Claudio Ranieri convinced Riyad Mahrez and Leicester’s other title-winning stars will snub big guns

CLAUDIO RANIERI is adamant Riyad Mahrez will sign a new deal in spite of interest from Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The Leicester boss lost star midfielder N’Golo Kante to the Blues in a £29million deal but skipper Wes Morgan has agreed a three-year deal.

And Ranieri believes the rest of his squad will stay at the club to help the Premier League champions retain their title.

He said: “I am pleased to sign Wes and I think slowly, slowly the rest will sign. It’s not my job to sign them up. I am just the head coach and not the sporting director, but slowly, slowly, I know the other players will sign.

“It is important to maintain the group with the spirit and with the humility. That is important for me.’

“Signing Vardy was huge and Mahrez will be the same. Not only Mahrez, everybody.

“The football would continue without Mahrez, without Kante, but Mahrez will stay with us for all the years. I am confident. No other players will go. We stay together.

“Only Kante wanted to go and that’s OK, I understood. He came from a little team in France and made a fantastic season. I wanted him to stay with us for another year.

“He would improve with the experience of the Champions League but he wanted to go. Okay, good luck. I don’t want unhappy players.”

Vardy has already snubbed Arsenal to land a £100,000-a-week contract and Kasper Schmeichel and Danny Drinkwater are in talks.

Morgan signed his new deal after a 2-1 win in a friendly at Oxford with Demarai Gray and Jeff Schlupp on target.

Mahrez – who has three years left on his current deal – played the first 45 minutes.

Ranieri’s head of recruitment, Steve Walsh, was poached by Everton but the Foxes chief insisted he was too focused on the game to notice.

He added: “I don’t know because I was focused on this match and I must speak with my sporting director.”