Leicester City are hopeful of completing the signing of Morocco attacking midfielder Bilal El Khannouss in the coming days.
The 20-year-old is set to fly to England to complete his move from Belgian side Genk after the two clubs agreed a £19million fee as manager Steve Cooper continues to strengthen his squad ahead of this week’s deadline.
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Leicester are also trying to bring in a central striker before the deadline but the El Khannouss deal would take their spending to £80m this summer as the club tries stay within profit and sustainability rules.
Having sold Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea for £30m, Leicester have spent £14m to make Abdul Fatawu’s loan from Sporting permanent, as well as recruiting defender Caleb Okoli from Atalanta for £12.5m, Michael Golding from Chelsea for £5m, midfielder Oliver Skipp for £22m from Tottenham and Jordan Ayew from Crystal Palace for £8m.
Attacking midfielder Facundo Buonanotte has also joined on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion and forward Bobby De Cordova-Reid has joined on a free.
Khannouss will be Cooper’s eighth signing and will provide options in the No 10 role behind the main striker in Cooper’s preferred 4-2-3-1 system.
Leicester would also like to bring in a main striker and have previously made an approach for Panathinaikos striker Fotis Ioannidis, but a deal to bring the Greek striker to King Power Stadium would cost over £25m.
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