COMMENT: He won't be happy. He won't be celebrating. But as he watches from afar the spiraling battle involving Leicester City, Chelsea and Wesley Fofana, you can just imagine Claude Puel affording himself a wry grin...

At Thursday's presser ahead of meeting Chelsea, Brendan Rodgers ruled Fofana out of the game. After three bids had been tabled by Saturday's opponents - and rejected - Leicester's manager declared their French defender not mentally fit for the match. That Fofana had gone AWOL as Chelsea turned up the heat, had only strengthened Rodgers' resolve. The 21 year-old demoted to the club's academy squad for this week's training before the announcement that he'd not be considered for selection on Saturday.

"He won't be available for the weekend," stated Rodgers, emphatically. “He has trained with our Under-21 squad.

“For me, it's always about the commitment and when the players are ready to commit to the ethos of the team (they can return). It's been a challenge for Wesley. If you're not in the right frame of mind, we have to move on. The window will shut and then things will become clearer."

Rodgers would later in the conference reject comparisons with Harry Maguire's sale to Manchester United. Quite right too. Rodgers needn't go back that far. Indeed, if we're talking comparisons, we don't have to look far at all. Rodgers and Leicester cannot say they weren't warned.

Those three bids from Chelsea... £50m... £60m... and finally £70m. The pressure exerted by the London club. The antics of Fofana. And finally the exasperation of his manager and Leicester's board. It's all so, so similar to how the Foxes managed to prise Fofana away from St Etienne just two years ago.

This time it was Leicester with the multiple bids. It was the Foxes which were turning the screws. And all in partnership with a recalcitrant and outright rebellious Fofana. There were accusations of family members being targeted by fans. Of ASSE management holding back his career. And of treason from fans towards the player.

"To be called a 'mercenary', 'traitor', hurt me," declared Fofana during his final days with Les Verts.

"But that the Stéphanois come to insult my mother and my little sister, that affects me a lot. I am disgusted. Some have even gone further. My little sister was taken to task in her high school. They insulted her, they pushed her."

Trying to navigate his club through this ruck was Puel. Less than a year after his dismissal at Leicester, the Frenchman was not only ASSE coach, but also a board member. Puel didn't want to see Fofana sold. And his fellow directors were backing him.

But Leicester refused to relent. The relationship between player and the support degenerated beyond repair. And ties between Fofana and the club fared little better.

"Where I come from, the northern districts of Marseille and a not-so-well-off family, that's not possible," Fofana would attempt to explain. "I'd be crazy to say no to Leicester. This contract can change my life. I have to protect my family by keeping them safe. The sporting and financial aspects being combined, I have to say yes."

In the end, Fofana and Leicester had their way. Unlike the Foxes today, the threat of Ligue 1's television contract at the time had alarm bells ringing across the country. ASSE's board, as much as they had fought Leicester to a standstill, were eventually forced to concede and sell for £30m with doubts about the survival of the club's main revenue stream swirling.

Two years on and the same scenario is being played out again. A bigger club, with a bigger platform. Life-changing money. But also a selling club with no reason to part with their player. Penny for them, Claude...?

Chelsea's pursuit is understandable. Fofana is a talent. A big, big talent. At just 21, the centre-half is in France coach Didier Deschamps' thoughts for this year's World Cup. If not for the player's wedding, Deschamps planned to cap Fofana in June for their Nations League tie against Austria. The defender has long been on Deschamps' radar and that he'd recovered from a preseason leg fracture to being on the brink of a Les Bleus debut is testimony to Fofana's ability and dedication.

So even at £70m - or maybe £80m in the coming days - you can see why Chelsea would be so determined to prise a 21 year-old Fofana away. But that determination is also mirrored by Rodgers and Leicester. And that's even if the player is so desperate to leave that he'll go to war with manager and staff.

Going AWOL from training. Being dumped to the U21s. Public warnings aimed at Chelsea and all other suitors. It's a situation that is quickly spiraling. But Rodgers and his board can't claim they weren't warned.

And watching from afar, the irony surely hasn't been lost on a perhaps grinning Claude Puel.