Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has hinted he may be unable to prevent star player Ben Chilwell leaving amid transfer rumours linking him with Chelsea.
The England international has been a top performer at the King Power Stadium and Rodgers clearly thinks highly of him, going by his quotes in the Guardian.
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However, the report also suggests the Leicester boss concedes he may struggle to deal with Chilwell if he has the ambition to follow Harry Maguire in leaving the Foxes for a bigger club.
Maguire joined Manchester United last summer and it would make sense if Chilwell were next to move on, with so many big names at Leicester such as N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez also recently poached by the top teams.
Chelsea could do with a new left-back and Chilwell has been linked strongly with them by The Athletic and others, and the Blues may be encouraged by some of Rodgers’ words here, even if he also makes it clear he wants to keep the 23-year-old.
“All you can ever do is create an environment where players will feel they can improve and develop, and enjoy their football,” Rodgers is quoted by the Guardian.
“But I also recognise players may well look beyond Leicester City. I’ve never felt that with Ben. He’s a huge talent and for me he can be one of the world’s best left-backs. He’s understanding here what it takes every single day, not just on a game day, and what it takes to be an elite player in terms of lifestyle and professionalism.
“I can only see him getting better and he can get that here at Leicester, of course. I think he’s shown that, particularly this season. I can say that, but of course players and agents may well have other ambitions for players. That’s not something you can always control.
“I’m always pretty relaxed on it. We had this last summer with Harry Maguire, and with really open communication. He knew what we were creating here, he knew the work that we were doing, but of course he’s got the lure to go to one of the biggest clubs in the world. He decided he wanted to go and the club rightly made that sale so they could get the money that they wanted. But at this moment in time it’s not something with Ben that we’re considering.”