Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater urged to think twice about Chelsea move by Ray Wilkins

Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater should think twice about moving to Chelsea and would be better off playing regularly at another club rather than being a mere rotation option at Stamford Bridge, according to former Blues star Ray Wilkins.

Drinkwater, 27, made his intention to swap the former Premier League champions for the current ones by handing in a transfer request at the King Power Stadium. Antonio Conte's side are believed to have had two bids rejected for the sporadic England international, valued at around £40m by Craig Shakespeare's side.

Drinkwater is intent on moving to west London before the transfer window closes on Thursday (31 August) but Wilkins, who enjoyed a number of spells at Chelsea as a player and coach, thinks the former Manchester United youth star should stay away from Stamford Bridge, where his chances of regular game-time would be slim.

N'Golo Kante, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas are all vying for a starting position under Conte, and Wilkins does not think Drinkwater will be able to leapfrog the esteemed trio and secure a regular starting position at Chelsea.

"Danny [Drinkwater] has done really well for Leicester over the last couple of years. The important thing for him is to play," Wilkins told talkSPORT.

"Tiemoue Bakayoko cost £40m this summer, N'Golo Kante is a player everybody loves and with Cesc Fabregas there as well, is Danny Drinkwater going to get a game?

"If I was Danny, I'd be somewhere I could play, personally."

Drinkwater is not the only English midfielder that the Blues are currently pursuing. Conte's men submitted a £25m bid for Everton playmaker and reported Tottenham target Ross Barkley earlier this week, but Ronald Koeman's side rejected the offer valuing their academy graduate at around £40m.

It remains to be seen if Chelsea decided to return with a second bid for Barkley, but their chances of luring Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal are all but over; the 24-year-old is set to undergo a medical ahead of a £40m move to Liverpool.