Leicester City dealt transfer blow as Chelsea and Manchester United circle

Good morning, Leicester City fans. Here are your latest City transfer headlines on the eve of the summer window opening.

Leicester City have accepted the delays over a decision on their planned expansion to the King Power Stadium with a summer 2024 opening not yet ruled out.

The club submitted their planning application for the new East Stand and the revamp of the stadium site last October, but Leicester City Council’s first two decision dates, February 10 and then April 20 have been and gone. The latest target is July 31.

The Council say the delays are not out of the ordinary for “large and complex” projects such as that planned at the King Power Stadium. City’s new stand will increase the capacity of their home ground to just over 40,000 seats, while the submitted application also included outline plans for a hotel, residential block, indoor arena, and a new club shop on the site.

Leicester City’s head of football analytics Mladen Sormaz has announced he is leaving the club after three years in the role.

Sormaz, appointed in April 2019 after leaving his job as a data analyst at Huddersfield, was the first person to hold the newly-created role at City and was responsible for diving deep into the statistics for potential new signings. He now departs for what he describes as a “new kind of challenge”.

His exit represents a second key departure in the recruitment team at City over the past couple of months after head of the department Lee Congerton left for Italian side Atalanta. Southampton’s Martyn Glover is due to take over from Congerton, but is not yet in place.

Chelsea and Manchester United are "closely interested" in Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana, according to reports.

Both clubs are eyeing a summer