Town boss Mick McCarthy says he’s not spoken to anyone at Leicester City regarding the permanent signing of season-long loanee and Blues man of the moment Tom Lawrence. Despite a number of Championship clubs having been linked with the 23-year-old Wales international, the Town manager says the Foxes could opt to hang on to Lawrence, who has 18 months left on his contract.
Questioned on the value of Town's seven-goal top scorer in the currently very inflated transfer market, McCarthy said: "To us, he’s invaluable at the moment, whatever fee anybody wants to put on him, I’m not going to start tagging him with a price.
"I don’t know, but he’s certainly one of the better players and he’s playing in a team is not in the top six and flying, so his performances have been excellent.”
Lawrence has been linked with plenty of Championship clubs during his spell with the Blues, including Derby, Norwich, Reading, Cardiff and Wigan, but McCarthy believes he is a Premier League player and that he could still have a future with the Foxes, despite his lack of first-team opportunities since joining them from Manchester United in the summer of 2014.
"I think he is [a Premier League player], I think that is the case. He’s still only very young, even with all that’s happened to him and how many times he went out on loan.
"I tell you what, check out how many times Harry Kane went out on loan. Maybe this conversation was going on about him, somebody else trying to sign him before [he broke into the team at Spurs].
"He kind of got in the team, he was playing in European games and cup games but not in the league for Tottenham.
"Leicester are not mugs, they’ll be monitoring what they’re doing and why would they let him go? He’s got 18 months on a contract left. I don’t know if there’s an option on him, I’ve no idea, but he’s still their player.”
One or two Twitter rumours have claimed Town have approached the Premier League champions regarding a permanent deal, but McCarthy, who has previously stated that signing him in the summer is likely to be too expensive for the Blues, says that’s not the case.
"I’ve never asked the valuation, I’ve never spoken to anybody at Leicester,” he added.
"He’s our player to the end of the season, so I don’t need to do anything about that and I’m getting sick of asking about the valuations of players, I don’t need to be told I can’t afford another one just to make me feel any better.”