Leicester urged to sign Jamie Vardy transfer replacement who is ‘young and hungry’, by club legend Robert Huth

TITLE-WINNING Leicester legend Robert Huth has urged Brendan Rodgers to do the unthinkable - by signing a striker to eventually replace the irreplaceable Jamie Vardy.

Huth, a giant in Claudio Ranieri’s famous 5000/1 Foxes title-winning team of 2016, admits the one opponent Leicester’s 34-year-old talisman cannot outpace is father time.

And he says the sooner Rodgers and his magnificent recruitment team come up with a viable understudy, the more chance there is of Vardy helping the newcomer eventually step into his golden boots.

As he looked forward to Saturday’s crunch clash between Leicester and their top-four rivals Liverpool, Vardy’s former team-mate said: “[Kelechi] Iheanacho’s been there for about three years, and he’s got seven or ten goals - Perez the same.

“Vardy scores more goals than that in the first half of each season! 

“So it’s something to consider  for sure, getting a young, hungry striker and bedding him in.

“Vardy is someone they can learn from; his spirit, his fire has never gone out, his attitude… players like that aren’t easy to find. 

“Leicester have, for the last few years, found good replacements. We’ve seen it with Fofana.

"They obviously thought it would be [Caglar] Soyuncu and [Jonny] Evans for a while, giving [Wesley] Fofana time to nurture, giving him a few games here and there to get used to the Premier League. 

“But he’s been awesome, absolutely awesome. I watched his first game when he came in, Soyuncu was unavailable, and he came in and it was like, ‘Who is this guy?’.

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“I’d not seen too much of him before if I’m honest, but he’s been absolutely awesome for someone his age.”

Rodgers has been consistently linked with a summer move for another French talent, Celtic’s unsettled striker Odsonne Edouard, who is about to enter the final year of his contract.

When he was in charge at Celtic, Rodgers paid a club record £8million to sign Edouard from Paris Saint-Germain in June 2018 and described him as the best youngster he had ever worked with. 

Last season it would have taken £40million for Leicester to prise the 23-year-old away from the Parkhead club.

However Celtic’s implosion this season and Edouard’s diminishing contract means he would be available for around half that amount now.

Huth says the French market has provided a rich vein of fresh talent for the Foxes with Fofana a shining example.

He suspects one of the hardest jobs Rodgers will face this summer and, for many more summers to come, will be keeping the big beasts away from the 20-year-old sensation.

Huth saw his title-winning side picked off as N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater left for Chelsea and wing kingpin Riyad Mahrez eventually moved to Manchester City.

Manchester United made the Foxes an offer they couldn’t refuse for Harry Maguire, while this summer Ben Chilwell took a familiar route to Stamford Bridge.

Huth says Leicester’s next trick, if they are serious about challenging for more titles, is to hang on to Fofana and build a team around the youngster - and he knows a thing or two about what it takes to make a title-winning team.