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Leicester are reportedly close to a breakthrough in the hunt to sign Odsonne Edouard after they leapfrogged West Ham in the race to sign the Celtic striker.

Edouard has been linked with a move to the King Power Stadium to reunite with former Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers. The striker is about to enter the last year of his contract at Celtic and wants a new challenge. Leicester are looking for a long-term successor to Jamie Vardy and fancy Edouard to complement Kelechi Iheanacho.

TEAMtalk exclusively revealed earlier this month that Leicester were growing increasingly confident of signing Edouard this summer. There is a lot of competition for his signature but the Foxes think they have won the race.

It emerged recently that they were £5m short of Celtic’s asking price. There were also claims suggesting Edoaurd could see out the final 12 months of his deal at Parkhead and leave on a free next summer.

However, it’s now claimed they have reached a compromise with Celtic to land Edouard and now look set to sign him soon.

Edouard scored 22 goals and provided six assists from 40 matches in 2020/21. And Foxes boss Rodgers will hope the addition of the striker will further boost a Foxes squad who will compete in the Europa League next season.

The good news does not stop there for Leicester either. As per Football Insider, they are also nearing deals for Ryan Bertrand and Boubakary Soumare.

It emerged earlier this month that the Foxes were emerging as contenders to sign Bertrand. He’s available on a free this summer, having come to the end of his contract at Southampton.

Now it appears they have won that race with the 31-year-old coming in for the long-serving Christian Fuchs.

Leicester are also on the brink of announcing the €25m signing of Soumare.

Lille and the Foxes were reported last week to have reached a ‘total agreement’ which will see the midfielder move to the Premier League.

Soumare, 22, has been attracting a great deal of attention with his displays as Lille pipped PSG to the Ligue 1 title.

However, his medical is due to take place this week and he should be confirmed as a Leicester player shortly after.

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Edouard rejected Liverpool

However, there’s no doubting the prized signing of the lot appears to be Edouard.

One club Edouard will not be ending up at, it seems, is Liverpool. Reports last month claimed Jurgen Klopp had personally called him but the talks were unsuccessful.

There were rumours of a potential swap deal between Edouard and Divock Origi. However, that will not be materialising.

Anfield Central reported that the Frenchman told Klopp he was not sure where he would fit into their attack. Klopp currently has four options at his disposal in Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota.

And despite looking like a would-be replacement for Firmino, it seems Edouard did not rate his prospects. As such, the former PSG youngster politely declined Klopp’s advances.

However, it would not come as a surprise to see Edouard find his way into the Premier League.

READ MORE: Defender’s lofty demands likely to ward off suitors after Liverpool snub

The post Leicester leapfrog West Ham for new striker as Rodgers nears triple deal appeared first on TEAMtalk.