Riyad Mahrez to Arsenal: 'Champion' should snub transfer talk and remain Leicester's 'light', says Claudio Ranieri

Standard Sport26 July 2016

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has told ESPN that it is crucial for Riyad Mahrez to stay with the Premier League champions and ignore transfer speculation linking him with Arsenal.

Mahrez, who was a prominent figure in the Foxes' surprise title triumph last term, has been regularly linked with a move away from the King Power Stadium this summer.

The reigning PFA Player of the Year scored a sublime goal during Leicester's victory over Celtic in a pre-season friendly over the weekend to fuel interest in his situation further ahead of the new season.

Mahrez was amongst a list of high-profile list of names scouted by Arsenal prior to the start of the transfer window but Arsene Wenger is yet to add to his front line this summer.

The Frenchman is adamant Arsenal will spend 'big money' on the right targets, despite expecting to endure a 'poker game' in the transfer market until mid-August.

But Ranieri says Mahrez should avoid becoming simply one of a number of stars at an elite club and continue to be Leicester's leading man.

"I think Mahrez for us is very important as our light," he said. "If he goes in another big team, there are so many lights, so many stars, why?

"Stay with us, it's much better, much better. He's our champion. If he goes in another team, there are so many champions.

"He knows me, I know him very well and I understand when he plays so-so and I can permit to stay on the pitch. When another manager, when he plays so-so, there are so many other stars I put him on the bench.

Arsenal in pre-season training

1/17

"It's important you give confidence. But if you put him on the bench he gets down. I think, I hope he can stay with us because it's important for us and it's important for him."

Mahrez's Leicester team-mate Demarai Gray said of the transfer rumours: “There is a lot of speculation around [Mahrez] but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by any of that, does he?

“He works hard and he’s a Leicester player. We’ll just do what he does, train and focus on games."

Arsenal have already failed in persuading Leicester striker Jamie Vardy to move to north London this summer, with the England forward instead signing a new long-term deal with the Foxes.

And while Ranieri couldn't prevent star midfielder N'Golo Kante from joining Chelsea, the Italian coach says that keeping Vardy could be crucial in persuading the likes of Mahrez to stay at the King Power Stadium.

He added: “First of all it was very, very important at the beginning [that] Jamie wanted to stay because he's -- not the star, because all are the stars -- but it was important that our goal scorer say 'No, I want to stay here. We started our fairytale and we want to continue. This is a dream and we continue together.' And that was good.

Granit Xhaka arrives at Arsenal

1/4

"After, I could understand N'Golo Kante. Both him and France came [to us with] all the worries, speaking about N'Golo, of achieving [success] at [Euro 2016 with the] national team.

"And then of course there was a big team as a Chelsea wanted him, and I said, 'Look, if you stay here with us one year more, you play Champions League, you improve, experience everything, and next season you can go to the big teams.'

"But these words weren't good [enough] and he wanted to go, and I can wish him all the best."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in