New saga looming as Pep joins the hunt for Chilwell

TWO TOP-FOUR CLUBS VIE FOR FULL-BACK’S SIGNATURE

LEICESTER City will have to fight off two top-four rivals to keep leftback Ben Chilwell, with Manchester City joining Chelsea in the hunt for the England international.

Chilwell looks set to be the subject of a summer transfer saga, with the 23-year-old said to be Frank Lampard’s first-choice option, and with reports suggesting Pep Guardiola’s side have reignited their interest.

The Leicester Mercury understands City are relaxed about the situation, as Chilwell still has four years left on his contract at the club and has spoken about his desire to bring Champions League football back to the King Power Stadium.

Chelsea also sit in the top four and, like City, hope to qualify for Uefa’s top competition. However, Man City’s inclusion is in doubt. This week, they will be at the Court of Arbitration for Sport hoping to overturn their ban from the Champions League, with European football’s governing body deeming them to have broken financial rules.

But the re-emergence of their interest is not surprising, with the left-back position far from settled at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola switching between Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko this season.

And Guardiola is a fan of Chilwell, with the Spanish manager making a beeline for the City star at the end of last season’s meeting between the clubs in the north west.

Chilwell said last summer: “He just said he thought I was a really talented player and he wanted me to keep playing well, getting up and down the pitch and never going away from that.

“That was it and then he walked off to the next person he wanted to talk to. No, I didn’t feel special.

“But it was nice for such a successful manager to say he thinks I’m a good player.”

The interest of a second club in Chilwell suggests the saga will be akin to that of Harry Maguire, who was targeted by Manchester City and Manchester United last year, before moving to Old Trafford for £80 million.

Leicester will take the same approach as they did with Maguire, refusing to put a price-tag on the head of a player they do not want to sell.

With the possibility of being able to offer Champions League football, Leicester will hope for a different outcome this time, ending their run of selling a star name each summer, with Riyad Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater, and N’Golo Kante leaving in the years before Maguire departed.