Ben Chilwell signs new 5-year deal with Leicester City

If there’s a been a theme of this summer for Leicester City, it’s been players chasing to stay or go. Jamie Vardy stayed, Kanté went, Mahrez is yet to decide. Some good news has come in today, as the stays now out-weigh the leavers.

The young left back was into the final year of his contract here and had appeared unhappy with a lack of game time. Rumors of offers from both Arsenal and Liverpool had circulated.

Instead, the 19-year-old will stay at Leicester for 5 more years, initially as a backup to Christian Fuchs. Having impressed in the International Champions Cup fixture against Celtic, however, he appears set to compete for more starting time this year.

While Fuchs was consistently strong at the left back position last season, he is past 30 and probably not the future of the position, especially having stated earlier this month that he plans to move to New York in two years, after his contract with Leicester is up.

I'm not living here permanently at the moment, but two years from now New York will be my home, and I see it as my home already because my family is living here - Christian Fuchs

Highly touted England youth international Chilwell could definitely be the future however. An aggressive move to keep hold of him fits the current team plan, which seems to focus on buying younger players.

Even after a league win, we have seen that convincing established stars to play for Leicester can be difficult. The club has therefore aimed at younger, unproven talent, bringing in the likes of Demarai Gray (20), Daniel Amartey (21), Ahmed Musa (23) and Nampalys Mendy (24) in the last two windows.

Retaining a young player of the quality of Chilwell is a big bonus for the club, and, together with the current core and young new signings, he can help to build a strong team for the future as well as present.

Chilwell is currently with the rest of the Leicester squad in Los Angeles, ahead of the match against PSG. He appears to be enjoying himself, even if Jeff doesn’t appreciate it.