Monday 9 May 2016 10:31, UK
Claudio Ranieri has urged his Leicester City stars to stay for "another year and then go wherever they want".
Interest in the key players who took the Foxes to a first ever Premier League title is set to be high this summer, but their manager Ranieri insists now would be the wrong time for them to leave.
Newspapers both at home and abroad have reported that there is interest in midfielder N'Golo Kante, but Ranieri said: "I feel it is possible, maybe, to keep all the players.
"It is important for us but it is important also for them because they don't know the Champions League. If they go away, it is not good for them. It is much better if they improve another year here and then go wherever they want.
"But I have said so many times if one player comes to me and says 'Gaffer, I want to go', then I leave him to go because it is okay."
The Italian will be pleased to hear that at least two of his first-choice players agree, with full-backs Danny Simpson and Christian Fuchs questioning why anyone would want to disrupt what they have built together.
Fuchs said: "We're playing Champions League football next season. Isn't that a good enough reason to stay at this club?
"I think all the lads know what this team is all about. So why not stay? I believe that. Bringing in other players is not in my hands but it's going to be a tough challenge and I think everybody should simply look forward to it.
And Simpson said: "I want everyone to stay because it is a special group. Hopefully they stay and we can kick on because we are going places.
"I've played in a lot of teams now and that is not easy to get. Hopefully everyone wants to keep going and grow as a group and as a club.
"We all have a bit of banter [about transfer speculation] but at the end of the day we have had a job to do and been concentrating on the games. Whatever the lads decide to do is up to them.
"We just hope we can keep this group together because for me it has so much potential to do even more things than what we have."
