointing Carabao Cup defeat to Ipswich Town, with Russell Martin confirming that another exciting young talent is now on the verge of joining the club.
The Foxes were knocked out of the competition after a 3-1 defeat to Ipswich on Tuesday night, with the result highlighting some of the areas Martin still needs to strengthen.
Leicester have been left short in that positionfollowing Ben Nelson’s ACL injury, forcing Martin to use full-backs Luke Thomas and Bade Aluko in the heart of his defence against Ipswich.
However, the situation could soon change dramatically.
Martin has confirmed that Leicester are very close to completing a deal for highly-rated Finnish centre-back Ilari Kangasniemi, who is expected to become the club’s 10th signing of the summer.
The 19-year-old is set to arrive from Inter Turku in a deal worth around €2.5 million (£2.1m), which would reportedly make the transfer a new record for Finland’s top division.
Kangasniemi has attracted significant attention across Europe, with Leicester having to beat clubs competing in both the Europa League and Champions League to his signature.
Speaking after the defeat to Ipswich, Martin was asked about the defender and admitted that the deal is now extremely close.
“[I] Can’t say much, so we’ll see. I think it’s really close. I expect it to get done,” Martin said.
The Leicester boss then made it clear just how highly he rates the teenager.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you. He’ll be another young player to be really excited about. We fought off a lot of competition around Europe for him. I hope it gets done very soon, very quickly.
“It’s a player I’m really excited to work with. I’m really excited to manage and I think he will suit us moving forward.”
Martin also acknowledged that Leicester need more experience within the squad, particularly after the youthful side that featured against Ipswich.
“And we need some experience in the building as well. You can see how young we were tonight.
“We need some guys to help them for sure, but we have another young, exciting talent hopefully coming to join the club and the project.”
Martin’s biggest revelation, however, was that Kangasniemi had other attractive options before choosing Leicester.
“He could have joined teams that were playing in the Europa League and Champions League closer to home, but he’s decided he wants to be here.”
The imminent arrival of Kangasniemi could therefore provide Martin with much-needed depth at centre-back while giving Leicester another exciting young prospect to develop as part of their project.
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