Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers revealed that his club are not ready to sell central defender Harry Maguire for less than their valuation of him, and added that Manchester United's bid of 70 million pounds earlier in July does not meet that valuation. Rodgers did not mention Manchester United by name, but instead chose to speak about a "huge club" that tried to sign 26-year-old Maguire. "Harry's a top quality player and no-one has come near the valuation to tempt the club to sell," Rodgers said. The most expensive player that Leicester City have sold so far was Ryiad Mahrez, who joined Manchester City for 61 million pounds in 2018. The most expensive central defender in the Premier League was Virgil van Dijk, who joined Liverpool from Southampton for 75 million pounds.
Leicester City played a friendly match against Scunthorpe on Tuesday and Harry Maguire played for 45 minutes. Manager Brendan Rodgers added after the match: "The other club interested is a huge club, but he's a really good guy. I've been in this position a number of times and it's never easy but he's taken part in everything and hasn't showed anything other than sheer professionalism. You've seen that tonight with the 45 minutes he played."
The manager insisted that the club are "relaxed" concerning Maguire's situation: "The simplicity is that there is a valuation that hasn't been met yet and until that happens he is very much focused on being a Leicester player. It's pretty straightforward, he's a top class defender and we'd love him to stay but of course we understand when there is someone of that quality then there is always going to be interest. But all credit to him, how he's conducted himself has been absolutely superb - he hasn't shown anything but sheer professionalism throughout. There's obviously been a lot of speculation surrounding him but we're relaxed about it."
Leicester City have already spent 70 million pounds on two new signings this summer, Youri Tielemans joined from AS Monaco for just over 40 million pounds and striker Ayoze Perez was signed from Newcastle for 30 million pounds. Leicester City finished last season in ninth place and now they are 11/2 at Bet365 to clinch a top-six placement in the Premier League next season.
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