BOYATA, BENKOVIC TO TEAM UP?

DEDRYCK BOYATA could team up again with Filip Benkovic next season – at Leicester City!

Brendan Rodgers has never hidden his admiration of the Belgian World Cup centre-back who will quit Celtic when his contract expires at the end of the season.

The Irishman insisted on the club knocking back a £9million offer for the 28-year-old defender from newly-promoted Fulham in the summer.

Boyata was far from pleased at being denied the opportunity of a switch to England’s top flight – the route so ironically taken by Rodgers with his sudden departure from the champions last week.

The cultured back-four operator remained at home when the Hoops crashed out of the Champions League qualifiers against a mediocre AEK Athens team.

Rodgers kept faith in the former Manchester City prospect, who was signed by Ronny Deila for £1.5million in 2015, and brought him back into the first team when he scored the only goal of the game against Hamilton Accies on August 26.

CLASS ACT…Filip Benkovic has impressed at the Hoops.

The ex-Celtic gaffer, who kicked off his Leicester City career with a 2-1 defeat from Watford yesterday, will be on the look-out for defensive reinforcements in the summer.

Club skipper Wes Morgan is 35 years old and coming to the end of his playing days at the heart of the Foxes’ rearguard.

And England international pivot Harry Maguire is expected to be the subject of interest from top-six sides again during the close season.

Rodgers brought Croatian Under-21 international Benkovic to Glasgow on a season-long loan and he, too, will leave the champions at the end of the campaign to return to the mid-table Midlands outfit.

It seems certain the new Leicester manager will make a move for free agent Boyata in June and he knows the defensive qualities of the double-act who became his preferred partnership for most of the season.