Bournemouth have Demarai Gray bid rejected

Leicester City have rejected a £20 million bid from Bournemouth for hot prospect winger Demarai Gray. The youngster has wanted assurances recently that he would be given more game time at the King Power Stadium in the coming season, which manager Craig Shakespeare is keen to give him. 

Gray joined Leicester midway through their title winning season from Birmingham City. The England under-21 midfielder is highly regarded as a future star for club and country, leading Leicester to do whatever they can to keep him. 

With the likes of Riyad Mahrez at the club, Gray was only able to start nine Premier League games last season. With Mahrez looking likely to leave in the coming weeks, Gray may be tempted to stay at the club and aim to become a regular first team player. 

Shakespeare is aware that Gray may look to leave if he is not given more game time and says "We have spoken about trying to give him more game-time and we are both happy with that."

Bournemouth had a great season last time around and have strengthened further this summer with the likes of Jermain Defoe and Nathan Ake. They made a similar move twelve months ago for another talented winger, Jordon Ibe from Liverpool.

It didn't quite work out for Ibe during his first season with The Cherries, but he will be hoping to improve in his second year as Bournemouth look to progress further on their best ever league finish of last season. 

Whether Bournemouth feel that Gray is worth more than their initial bid is yet to be seen, with Leicester already showing during this transfer window that they will not budge on their valuations of players. 

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