The latest Leicester City news from LeicestershireLive explains why the signing of Azzedine Ounahi would not repeat Claudio Ranieri’s mistake
Leicester City will have learned from a past mistake if they do persist with a rumored £39 million bid for Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi.
Anahi has created a lot of hype with his impressive performances for Morocco, helping his side to the semi-finals, and beating Belgium, Spain, and Portugal along the way. But one good tournament does not necessarily make a good, well-rounded, adaptable player and person.
If City does sign the 22-year-old, he will have been scouted for at least two years by a number of different scouts, both on video and in person. The city has historically scouted France well – just ask Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante – so will have watched him regularly for Anger.
He played 32 league games last season and has already appeared in 14 this, so there have been plenty of opportunities to watch the youngster in action. They will most certainly not be signing a player off the back of one tournament.
The city learned that lesson the hard way when they signed Bartosz Kapustka in 2016 after the Polish winger, then just 19 years old, stole the show at Euro 2016. Leicester signed him after that tournament for £7.5m from KS Cracovia, on the insistence of Claudio Ranieri.
It was a move that went entirely against the ethos of the scouting and recruitment departments. It was reported at the time that City never sent a scout to watch him live.
That soon became apparent. Kapustka made just three competitive appearances for Leicester, all of them in the 2016-17 FA Cup.
He soon went out on loan to Freiburg and Leuven and left on a free transfer in the summer of 2020. He joined Legia Warsaw back in his homeland and has scored just one in 16 appearances this season.
If Azzedine Ounahi joins Leicester City, rest assured he will not be another Bartosz Kapustka. Khun Top, Jon Rudkin, Martyn Glover, and Brendan Rodgers would not allow that to happen.
