Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri was asked again about Riyad Mahrez who has been linked with a £40 million (Dh192.6m) move to Arsenal, on Saturday after his side's win on penalties in a friendly against Celtic in the International Champions Cup.
The Algeria winger, named man of the match in the 1-1 draw, opened the scoring at the start of the second half with a wonderful curled shot before Celtic’s 20-year-old Republic of Ireland defender Eoghan O’Connell levelled just before the hour mark.
Ranieri, pleased with his players’ effort in only their second pre-season match, said: “It is good for you (media) not for us.
“Did you see how Riyad is happy? He played so well, worked so hard for the team, he scored a goal and he stays with us.
“It is very important (to keep him) he is one of our stars.
“Other teams maybe have more stars and maybe he doesn’t play at the same level, because maybe is on the bench so it is much better he stays with me.”
Asked if Mahrez was worth more than £40 million, the Italian said: “Maybe tomorrow some newspapers say £100 million, that is good – keep going. It is only speculation.”
Ranieri noted that his side lost too many tackles but denied it was as a consequence of losing Frenchman N'Golo Kante to Chelsea this summer.
He said: “No. Look, last season we lost Esteban Cambiasso and everyone was crying ‘oh Cambiasso, Cambiasso’, now we are crying because we lost Kante.
“Don’t worry. Football in Leicester will keep going.”
In penalties, Christian Fuchs, Marcin Wasilewski, Danny Drinkwater, Ben Chilwell and Shinji Okazaki had all scored for Leicester before Daniel Amartey’s success with the sixth secured the win.
For Celtic Nadir Ciftci, Stefan Johansen, Scott Allan, O’Connell and Ryan Christie scored before James Forrest had his effort saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
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