The latest Leicester City news as the defender is one of a few players out of contract in the summer and therefore available on a free transfer.
AC Milan has reached an ‘agreement’ with Leicester City defender Daniel Amartey over the player joining them on a free transfer in the summer, according to reports in Italy.
The Ghanaian international is just one of two of City’s title winners who remains in the squad, alongside Jamie Vardy. He was the only addition in the 2016 January transfer window, just a few months before lifting the trophy with City.
Amartey is one of a few players out of contract in the summer and looks likely to leave the club at the end of the season. He has fallen down the pecking order under interim manager Dean Smith, with the re-emergence of Caglar Soyuncu meaning he is yet to make an appearance under the new boss.
According to Italian outlet IlRomanista, AC Milan has ‘identified’ Amartey as a target, with the City man ‘closer’ to joining the Italian giants. The report even goes on to say that an ‘agreement’ has been found.
Despite it appearing close, the report adds that Inter Milan is also showing an interest in the player ahead of the window. Both teams are keen to add to their defensive numbers in the summer.
Amartey won’t be the only defender who looks likely to leave in the summer. Latest reports claim that Soyuncu, who is also out of contract at the end of the season, has agreed to join Atletico Madrid for next season.
Amartey had been ahead of Soyuncu in the pecking order under Brendan Rodgers this season. He’s made a total of 24 appearances in all competitions this season but has started just three of the last 14 Premier League games.
He has been an unused substitute in all four games under Smith. The 28-year-old played the full 90 minutes of all three of Ghana’s group-stage games at the World Cup at the end of last year.
READ MORE: Club Historian John Hutchinson reviews the careers of 100 of the most outstanding players to represent Leicester Fosse and Leicester City in the Club’s 139-year history. The series continues with Garry Parker, one of the stars of the Martin O’Neill era.
Oxford-born Parker was a classy midfielder with great passing ability, vision, and ability to read a game. He arrived at Filbert Street in February 1995 with a very impressive record.
In May 1983, he made his debut against Manchester United as a 17-year-old for David Pleat’s Luton Town in an old First Division fixture. In 1985, he played in the Luton Town side defeated by Everton in the FA Cup Semi-Final before moving to Hull City, where he spent two years, winning six England Under-21s caps.
In March 1988, he was transferred to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest for a fee of £260,000. At Forest, he won the League Cup in 1989 and, later that season, played in the FA Cup at Hillsborough on the day of the Hillsborough disaster. He was a League Cup winner again in 1990 and an FA Cup finalist against Tottenham Hotspur in 1991.
In November 1991, he moved to Aston Villa for a fee of £650,000, was selected for the full England squad and was in the Villa side which finished runners-up in the first season of the Premier League.
Garry joined Mark McGhee’s Leicester City in February 1995, although they were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season. He was made captain at the start of the next season. When McGhee left in December 1995, Martin O’Neill succeeded him, but the team only won three of the next 15 league games.
A late-season run of good results saw City scrape into the play-offs. Garry scored the winning goal in the second leg of the semi-final against Stoke City and equalized with a penalty in the Play-Off Final at Wembley in the victory over Crystal Palace. He was Man of the Match at Wembley and was Leicester City’s Player of the Year.
The next season, he was a key member of the City side which finished ninth in the Premier League, won the League Cup, and qualified for the UEFA Cup, when he played in both legs of the controversial defeat by Atlético Madrid in September 1997. He joined O’Neill’s coaching staff at Leicester in 1999 and continued as a coach under Peter Taylor until Taylor was sacked in September 2001, resulting in Garry briefly becoming a caretaker manager for one game.
He left Filbert Street soon afterward. He became first team coach for Neil Lennon at Celtic, Bolton Wanderers, Hibernian, and, most recently, the Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia, where he was assistant manager.
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