N'Golo Kante has left, Riyad Mahrez could leave, but Claudio Ranieri remains a confident manager as Leicester City begin their preseason campaign with a match against League One side Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday.
The biggest challenge for Leicester, after a dream season in which they won the English Premier League title, was always going to be keeping hold of their marquee players, and while they did well to convince Jamie Vardy to snub a move to Arsenal and stay with the champions, Kante has already left for Chelsea, a club that finished tenth last season and with no Champions League football next campaign.
Mahrez, according to reports in England, could be the next to leave, with Chelsea, again, Arsenal and Barcelona all interested in the Algeria international, who won the PFA Player of the Year Award for his fantastic displays down the Leicester City right.
However, while they continue to fight to keep their best players on board, Leicester have also brought in Nampalys Mendy, expected to be a straight replacement for Kante, Ahmed Musa, Ron-Robert Zieler and Luis Hernandez, with a few more faces expected to come in before the summer transfer window closes on August 31.
As the transfer business takes shape, however, Ranieri also needs to get his players back fit for the new campaign, a season in which they will start as the defending champions in the Premier League and will be one of the seeded teams in the Champions League.
The Oxford United match is a nice warmup before Leicester take part in the premier preseason competition – the International Champions Cup, where they will play Celtic, PSG and Barcelona, teams they could play in the UEFA Champions League next season.
"We want to keep pushing on," Marc Albrighton told Foxes Player during a preseason camp in Austria last week. "It's going to be difficult and we know there will be teams gunning for us to get results from the champions.
"We know it's going to be difficult, there will be new faces coming into the league and new managers too. It's an exciting season but as far as we're concerned, we just want to build on what we did last season, whether that's doing well in the league, having a cup run or in the Champions League – anything.
"I think every preseason, so far in my career, everyone has had a fresh start. It's back to the drawing board. Everyone has to impress and work hard. Some come back fitter than others and manage to impress straight away."
Where to Watch Live
Oxford United vs Leicester City is scheduled for a 7.45 p.m. BST (12.15 a.m. IST, 2.45 p.m. ET) start. There will be no live coverage of the match in India and the UK. However, radio coverage of the match will be on Foxes Player HD.
Viewers in the US can watch the match live on ESPN 3, with the live streaming option on Watch ESPN.
Bein Sports Arabia is the place to be to catch the preseason action live in the Middle East and North Africa, while the match can also be live streamed on Bein Sports Connect.
