That shirt is about as much use now as Nicklas Bendtner on a bad day, as last season’s PFA Player of the Year sent out a message to the footballing world by signing a new contract that will keep him at the King Power Stadium until 2020.
Advertisement
Mahrez scored 17 Premier League goals and recorded 11 assists, giving Leicester City the class in midfield that separated it from just another EPL also-run and allowed it compete – and beat – the giants of the EPL.
Mahrez joins his teammates Jamie Vardy, Wes Morgan, Kasper Schmeichel and Andy King signing new contracts – as has their popular Italian coach Claudio Ranieri.
The Foxes became the first defending champion in the Premier League era to lose their season opener, falling 2-1 to a promoted Hull City side facing a spate of distractions and a lack of match-fit bodies – the Tigers didn’t use any of their allotted substitutions.
Robert Huth is available to face Arsenal at the weekend after suspension having completed his three-game ban following a tangle with Marouane Fellaini last season.
The club and Mahrez’s representatives have held discussions for a while, with Claudio Ranieri also holding several conversations with the player and urging him to stay. The Foxes are in the Champions League and thanks to this new contract, Mahrez will be getting paid big wages. They can not afford to lose their opening two games for the risk of already being six points behind their title rivals.
“We have very good players”.
Leicester City will battle with expectation this year in a way they never have before.
Mahrez, 25, was also voted as the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year.
He started to blossom towards the end of the 2014-15 season, when Leicester won seven of their last nine matches to avoid relegation, before taking his game to another level last season.
The important thing is that the team is a little more settled, they know who the squad is now and they can hopefully pull together a little more after a disjointed first game.
“He stays with us”, he added.
“I was so sure (he would stay), it was only speculation with first Vardy and then Mahrez and we only lost (N’Golo) Kante”.
Advertisement
Arsenal handed Leicester City two of their three league losses last season, including a 5-2 victory in the 2015-16 corresponding fixture.
