Leicester City

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers on juggling transfer deadline day with a Premier League match at home to Manchester United: "The work will be done by other people within the club if we are able to bring any players in.

"We have a very good recruitment team and will be able to organise it well, hopefully."

Owynn Palmer-Atkin
BBC Radio Leicester Sport

"It's just a matter of time" until the first win of the Premier League season arrives, according to Leicester City manager, Brendan Rodgers.

It's also vital that it arrives soon.

Leicester have just one point to show from their opening four games - and the tough fixtures keep rolling around.

On Thursday, they face Manchester United, followed by games against Brighton, Aston Villa and Tottenham before the international break.

Couple those fixtures with their prized defender on the verge of joining Chelsea, a quiet transfer window and growing fan unrest - and there's quite a storm brewing at King Power Stadium.

Rodgers admitted he won't be given too much of the money from the Wesley Fofana deal to reinvest either. City have got to pay 25% of it to Saint Etienne due to their sell-on clause and reinvest some of the funds back into the club to continue their sustainable model.

This means Rodgers may have only £20m-£25m to spend before the window shuts, with very little room in his squad to work with.

Tom: Why do Man Utd persist with Marcus Rashford through the middle. He's proved time and again he's no CF. Squad player at best, as are Elanga and McTominay. The sooner new arrivals settle in the better.

We asked Leicester fans for what they wanted before the transfer deadline this evening.

Here's a flavour:

Matt: Anyone.

Simon: A defender, please, please, a good one. Two of them in fact! Honestly starting to see relegation as a reality at this point, which was unthinkable until deep into this terrible window!

Nathan: I wish Wesley Fofana well and understand why he wants to leave. Kasper Schmeichel left with no replacement, Youri Tielemans has only a year left and could leave sooner. Jamie Vardy has to show his age sometime. After all the injuries last year, I was looking forward to the new season and not seriously fearing a relegation fight. It’s not Brendan Rodgers’ fault and he deserves better.

George: We have some talent and also some deadwood, but basically there is no drive, commitment or energy. The system we play is only a step up from the Claude Puel era. What is required is exciting, attacking football. This can only be implemented by the manager. Please Top, perform the required surgery before it’s too late. Let’s get some enthusiasm into the team.

Ian: The sale of Fofana leaves us criminally short in central defence. I fear football clubs know this, which will make it hard to sign anyone. Added to this, they know we have just received £70m.

Leicester have made Reims defender Wout Faes their first outfield signing of the summer.

The 24-year-old has signed a five-year deal at King Power Stadium and was voted Reims player of the season last year. He fills the gap in the squad vacated by Fofana.

"It’s an amazing feeling [to be here]," he said. "This is the dream step in my career.

"I’m progressing year after year, and I hope to continue doing the same here. All the facilities and knowledge is here to help me to get even better.

"I will have to work hard, but I will give 100% to help the team."

Faes made his Belgium debut as a substitute in June against Poland and has played in three of Reims' opening five games in Ligue 1 this season.

Yesterday, Wesley Fofana appeared to criticise Leicester for "false and misleading comments" around his protracted move to Chelsea.

Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers has just been on BT Sport, defending Fofana...

"I will always defend players and I will defend Wesley," he said. "A lot has been said about him. I try not to get too emotional. I know where the statement came from and I know it wasn't Wesley Fofana. He is a good kid."

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United gave fans of every other club something to giggle about earlier this season (especially those that had to suffer their success of the 1990s and 2000s), but everyone knew the real plight wouldn't last forever.

Since losing those two opening games in such disastrous fashion, they have hit back with an impressive home win over Liverpool and a ground-out 1-0 victory at Southampton.

They've also splashed the cash for further reinforcements in midfielder Casemiro from Real Madrid and winger Antony from manager Erik ten Hag's former club Ajax. Just the £150m dropped on those two.

The rift between fans and owners runs much deeper and into more nuanced areas than this, but they can't gripe at the amounts of money being spent to try and improve the squad.

A win tonight and the Red Devils are suddenly up to fifth ahead of a busy rest of the month that sees them host Arsenal next before getting their Europa League campaign under way.

Image source, Getty Images

It would be very fair to say that the mood is not upbeat at Leicester City right now.

A frustrating summer has been followed by a shocker of a start to the 2022-23 campaign, with the opening-day draw with Brentford (in which they threw away a two-goal lead) followed by three straight defeats.

