Ranieri not keen on keeping unhappy players at Leicester
(Reuters) - Manager Claudio Ranieri will not stand in the way of a player who wishes to leave Leicester City during the January transfer window provided the Italian can find a suitable replacement at the right price.
Striker Leonardo Ulloa, winger Jeffrey Schlupp and young midfielder Bartosz Kapustka have all been linked by the British media with moves away from the King Power Stadium in January after failing to nail down a place in the starting line-up.
"I don't like to maintain players who are unhappy," Ranieri told British media. "This is my point of view -- afterwards, there is the club. If someone goes, and we have to replace this or that player, we can get rid of him easily.
"But it will cost a lot of money to replace him with someone else. That is the balance we have to achieve. I want to help those players but at the end of the month, they take the money. They are professionals and it's a business.
"There are rumours and everybody knows very well that if they are happy and want to stay with us and want to fight with us it is okay. If someone is not happy then they should come to me and speak and we will see what is best for the club."
Champions Leicester, in 14th place, have the joint worst away record in the Premier League with Burnley and will hope to pick up their first win on the road against 12th-placed Stoke City on Saturday.
"I think my strength is my balance inside myself. I don't go high when everything is fantastic and down when it's not right, I know only one medicine -- to work and work," Ranieri said.
"This is the right medicine to try and help my players. My players are working very well in the training session. I'm not worried. We are in battle and I have very good warriors."
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)