Why would Birmingham and Leicester City want to sign Jesurun Rak-Sakyi?
FLW delves into why the two Championship clubs are looking to engineer swoops for the winger
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi has emerged among the EFL’s hottest properties this summer, attracting a host of interest from the Championship.
Little shock is left from that courtesy of his blitzing performances last term while on loan with Charlton Athletic from parent club Crystal Palace, in which he tallied 15 goals and eight assists in League One.
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi transfer interest
Earlier on in the summer, both Cardiff City and Ipswich Town had administered themselves in the race for Rak-Sakyi’s much-sought after services, as per respective reports.
Indeed, it is believed that the Bluebirds had sent scouts to South London to watch Rak-Sakyi in action for the Addicks, however, such admiration now appears to have cooled, with Erol Bulut instead opting to bolster his wide options through the acquisitions of Josh Bowler, Karlan Grant and Yakou Meite.
Ipswich have also cast their eyes elsewhere by bringing in highly-regarded forward prodigy Omari Hutchinson on loan from Chelsea to supplement a stable that already showcases the likes of Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead.
Meanwhile, other sides have since sought swoops, with Alan Nixon’s recent Patreon report disclosing that Birmingham and Leicester City are among the range of second-tier suitors currently interested in a loan move for Rak-Sakyi
Why do Birmingham and Leicester City want to sign Je Crystal Palace’ssurun Rak-Sakyi?
Any winger capable of finding the back of the net with routine regularity tends to be worth their weight in gold, and that is only amplified when the player in question did so in only his first full season of professional football at 20-years-old.
Of course, this is just what Rak-Sakyi did at Charlton.
There, the Palace prodigy would frequently operate as an inverted winger of sorts by drifting into half spaces and cutting in even more from the right on his favoured left foot.
And while Birmingham and Leicester harbour contrasting ambitions for this season, it is undeniable that both sides could do with an additional goal threat- particularly from wide areas.
Birmingham are a side that often tend to sit deeper and soak up pressure before launching swift transitions through the wide channels, an approach which Rak-Sakyi- a player who completed 53% of his 80 dribbles last season- can certainly, and seamlessly for that matter, acclimatize to.
The Foxes, meanwhile, naturally deploy a more possession-emphasised style under the management of ex-Manchester City assistant Enzo Maresca, progressing and building play carefully from the back before exploiting space in the final third through willing runners such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Stephy Mavididi.
As aforementioned, Rak-Sakyi possesses the spacial awareness and footballing intelligence to take up different areas of the final third, and the way that he shows for the ball when moving inside means that he would be able to fit into Maresca’s interchangable attacking patterns.
Chiefly, though, a key reason behind the thinking of both John Eustace and Maresca is how much Rak-Sakyi has done in a short space of time.
His dazzling displays at Charlton came very much in the ‘baby steps’ phase of his career, and one can only imagine the further blossoming that he could have between now and a year’s time.
Rak-Sakyi is a player that will only get better and better as time goes on, and Birmingham or Leicester- or most Championship outfits, for that matter- should be looking to tussle and fight tooth and nail for his arrival before the window slams shut later this month.
