What Marti Cifuentes was told by Bilal El Khannouss when he arrived at Leicester City

When Bilal El Khannouss left on loan for Stuttgart after Marti Cifuentes arrived at Leicester in the summer, he told him exactly why he needed to go.

When Marti Cifuentes arrived at Leicester City in the summer, Bilal El Khannouss told the new manager why he needed to leave the club.

With an impressive 3-1 win against Ipswich Town making it seven points from their last three games, some of the pressure has lifted from the shoulders of the Leicester City manager Marti Cuifuentes.

Having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2024-25 season, Leicester were expected to launch a challenge for a quick return, but an indifferent start to the new season saw the team fall to 16th place in the Championship table, leading to questions hanging over Cifuentes, who only replaced the Foxes' previous manager Ruud van Nistelrooy in the middle of July .

And now, one of the players who left The King Power Stadium during the summer has explained what he said to Cifuentes prior to his own departure from the club at the very end of the summer transfer window.

In a wide-ranging interview with the French news outlet Foot Mercato , the former Leicester City forward Bilal El Khannouss has explained what he told Marti Cifuentes prior to his departure to the Bundesliga club Stuttgart in the summer transfer window.

“The new coach has arrived at Leicester," he told them, "We had resumed for two weeks. He wanted to explain his project to me but I was clear from the beginning with the club and the coach."

It's clear that Leicester's relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2024-25 season didn't fit with the ambitious player's career plans: "I didn't see myself staying in the Championship, I aim much higher than that while respecting the Championship. I wanted to play in the Premier League , in the Bundesliga, at the highest level. Play European Cups as a young man of my age wants. I said I wanted to leave."

El Khannouss went on to acknowledge that Leicester City hadn't stood in the way of him wanting to continue to play at the highest level: "They told me that if everything fell into place with the deal, they would make it happen. In the end, towards the end of the transfer window, they must have had a bit more hope that I would stay. That was out of the question for me, and I told them so. I really couldn't see myself staying another year at Leicester."

The comments of Bilal El Khannouss shine a harsh light on one of the most significant issues that managers face following relegation from the Premier League - keeping hold of their best players.

El Khannouss is a Moroccan international with 26 caps for his country. He will already have known that, with an African Cup of Nations coming up in the middle of the season and a World Cup finals to follow in the summer of 2026, he needed to keep himself playing at the highest level that he could in order to boost his chances of being selected for either of these two squads.

His departure for Germany came at the very end of the summer transfer window , and the door might not have even completely closed on him returning to the King Power Stadium in the future. It has been reported by Sky Germany, as related by Yahoo News , that several key conditions have to be met in order for the 21-year-old Moroccan attacker’s move to become permanent.

The fee for such a deal is believed to be around €20 million, but several other conditions must be met for the transfer to become permanent. El Khannouss has to play 20 matches for Stuttgart - he has already played 18 times - and Stuttgart need to finish the season in a “realistically achievable” league position, although what this specifically means remains unclear.

They also report that: "The German media outlet also notes that Stuttgart do not hold a straightforward purchase option. If the conditions aren’t met, they can't automatically complete the transfer and would need to negotiate a fee with Leicester City ." In that eventuality, and were Leicester to return to the Premier League at the end of this season, it could yet be possible that the player could return to The King Power Stadium.

Leicester's recent results may have boosted the possibility of this happening, although the likelihood of El Khannouss returning does remain remote. The fact remains that the modern player will want to be testing themselves at the highest level, and the Foxes' relegation at the end of 2024-25 meant that he couldn't do this with his former club.