Reports from France claim that Riyad Mahrez is more concerned with playing for a club with an established style of football than a mega paypacket which means he must surely want no-one other than Arsenal (or Barca), right?
With Claudio Ranieri stating that he believes the Algerian is distracted by the transfer speculation and Arsene Wenger using his troll face to, well, troll us all, this rumours is bubbling away continuously without ever seeming to come to anything.
Lots of developments are reported yet fade away without mention to be replaced by others that do the same.
An unchecked source told us that there hasn’t actually been any movement on this issue for a few weeks and while it was impossible to verify the veracity of that statement, when you actually sift through the reports online, it’s not long until you start to think he/she could be on to something.
What is interesting is that Ranieri did not reiterate that the player wanted to stay with Leciester. Instead, there was a very subtle change in his comments as he said, “It is important that he understands that he should stay with us.”
He also said “I speak often with him and say ‘stay with us it’s much better for your future’, I think he is an intelligent man and he will stay.” This does not tell me that Mahrez has decided to stay which is what Ranieri was saying not that long ago when he was certain the forward would remain at the club.
Claudio Ranieri tells @beINSPORTS he is "100 percent sure" @Mahrez22 will stay at #LCFC. End of.
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) July 29, 2016
It could mean nothing, or it could mean everything as Ranieri has been just about the only person telling the truth throughout all these Leicester-centric transfer sagas this summer.