Ranieri warns Man Utd off Drinkwater

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri says Manchester United target Danny Drinkwater doesn't have a release fee clause in his new contract.

United are reportedly keen to sign the 26-year-old, who came through the academy at Old Trafford but failed to make a first-team performance for his hometown club before leaving to join Leicester in 2012.

Ranieri says the new five-year deal Drinkwater signed at the King Power Stadium last month does not contain a release clause, and the Italian says the England midfielder should ignore United's interest and focus on his own game.

"This is a good process to improve because one year ago nobody was asking about our players," he said.

"Now there are big, big teams and my players must be very proud of this but maintain their way.

"He signed a new contract and he doesn't have a clause and if Manchester want him it is okay. We don't want to sell anybody.

"We only lost [N'Golo] Kante [to Chelsea] because he had a clause but no other player we lost. We want to keep all the players and all the squad."

Drinkwater, who has featured in every game of Leicester's season so far, says Ranieri helped rebuild his confidence after being in and out of the side under predecessor Nigel Pearson in 2014-15.

"Before he joined the club I had a season where I didn't really play a lot of football," he said.

"He is picking me week in week out so I obviously thank him for that. He has put a lot of trust in me and I am hopefully repaying him. I am sure you can tell at the outside just what we have achieved since he has been here."

Setanta Sports is now eir Sport. We have 6 great channels of live sport including eir Sport 1 & 2 and all 4 BT Sport channels. The eir Sport pack is free to all eir broadband customers. To learn more about setting sport free visit www.eir.ie/sport