Besiktas Offer Leicester Ultimatum Over January Deal for Out of Favour Striker

Turkish club Besiktas have offered an ultimatum to Leicester City regarding a January deal for striker Islam Slimani. 

Milliyet claim that officials from the Turkish club have been in England since the beginning of the week to try and negotiate a deal with Leicester, and are now threatening to walk away if a deal cannot be reached. 

Slimani signed for Leicester for a club record fee from Sporting CP in the summer of 2016, but has failed to live up to his price tag. His first team appearances have been limited to just two starts and ten substitute appearances so far this season.

He has scored a total of Eight Premier League goals for the Foxes, most recently the second goal in a 3-0 win against Huddersfield on New Years Day. However, Leicester boss Claude Puel has admitted in his pre-Watford press conference that the striker may have to move on in order to increase his game time. 

Quoted by Sky Sports News, he said: "I repeat, that since the beginning, that we have a lot of strikers. We need to make a good balance for the team, to give game time for all the players. We will see if some players can win some game time at other clubs but we have to discuss with these players." 

Leicester are now looking to recoup as much as they can for the Algerian, who they signed for a reported £29m. The report in Milliyet suggests that Besiktas president Fikret Orman is becoming frustrated, and has threatened Leicester chiefs that he will move onto targeting West Ham's Diafra Sakho if an agreement can't be reached between the two clubs. 

The report claims that Besiktas are trying this tactic in order to get Slimani for the lowest price possible, and Leicester may be wise to that fact.