foxedup

Have any decent sources actually said there is anything in it? I've not really seen any journo stick their neck out and say it's on or it's happening. They just repeat the rumours that have been floating about for a week.

Clearly your manager is off his rocker also? And yes, I think he's better than Dier who is one of the most overrated one dimensional footballers I've ever seen. Drinkwater beats him in almost all attacking and defensive stats for the last two seasons, despite playing with far worse players. Put him with better players and he'll only improve. Where have I said I want him to go, last time I checked what I say on the internet has no bearing on whether a transfer happens or not. I'm coming on here and telling you what he's like. I don't expect you to believe me, I had exactly the same reaction from your fans when I said Kante was a monster. All I had back was "he's not better than Matic, he's not better than x, y and z, he's a one season wonder, he can't pass..." blah blah.

Because that is all three players best season in the last two years and the last time Drinkwater played with a decent CM partner and wasn't carrying an injury. You can compare last season if you wish and he still beats Dier on everything there, and that's playing in a team that's struggling and surrounded by inferior players.

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There is a huge about of snobbery around English players at smaller clubs. I'm telling you now, he's better than someone like Dier at Spurs and he's vastly better than a lot of foreign muck that gets brought to these shores.

Oh... another person commenting when they aren't qualified to do so. Drinkwater was pretty much the ONLY player performing for the first half of last season, his form only dipped after picking up an injury. He played the season through it but had to keep withdrawing from the England squads due to the club trying to rest him. Until we signed N'didi, he was trying to run the centre of the park on his own. Andy King and Amartey were his partners and completely useless. Out side of the big three (Mahrez, Kante, Vardy) Drinkwater was the next best player by some considerable distance. He's a good player, and if he's seen as just 4th choice, then it's a decent fourth choice. Yes, there is an argument for whether spending £30m+ on a 4th choice player when you could promote from within is wise, granted.

And there was me in this thread a year ago trying to tell people how good he was, when they were worried about his quality. You're welcome and congratulations.

Not far off correct. Not sure about players looking tired though. It's been a cruise the last couple of games and players have just been taken off as a precaution with them not being needed, rather than them being tired. Centre back, right back and centre mid are where the questions are at the moment due to a couple of injuries. We might need to play one or two first teamers. Mendy might not be ready after injury and James is injured. We don't have back up right back, so either Simpson plays, or Hernandez does... but he might be needed to take a CB place to rest Morgan or Huth. Kapustka could feature in the 11 as well. We'll make as many changes as injuries allow really. Could be a total B team... probably about the best B team we've ever had. But a B team non the less.

Journalism is now far more about clicks than it is quality. Sadly there are many people out there who would say "how many retweets, how many likes" and be impressed with the "buzz" created, than questioning the validity of the story. I was joking anyway hence the wink... but the above is true.

Didn't see anything on his timeline that said he was there to interview him. Some kid fresh out of uni... how better to get his name out there than to start some rumours hey.

I've already pointed out when the players use the hotel, they use it when they are using the owners helicopter. It could be a secret meeting... it could be Mahrez staying there before being taken back to Leicester. As has happened countless times.

We wouldn't have won the league without Vardy and Kante either. My order would have been Kante, Vardy, Mahrez. His technical ability is incredible, what he does many can't do. Like I said he's just bloomin frustrating, he had huge spells of doing naff all last year and that's what puts him behind the other two.

He was good, but again just my opinion I'd have had him behind two of our other players purely because they turned up more often. Even if they were off their game a bit they still contributed, when Mahrez is off his game it's like playing with 10 men sometimes.

He's not my player of the season.

Bitterness about what, you haven't signed him, no credible source has said you're even interested. I've been through all this with Arsenal fans who saw him at a London hotel before and presumed he was signing for them. If you happen to fancy him, then cheers for the £50m we'll just go and buy someone else. I don't get too hung up on comings and goings. When the rumours about Kante surfaced I can on here and told you I thought he was by far the better player. I'm just repeating what I said then. In my opinion Kante is better because he's a 90 minute players and always gave us a 9/10... he should have won player of the year hands down. The only reason he didn't is because he's not a highlights player like Mahrez, you'll only get him and see how good he is when watching a full game. I wouldn't want to lose Mahrez, as he has unique abilities. I'm not sure he'd get the same backing he does here at another club, because if you get 6 games of dross from him he'll be on the bench. We would still try and make room for him.

