If Arsenal wants to sign Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell it will cost us a massive £75 Million.
Talksport has run two articles, the first one had Manchester City interested in the England international and the second article had a link to that first article with us added to City as clubs who are targetting the defender, although the Express has also linked us to him as well.
What is interesting for me are the comments from the Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers on the subject of interest in his players.
“All I know is that when you have good players, they will always be of interest, and the squad is full of very talented players,” Rodgers said.
“All I can do is create an environment so that they enjoy coming to work, where they feel that they can get better.
“From that, they grow and develop. And from then on, if players need to move on from that, it will always be a decision between the club and them.
“At this moment in time, all the players are happy and working well. We want to continue on that path. But knowing how the game works, clubs always lose players, but we will always fight to keep our best players.
“When they play to a high level consistently, that will always bring interest. The club will always do its best. You can never say the player will definitely be here. But the club will do its very best.
“All the players here enjoy playing for Leicester City, I’m quite relaxed on the situation with all the players.”
If you read that carefully he has basically admitted that any of his players are available, when you say “knowing how the game works, clubs always lose players”, that is an acceptance that if the right offer comes in then Chilwell will be sold.
Now, £75 million is a lot of money but I believe it is inflated, look at how much Leicester City have sold some of their previous stars for, N’Golo Kane cost Chelsea £32 Million, Danny Drinkwater cost the Blues £35 Million and Riyad Magrez cost Man City £60 Million, which is a club record.
When you look at those transfer fees do you really think that Chilwell is worth more?
I reckon that £40 Million will make Leicester blink and that is the sort of amount that you have to think we would contemplate spending.
Chilwell is clearly talented, he is just 22 years old with his best years ahead of him, he is the sort of signing, if it works out, that could end up being with us for a decade.
The bottom line for me is that we are reportedly interested in the young man and once you clear all the smoke away he will be available for a lot less than the £75 Million being reported.
That makes Ben Chilwell a credible target in my book.