Newcastle United’s chances of signing Islam Slimani are looking increasingly unlikely as reports suggest that Leicester city do not want to loan him out to a Premier League club.
Chronicle Live understands that the 29-year-old is one of a ‘number’ of potential options currently being explored by the Magpies’ hierarchy after failed moves for Feyenoord’s Nicolai Jorgensen and Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge.
Slimani despite being used sparsely by the Foxes since arriving in August 2016 for a club record fee of £28 million has still netted 13 times in 46 games and is also catching the eye of Chelsea, West Ham and Monaco.
But according to reports, the Leicester hierarchy will only allow Slimani to leave on loan to a foreign club with Monaco being tipped as the destination by Sky Sports.
However the Mirror report that United are stepping up their interest in the Algerian as Rafa Benitez’s desperate search for a striker continues.
When asked about bringing in a striker before the deadline, Benitez said: “We have some time. We have an important game tomorrow so I will not talk about the transfer window. I will focus on the game & not lose energy on that. Still we have time. I am still confident we can do something but I won’t talk much about it.”