Leicester confident of signing Oliver Skipp for fee in excess of £20m

The Tottenham midfielder Oliver Skipp is undergoing a medical at Leicester City on Sunday for a move worth more than £20m.

If the transfer is completed in the next 24 hours, as expected, then Skipp will be leaving Spurs after 16 years. The 23-year-old joined their academy aged six but has been used sparingly in the first team with his game time limited. Skipp, who spent a season on loan in the Championship at Norwich in 2020-21, has made 40 league starts for Spurs and 37 substitute appearances.

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Leicester have struggled to bring in reinforcements since promotion to the Premier League but are poised to make Skipp their sixth summer signing. Coincidentally, Spurs visit Leicester on Monday in their season opener. Harry Winks is expected to face his former club but Skipp’s move will not be completed in time for him to do so.

“Every season you want to reinforce, you want to strengthen,” the Leicester manager, Steve Cooper, said on Friday. “It’s been a slow market. Once I knew this week that there wouldn’t be any additions for Monday, I put that to one side and focused on Monday. That’s the only thing we can influence.”

Leicester’s most recent acquisition was a loan deal for the Brighton midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, who made 13 top-flight appearances last season. Abdul Fatawu, Caleb Okoli, Michael Golding and Bobby Decordova-Reid also arrived this summer.