Should Riyad Mahrez leave Leicester City this summer?
Riyad Mahrez will have a tough choice to make once this season ends. Should he stay at Leicester City or move to a “bigger” club?
Leicester City fans don’t want to think about the possibility of Riyad Mahrez leaving their club this summer. That’s understandable given the terrific form he’s been in this year and his importance to the Foxes squad, but it won’t change a ton of other clubs trying to swoop in and steal the talented attacker away.
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Unlike a lot of stars that have been in this position, Mahrez seems to be completely focused on his current squad. Even his agent has come out and said they will not even entertain the thought of moving to another club until the season is over. Lesser men would have had their heads turned well before now.
Credit to the Algerian star for staying focused on his current club at the present, but that doesn’t change the amount of teams that are going to try to tempt him the second the season is over. He’s already been linked with the biggest clubs in the world and it’s a good bet that he’ll have his pick of destinations if he’s willing to move away from Claudio Ranieri’s club.
Mahrez will enter the off-season in quite the enviable position. He may literally have his pick of any club in the world to play for next season. That begs the obvious question: should he stay at Leicester City or move on while his career has so much momentum?
The case for staying with the Foxes is pretty straight forward. The club is in the driver’s seat to win the Premier League title this year, and even if they fail they will surely secure Champions League football. If Mahrez left he’d be leaving the Premier League club at one of the most exciting times in its history.
That’s not an easy thing to do. Mahrez will know how integral he’s been to the squad and giving that up isn’t something he’d want to do without an excellent reason. He’ll know that leaving would mean giving up being one of the best and most popular players in the club’s history.
Leaving Leicester City would be taking on risk. If he stays he will continue to play well in Ranieri’s system and will be paid like a king. If he thinks the Foxes can challenge for Premier League and Champions League titles’ moving forward, there’s really no reason to ply his trade elsewhere.
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On the other hand, leaving Leicester for one of the world’s superpowers has its perks. As great a story as they’ve been this season, Leicester don’t have the resources that other top Premier League sides have at their disposal. Their margin for error is much smaller than other club’s when it comes to competing for a title.
Their chances of reaching the pinnacle of the Premier League next season won’t be in their favor. The combination of the challenges of repeating (either as champions or close contenders) plus the likelihood of Premier League blue books recovering their form would stack the odds against them.
Moving to a superpower like Real Madrid, Barcelona or PSG would give him a much better chance of competing for both league and Champions League titles. The path of those massive clubs is simply much more straight forward than what he would experience at Leicester.
There’s also the minor benefit of getting to play with other world-class players. Leicester has Jamie Vardy and N’Golo Kante as players on Mahrez’s level, somewhere like Real Madrid has an entire starting 11 of world-class stars. On one hand that could intimidate Mahrez, on the other he could relish the opportunity to play alongside such stars.
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Riyad Mahrez will face an almost impossible decision at the conclusion of this season. He could opt to cash-in and join one of the world’s elite, or he could realize the good situation he has at Leicester and commit his future to the Foxes. It would be hard to argue with either choice.