Chelsea receive Riyad Mahrez message as Blues eye move for Bundesliga No.5 defender
Riyad Mahrez, a star for Manchester City, has informed Chelsea and Liverpool that his team, despite winning the league last year, Man City, will once again contend for it this year.
Four of the last five Premier League championships have gone to City, who is widely considered the favorite to win the league once more.
While Chelsea last won the Premier League in 2016–17, Liverpool won it in 2019–20.
Mahrez has stated that Man City will once again give it their all to win the Premier League in 2022–23.
“We really, really want to win again,” Mahrez, who has scored 63 goals in 189 games for City since his arrival in 2018, told the Daily Mail.
“When the season starts, we want to go again. That’s the big motivation. We never ever think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be easy this year,’ or we can go a bit easy.
“No, we go 100 per cent from the beginning, because we want to win and we are built with this mentality.
“On the last day [of last season], against Aston Villa, I was just thinking, f****** hell, what are we doing here? We’re playing at home and we’re losing 2-0 against Villa.
“Sometimes you don’t feel good in a game, I didn’t that day, and some other people came in and helped us to win – that’s what our team is about.”
Blues eye move for Bundesliga No.5 defender
According to latest reports, Chelsea and Man Utd are both considering a move for German giants, Bayern Munich full-back Benjamin Pavard, although the likes of Juventus and Atletico Madrid are also circling around him.
The 26-year-old defender is reportedly keen for a new opportunity away from Bayern Munich, partly as he wishes to play at centre-back and has instead been picked regularly at right-back for the Bavarians.
French defender has played 36 games in all competitions last term, however, with the arrivals of right-back Noussair Mazraoui from Ajax and Matthijs de Ligt from Serie A giants, Juventus have raised the possibility that he will have fewer chances in both positions.
French publication L’Equipe claim that the quartet of the Red Devils and the Blues are all interested in taking advantage of the situation, however, the Premier League teams may have disadvantages in the pursuit.
The West London giants have already brought in centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly and continue to pursue long-term target Jules Kounde, while Presnal Kimpembe is also on their wishlist.
Manchester United have already agreed on a deal for Lisandro Martinez, meaning they now have the Argentinian along with Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane as centre-back options.
The 20-times English champions, head-coach Erik ten Hag may be keen to add Pavard to his possibilities at right-back, however, that is not where the Frenchman wants to play.
The World Cup winning defender still has two years left on his current deal at Bayern Munich and the team are in no rush to sell the versatile defender, so it would take a substantial offer to tempt the German giants into making a deal.