Maddison in talks to sign new contract at Leicester
Brendan Rodgers has insisted that none of his Leicester players will be sold in January, as the club open contract talks with England international James Maddison.
Rodgers is adamant that he will be keeping all of his squad together in an attempt to give the former Premier League champions the best opportunity of a return to European competition next season.
Maddison, Ben Chilwell, Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu have all been discussed as potential targets by rival clubs but the message could not be clearer from Leicester’s manager, who has guided the club to second in the table. Leicester are already planning for the future after entering preliminary talks over a new deal with Maddison, who made his England debut against Montenegro last week.
Rodgers said: “We want to grow, and there’s a lot of development left in this squad. We’ve absolutely no plans to lose anyone in January. Our job is to keep what we have and if there’s an opportunity to improve the squad we will look to do that. If not, we will carry on with the squad we have, which is very strong.”
Maddison is understood to be on the radar of Manchester United after an impressive breakthrough in the top flight, and Leicester are keen to offer him improved terms, although the attacking midfielder has more than three years left on his current contract after joining from Norwich for £21 million.
“If you look at his numbers this season, in terms of the goals he has scored and created, he has shown he is a big-game player,” said Rodgers. “He has scored goals against Liverpool, against Tottenham, against Arsenal. James is among a lot of very good players with England and it’s just about preference, whether Gareth [Southgate] and his staff want to pick him. You can see he is at the level. If not, he will continue to work. He doesn’t expect to play, he’s not entitled, but he loves playing and will hopefully get many more caps for his country.”
Rodgers will sanction the departures of fringe players in January, including Nampalys Mendy, Daniel Amartey and Filip Benkovic.
Leicester face Brighton tomorrow in search of their fifth league win in a row.