Another Arsenal transfer saga has ended as Riyad Mahrez signed a new deal to stay at Leicester until 2020, confirming what we said all along – he’d be going nowhere.

Although the papers hammered this rumour really hard, throughout it, Claudio Ranieri stood firm in his belief that the player would stay with the Champions. As he was right about Jamie Vardy, we opted to believe him on this one and he hasn’t disappointed.

This will, of course, be spun as yet another player rejecting Arsenal and much will be made of it, but if we’re going to listen to what Ranieri said about Mahrez staying with the Foxes then we can’t also ignore that he said very clearly that Arsenal did not even bid or make an approach for the Algerian.

As much as I like Mahrez and think he probably would have strengthened Arsenal, I’m glad, in a way, that he’s staying with Ranieri. He’s a nice manager and deserves the loyalty he is being shown.

Of course, that loyalty comes with a massive payrise for both Mahrez and Vardy, but it’s hard to argue that they haven’t earned it.