So it's impossible to get a helicopter if you also have a car? I'm just telling you that he and others regularly use the hotel as a base to catch the owners helicopter. There are pictures of them all the time going up and down the country in them.

All based on some stalker and an "agent" confirming to said random stalker that 1) he's an agent and 2) Chelsea want Mahrez. You got the better player with Kante if you ask me so I'd stop there, Mahrez is massively inconsistent. He's one of them that looks amazing on match of the day in 5 minute highlights.... not so much when you sit through the other 85 minutes of trash.

Wouldn't read too much into it, our players regularly stay at that hotel as they use the owners helicopter from Battersea just over the river to come back to Leicester.

Exactly what I said then, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool followed trend from previous seasons. The only difference was you and City also imploded. You're kidding yourself if you think there was much difference between this season and last other than that. 3 in the knockout stage and 1 in the quarters. That's better than the year before, just. So again... not much difference. Yeah, couldn't possibly be down to us improving. Presumably the league went sh*t three quarters of the way through the 2014/2015 season? As from the 4th April 2015 we were on title winning form. Nice back handed compliment.

United got more points last year than the year before. Arsenal were only 4 points off their total. Liverpool got exactly the same. Everton got exactly the same. West Ham 15 more. Spurs got 6 more Saints 3 more The only major difference between last season and this, was you and Man City imploding. Nobody else really tailed off, they were all pretty much as you were. Nobody can seriously suggest everyone in the league was substantially worse all round. Just my opinion of course. What it was missing were its one standout team, yes we benefited from that of course. If you had been close to the levels of the year before we'd not have won it. But we still had to dispatch the other 18 teams in the league. Our performance this season would have been enough to net us second or third last season. I watched us play every team twice last year as well as this, and I've not noticed that much of a drop off overall in quality in 12 months. The quality has certainly gone down compared to some of the very best seasons with all the big boys at their peak. But certainly not in one season.

Kante plays box to box, along with Drinkwater... they play as a two in the middle so they both have to do a bit of each. But he is by far and away the more defensively minded. They both put a shift in, but Kantes certainly has more of that responsibility. Heat maps of the team might not show this up, as Drinkwater is the guy who often comes back to the defenders to pick up the ball. He's the guy who sets everything in motion, but then he'll move up the pitch and past Kante. He's the guy who we look to do do the prodding and probing with his passes. Kante's strength lies in the defensive side of things. He has all the assets to play a traditional DM if that's all you want him to do.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm not getting in to that argument I'm just showing the comparisons. I never said Kante was twice the player, so I'm not sure where you are getting that from. Mate, come off it. The whole league didn't suddenly turn to rubbish in the space of one season, the likes of Spurs, Us, West Ham, Saints all having top seasons and being much better than they were before. You and Man City might have hit the skids, but lets not make out that means everyone did. Drinkwater is not our holding midfielder, he is our attacking midfielder. Hence why he has more goals and assists and Kante has more tackles and interceptions. So I don't know where that notion comes from. I'm well aware stats don't show the full picture... yet people are happy to flag up passing stats of Kante and worry about them.

Here is a comparison between both of their recent title winning seasons. Kante wins on assists, tackles won, key passes, chances created and interceptions. Matic has one more goal and a better pass completion rate (expected in a passing team). http://www.squawka.com/comparison-matrix#premier_league/2015/2016/n$golo_kant%C3%A9/165/165/14999/0/p|premier_league/2015/2016/nemanja_matic/165/165/9284/0/p#pass_completion/assists/tackles_won/key_passes/chances_created/interceptions#90

His pass success rate in the Euros was 92.1%, His rate for us, a team that wasn't arsed about keeping the ball but taking risks and bombing forward as quick as you can, was 82%. He will adapt to what is asked of him. Played in the right formation, I honestly believe he could grace almost any team but one in that list, because he's so exceptional at the defensive parts of his game. He'll never have silky skills, or be curling one in the top corner, but with the right guys around him he doesn't need to. Just as they won't need to track back whilst he seemingly covers about three positions at once.

They've never had a great relationship with the club since they turned on the old directors many moons ago. I think they've been kept at arms length ever since and never really got the trust back.