adminLONDON. — Jose Mourinho can become the new Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, according to Claudio Ranieri, who says Leicester should be 6000/1 to retain the English Premier League soccer title.
Ranieri and his players defied odds of 5000/1 last season to muscle in on English football’s elite and win a first top-flight title in Leicester’s 132-year history.
But the Italian believes City should be even bigger outsiders this time around given the commitments of a debut Champions League campaign and the arrival of new managers at three of the league’s biggest clubs.
Ranieri’s compatriot Antonio Conte has taken over at Chelsea, while Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are now installed on opposite sides of the Manchester divide.
“Mourinho can be the new Ferguson,” Ranieri said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
“He will not stay 26 years, but he will leave his imprint.
“Antonio and Chelsea are made for each other. Guardiola seems to be the right man in the right place.”
On Leicester’s aims for the season he said: “The basic concept is to start from scratch. We have won the title, we accomplished something perhaps unique, but now we turn the page.
“If at the beginning of last season the bookmakers quoted 5000/1 on our chances of the title, this time it’s 6000/1.
“The goal to start with is the threshold of 40 points to survive. Then we will raise the bar: getting in the top 10, the Europa League, a place in the Champions League and maybe win a trophy from the five in which we will play.”
Ranieri called Jamie Vardy’s decision to snub Arsenal and stay at Leicester “huge”, but the champions will defend their title without N’Golo Kante, who has joined Conte at Chelsea.
But Leicester remain confident that Riyad Mahrez will not be following Kante out of the door.
Chelsea have been linked with a move for last season’s PFA player of the year after completing a £30m deal at the weekend for team-mate Kante.
But even though Arsenal and Manchester City are also both interested in the £40m-rated Algerian, Ranieri is convinced that Mahrez is staying put.
Mahrez (25) was sensational last season in the Premier League as Leicester clinched the title.
He still has three years of his contract to run with Leicester having offered a new deal to more than double his wages to £80 000-a-week.
Although he has yet to agree the new deal Foxes boss Ranieri has told friends he believes Mahrez will still be at the club next season.
But Mahrez is set for a dream move to Barcelona after telling Leicester he wants to leave.
The PFA Player of the Year rejected a bumper new contract with the champions this weekend.
He has three seasons remaining on his Foxes contract but has instructed his representatives to engineer a move away from the King Power this summer.
And Catalan paper Sport reports that the Nou Camp is the Algerian’s preferred location.
Mahrez has been locked in talks with Leicester chiefs who are desperate to cling onto their title-winning heroes. Top-scorer Vardy snubbed Arsenal last month to sign a new £100k-per-week deal with the club.
But Mahrez (25) looks set to deal Ranieri’s side another major blow – after Kante left for Chelsea for a fee around £30million on Saturday.
Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain are believed to be ready to rival Barca for his signature.
Meanwhile, Leicester new-boy Ahmed Musa is ready for a battering in England – and that’s just in training. The Foxes’ £16.5m record signing from CSKA Moscow believes the intensity on show on the training ground is the secret to their success. When I started my first session I was thinking ‘wow’,” said the 23-year-old.
“I have never seen that in Russia but now I am getting used to it
“The intensity here is quite different to Russia. Here it is a little bit harder, in Russia they are more laid back.
“I think that is the most difficult thing, but I think that is the secret behind Leicester’s success.”
The Nigeria international stands at just 5ft 7in and admits his size was the reason he hung up his goalkeeping gloves while still at school to become a goalscorer.
“I was a goalie between 10 and 12,” he said. “But changing was the best decision of my life because I would never have been good enough to become a professional goalkeeper. It was difficult at first but then you get used to the fact you are not very big. A lot of people used to tell me ‘Musa, you are too small to be a striker.’
“But I said ‘It doesn’t matter what size you are, it’s what you can do that matters’.
“I think I am like Jamie Vardy. I have speed, I like to work hard, we are similar in lots of things.
“Am I faster? I can’t say yet, I have never played with him.” — Sky Sports.
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