It feels inevitable that £23m Leicester City signing will leave next month: View | OneFootball

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Leicester City sit at the top of the Championship as they look for a return to the Premier League.

The Foxes have won 14 of their first 18 league games in the second tier and look destined for promotion to the top flight. One player who has been involved far less than expected this season is striker Patson Daka.

The 25-year-old signed for Leicester from RB Salzburg in 2021, for a reported fee of £23m and looked to be an incredibly exciting signing at the time. Daka had scored 27 goals in his last 28 league games for the Austrian side, which was a pleasant statistic for the Foxes to look at.

Daka has been heavily linked with a move away from the King Power Stadium for months, with Bournemouth failing to get a deal over the line at the end of the summer window. Elsewhere, it seemed that Brentford were lining up the Zambia international as their Ivan Toney replacement.

Ultimately, it is becoming increasingly likely that the Leicester striker will leave in January as he has played hardly any club football all season.

Daka's time at Leicester City

The Zambian striker has made 76 appearances over his two and a half year spell with the club so far, scoring 15 goals and assisting eight. Potentially, his main highlight in a Foxes shirt came reasonably early into his Leicester spell as he grabbed four goals in one game to complete a stunning comeback against Spartak Moscow in the Europa League.

With Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho also vying for a place in the starting eleven up top, Daka hasn't always been a regular starter, as he made just 13 league starts in the Premier League last season.

However, since Leicester City were relegated to the Championship and Enzo Maresca was appointed manager, Daka has witnessed his game time at the club become practically non-existent. The 25-year-old has been limited to just one minute of Championship football this season, coming on as a late substitution against Sunderland, and at times has been left out of the squad entirely.

A move away in January seems inevitable as Daka isn't being handed any game time whatsoever, and with Leicester's Championship dominance so far, Maresca has no reason to change things around.

Should Leicester allow Daka to leave?

Daka's lack of game time begs the question as to whether the reported £23m fee was worth it as he appears to be departing very soon. It's fairly clear that the Foxes will get nothing close to that £23m back, but there appears to be no reason to keep him around in January, despite the obvious positive qualities he possesses.

Leicester's striking options of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho continue to be trusted by Maresca to grab goals in the Championship, and they have done exactly that, with eleven between the pair. Daka has been frozen out of the starting lineup, and it seems as if there is no way back, sadly.

The striker has been in fine form for Zambia though, netting six goals in five games this season, so will undoubtedly do well elsewhere if handed the opportunity.