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Switching gears from Diego Costa for a moment, we have a dispatch from the Telegraph, who report that Chelsea have added Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez and Juventus wide man Alex Sandro to our shortlist of summer targets. We already talked about Alex Sandro here, so let’s touch on Mahrez for a second, who’s now linked for the second straight summer.
Last year, Mahrez was PFA Player of the Year and Leicester City were the darlings of the football world after their shocking title win. Both Mahrez and Vardy resisted big offers, but, much to Chelsea’s benefit, N’Golo Kanté didn’t. Now that normal order has been resumed, Mahrez is being shopped around after a season that was not quite as great as the previous one, but still plenty decent with 10 goals and 7 assists for a mid-table club.
In addition to Chelsea, the 26-year-old has recently been linked with Barcelona, Arsenal, Spurs ... basically all the big teams that are the hallmarks of an agent doing a bit of agenting.
That said, as per the report, Mahrez “believes” that he has a verbal agreement with Leicester that would let him join a Champions League side this summer, and while no one will be willing to pay £50m for him, something a bit more reasonable could get some wheels turning, including at Chelsea who might be looking for extra attacking help in light of Eden Hazard’s injury that is likely to keep him out for the first month of the season.
Depending on the price, Mahrez could make sense, so it’s something perhaps worth keeping an eye on. (That said, Chelsea really should just go big and really try for someone like Alexis Sánchez instead.)