With Nottingham Forest yet to sign a defensive midfielder, the club should turn their attention to Leicester City man Wilfred Ndidi.
The 26-year-old Nigerian has one year left on his current deal with the Foxes, but Enzo Maresca’s side are willing to sell Ndidi should they receive a bid in the region of £20 million.
Leicester’s number 25 made 27 appearances for the club in the Premier League last season, as they suffered relegation back to the second tier.
He’s made a good start to life in the Championship, producing a solid performance in the Foxes’ first game of the season at home to Coventry City, before scoring against Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup.
What would Wilfred Ndidi bring to Nottingham Forest?
Ndidi is a very athletic midfielder who covers a lot of ground, as demonstrated by his tally of 285.8km in his 26 Premier League games in 2019.
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In the four years since, the Nigerian has become more of an anchor-type midfielder. He loves to make a tackle and has the ability to read the game, knowing to be in the right place at the right times.
Within the last 12 months, the 26-year-old has averaged 3.4 tackles and 2.2 interceptions per 90, totals that are both higher than the Reds’ top midfield target Ibrahim Sangare.
PSV man Sangare may have better possession stats than Ndidi, but the Leicester man likes to do the so-called ‘dirty work’ in winning possession back for the team, before allowing the creative players ahead to express themselves.
Nigerian Ndidi is a different type of player to Sangare as he prefers to drop deep and rarely joins in the attacks, as he provides cover for the central defenders.
With Ndidi entering the last year of his contract, Forest should enter negotiations for the midfielder and try to tie up a cut-price deal for an experienced Premier League operator, who would undoubtedly improve the Forest midfield.