Marti Cifuentes should plot Cardiff City transfer raid if Harry Winks leaves Leicester City | OneFootball

If Harry Winks was to depart Leicester City this summer then they should target a move for Cardiff City midfielder Alex Robertson.

Leicester City will be expected to immediately challenge for promotion back to the Premier League this season, but a lot is left to be decided in the summer transfer window, and the Foxes should be drawing up plans to replace Harry Winks.

Preparation in all aspects in football is key and particularly in terms of recruitment, so identifying the replacement to a player before they have departed is inevitable, and it looks as though Winks could well still leave the King Power Stadium this summer.

The England international midfielder came off the bench at half-time as the Foxes managed to turn things around and defeat crisis club Sheffield Wednesday by two goals to one on the opening day of the campaign.

However, despite his involvement in that game, the former Tottenham Hotspur man has continued to be linked with a move away, with Brentford said to be interested alongside Fiorentina and Valencia.

Should Winks indeed depart Leicester this summer, then Marti Cifuentes should ensure the club pursue a move for Cardiff City midfielder Alex Robertson in the final few weeks of the window.

Cardiff City's Alex Robertson would be an ideal Leicester City, Harry Winks replacement

Having already reportedly been linked with as many as 12 Championship clubs this summer, Alex Robertson is certainly a player in-demand and surely destined to soon be playing his football back above the third-tier.

Robertson spent the 2023/24 campaign on loan with Portsmouth from Manchester City as they romped to the League One title, before Cardiff then swooped in last summer to poach the Australia international.

Robertson has already proven himself to be a level above League One, as he was instrumental in driving Pompey to the third-tier title a couple of years ago before seeing his season curtailed prematurely through injury.

Technically excellent, it is pretty amazing that the 22-year-old Dundee-born midfielder is still at Cardiff as late as mid-August, with it being widely believed that he has the quality and potential to play for a top-end Championship side.

Robertson, who has missed the start of the season with injury, could still depart the Cardiff City Stadium, and he would be an ideal replacement for Winks if Winks was indeed to depart Leicester this summer.

Alex Robertson’s versatility is even an improvement on Leicester City's Harry Winks

Winks was excellent for Leicester under the management of Enzo Maresca, as the Foxes won the Championship title in the same season in which Robertson won League One with Pompey.

His tempo-setting passing game allowed him to thrive in Maresca’s deliberate and possession-dominant style, with Winks almost custom-built for Maresca’s philosophy at that level of football.

Even with the departure of Wilfred Ndidi to Besiktas, Leicester have a different profile, as well as depth, to their defensive midfield position with Boubakary Soumare and Oliver Skipp in there.

Marti Cifuentes’ style is slightly more direct in terms of the pressing approach and the speed of the passing, and so a midfield of Soumare, Skipp and Winks would be entirely one-dimensional, hence it not being started with in their opener.

The added dynamism of someone such as Robertson, who can play as a box-to-box player as well as a slightly more advanced so-called ‘number eight’ would actually provide greater balance to the Leicester squad and team.

Winks has done excellent work for Leicester in terms of being a metronomic figure on the ball, as well as being able to put himself about more physically, which would have been doubted when he initially came through the ranks at Tottenham.

However, with his game certainly more suited to the continent or even at a higher level, as was shown by a loan stint at Sampdoria a few years ago, Leicester may be more suited to having Robertson in their team.

He would be able to transition the team from defence to attack with passing, as well as an ability to carry the ball and make runs forward, which would surely suit Cifuentes' more direct and energetic style.

Winks’ sale would be something of a blow given his pedigree and what he has done for Leicester in the Championship, but it could allow Leicester to solve a different issue in midfield, and Robertson would appear to be the man to help with that solution.