Brendan Rodgers happy with new Leicester signings despite missing out on Leeds' Jack Harrison
- Planet Sport writer
- 2 February 2023
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted he came very close to signing Leeds winger Jack Harrison on top of his three other January transfers.
The winger's £20million switch from Leeds collapsed despite Harrison being at the Foxes' Seagrave training ground for a medical on Tuesday.
Leicester still signed Harry Souttar from Stoke, Tete on loan from Shakhtar and Victor Kristiansen from FC Copenhagen last month - the first time the club has made permanent additions in January for five years.
Harrison's signature would have topped a positive window for the Foxes but Rodgers remained philosophical.
"It was surprising the player (Harrison) was going to be available and then it got as far as it did, having met and spoken with the player," he said, ahead of Saturday's trip to Aston Villa.
"It's something which didn't happen but other than that I'm happy with the three players we brought in. It didn't quite materialise but it doesn't take away from the fact we had a really good window.
"Its been a long time since the club signed players in January but there was definitely a need for it. Especially after the last couple of windows.
"It's not just about now, it's preparing going forward. We have a number of players out of contract in the summer in key positions, especially at centre-half. It was important from that aspect, strategically."
Marc Albrighton and Ayoze Perez were allowed to leave on loan to West Brom and Real Betis respectively with Perez expected to have played his last game for the Foxes with his contract expiring in the summer.
Albrighton has an extra year left at the King Power Stadium but Rodgers had promised him more playing time.
"In terms of Marc, he's got another year on his contract and he's a real legend of the club. In my time here he has been absolutely brilliant," he said.
"I spoke to him early in the window and made a promise about him getting games. He's at the part of his career now where he wanted to play.
"He wanted game time, he has young kids who have not seen him play so much. It's about getting him game time and we can assess it in the summer."