It will have really stung them to again throw away a lead (this time 1-0) to lose their last home game against Southampton, and then fail to take advantage of a man more in losing 2-1 at Chelsea last time out.

They could really do with a big result tonight, especially as they face a tricky trip to high-flying Brighton next, followed by a high-pressure game against fellow-strugglers Villa and then a daunting away game at Tottenham.

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag says he and Cristiano Ronaldo are on "the same page" over the striker's role at the club.

Portugal international Ronaldo, top scorer last season with 24 goals in all competitions, had wanted to leave United this summer.

But Ten Hag says the 37-year-old is committed to being at Old Trafford.

"We are happy with him, he's happy to be here and we want to make the season a success together," the manager added.

"From the start we said we planned with him. It's your vision, not my vision.

"We are all on one page."

One of the other questions surrounding Ronaldo in the team is where he will fit into the squad, to which Ten Hag said: "You can see in training that it is clear that he has the capabilities. He will fit in because… I don't have to explain. Great player. He will fit in every system or every style.

"That's why we are talking, I said we are on one page. He knows what the demands are."

Read more here.

There's some serious money sat on that Manchester United bench.

Options too, mind. Not bad having Cristiano Ronaldo and Casemiro - just the 10 Champions League wins between them - to come on if you need it.

Three changes from the side that lost 2-1 at Chelsea, with Luke Thomas, Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison coming in for Dennis Praet, Timothy Castagne and Daniel Amartey.

Leicester City XI: Ward; Justin, Soumaré, Evans, Thomas; Ndidi; Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Barnes; Vardy

Substitutes: Söyüncü, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Pérez, Daka, Iversen, Praet, Castagne, Brunt

Image source, BBC Sport

Manchester United are unchanged from the side that won 1-0 at Southampton. There are two goalkeepers on the bench, with no Luke Shaw or Arran Wan-Bissaka in the squad, but Victor Lindelof returns.

Manchester United XI: De Gea; Dalot, Varane, Martínez, Malacia; McTominay, Eriksen; Elanga, Bruno Fernandes, Sancho; Rashford

Substitutes: Heaton, Kovar, Lindelof, Maguire, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fred, Van de Beek, Garnacho, Casemiro

Image source, BBC Sport

Ian Dennis
BBC Radio 5 Live senior football reporter

Youri Tielemans, subject of a lot of transfers rumours, arrived earlier at the King Power Stadium so will be in the match day squad for Leicester City’s match with Manchester United tonight.

Tielemans has been linked with Arsenal and Liverpool.

BBC Radio 5 Live

While we're on the subject of how to follow football stuff on the BBC, tonight's game between Leicester and Manchester United is not only available to you via this live text commentary.

You can also listen to live coverage from our colleagues at BBC Radio 5 Live.

Build-up will inevitably be mixed in with plenty of transfer chat, but it gets under way ay 19:00 BST before switching over to the King Power ahead of the 20:00 kick-off.

Image source, BBC Sport

Clearly, attention is going to split tonight between what is happening here and the deals taking place on the last day of the transfer window.

I'll try and mention any of the big deals that take place while I'm bringing you the action from the King Power, but you may also want to keep an eye on our separate Deadline Day live text for the ones I'm too busy to mention.

You can find that here. It will be running all evening, through until the window shuts at 23:00 BST and beyond for all the late deals and clean up.

Thankfully, tonight's game has plenty of intrigue about it. You could describe it as a bit of a gloom-off.

Manchester United started this season with humbling back-to-back losses to leave them bottom of the table. They've righted the ship a bit with some good results since (coupled with some eye-wateringly expensive transfers) but there remains a general feeling of discontent amongst a fanbase who's wariness at the club's owners has turned into outright anger and hostility.

Things for Leicester seem even grimmer. They endured an extremely frustrating summer in the market. Kasper Schmeichel has gone, Wesley Fofana has followed and, at time of writing, defender Wout Faes is the only high-profile arrival. Meanwhile, on the pitch, they have a single point from four games and sit where the Red Devils did two games ago.

Image source, Getty Images

Evening all and welcome to tonight's awkwardly scheduled sideshow!

It's an odd one this. I can't help but feel like the events I'm going to be describing to you from the King Power Stadium are the well-written, strongly-directed drama playing in the theatre next door to deadline day's superhero blockbuster.

Sure, all those shiny, expensive transfers will draw your attention away and give you the quick fix you need with a few hours of hyped-up media fodder, but on the pitch in Leicester the real deal is taking place.