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Claudio Ranieri: Foxes won't chase superstars

Leicester City players celebrate winning the league. Pic: @LCFC
Leicester City players celebrate winning the league. Pic: @LCFC

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri insists he will snub big-name signings despite winning the Premier League.

The Italian also wants to keep his squad together and told them they will be kings if they stay at the new champions.

The Foxes, 5,000-1 outsiders at the start of the season, have claimed an improbable title after Tottenham blew a 2-0 lead at Chelsea to draw 2-2 on Monday, leaving Leicester seven points clear with just two games left.

They have qualified for the Champions League but despite their new status Ranieri will not upset the squad dynamic by buying big.

He said: "We don't need the superstars. We need our players. You see (in January) we bought Demarai Gray, we bought Daniel Amartey.

"It's the same, they have barely been with us not six months. I want to improve the squad without big stars but the right players.

"It is too early to say we need five, six, seven or eight players. We have to see, I would like to maintain all my players.

Ranieri acknowledged that bids for standout players Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kante and Jamie Vardy were likely to be made in the close season but suggested it would take vast sums to prise them away.
              
"I will say: 'Do you have enough money to buy my players?'" he said..

"It is much better to stay here for one year more and see what happens. Then maybe you can go anywhere. The Champions League is another important league to compare yourself to the other champions.

"But if one of my players says to me 'I want to go there', I try to keep him. I suggest to everybody this is a fantastic club, we won the title, we can do something good in our few years.

"If you go away you don't know what happens, here you are the king. If you go away, what happens?

"It is important to chose very well for the lads because now for me as well the lads are my sons"

"It is important to chose very well for the lads because now for me as well the lads are my sons. Leicester in the long-term will go in a very high position."

Ranieri says it could take him two years to understand what he has achieved in winning the league.

Leicester were among the favourites for the drop, with the Italian tipped to be the first manager sacked after he replaced Nigel Pearson last summer.

But they will receive their first top-flight trophy in their 132-year history after Saturday's final home game against Everton, and Ranieri said they must let it sink in.

"All the people around the world are asking for Leicester, what happened?" he said. "But this is a moment you have to leave a little more (time) for and taste slowly like a good wine. Savour it. Maybe now is too early to think what we have done.

"Maybe one or two years could be better to understand, but now it is important to stay high in the world."

The Foxes clinched the title after Tottenham blew a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at Chelsea on Monday, leaving Leicester seven points clear.

They are just the sixth team to win the Premier League, but Ranieri insisted an underdog will not emerge victorious again for another 20 years.

He said: "Big money makes the big teams and usually the big teams win - but now we can only say 99 per cent.

"How many years after Nottingham Forest (in 1978) and Blackburn (in 1995) have another team won? Next season will be the same, for the next 10 or 20 years will be the same. The richest will win or who can pick up the best players to make a team.

"If 20 owners have the same money for the players, only one can win and three will go down. That is football.

"Now the second team in Italy is Leicester. In Thailand, the first team is Leicester. I've received letters from Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil - everywhere 'Leicester, Leicester, what a legend'. Everyone knows the Premier League."

Ranieri remained coy on his own contract situation though after he signed a three-year deal in 2015 to replace Nigel Pearson at the King Power Stadium.

He added: "I have (signed for) three years (in 2015). Why do I have to sign a new contract?"

The Foxes will receive the trophy on Saturday after their final home game of the season with Everton and Ranieri said it will be a crowning glory, along with one of his first jobs in football at Cagliari.

"Yes, one of the best. I don't forget when I started, where I started and in which division. I came from non-league, from amateur football, and when I arrived at Cagliari, in the Third Division, and we got to Serie A, that was my first fairytale.

"So I have a little love with this fairytale. Of course to win the Premier League is something. But in my heart there is always this (Cagliari)."

Captain Wes Morgan, who equalised in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Manchester United, admitted the emotions may get the better of him when he lifts the trophy on Saturday.

"I am going to try to hold back the tears. it is going to be very emotional. It hasn't sunk in yet. It was a long night celebrating and I am feeling a bit drained at the moment," he told Sky Sports.

"After the initial euphoria a lot of people couldn't believe what had happened. There were a few tears.

"I can't quite believe it. It is safe to say I never thought I would be in this position now. The journey we've been on is fantastic. It's an achievement that might not be achieved again."

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