In an attempt to prepare his team for the Premier League, Steve Cooper pursued a number of transfer targets this summer, but Leicester City was unable to secure any of them.
In addition to spending a lot of money to acquire Oliver Skipp and Bilal El Khannouss, Steve Cooper saw Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid signed on budget.
But before Odsonne Edouard joined on loan, offers for Santiago Gimenez, Adam Hlozek, and Fotis Ioannidis all collapsed, and Leicester did not add a striker until Deadline Day.
Winger Matias Soule was one of the main targets during the first part of the transfer season, ultimately choosing to sign a £25 million contract to join Roma from Juventus.
Matias Soule discusses the rationale for his summer rejection of Leicester City
Last season, while Soule was on loan at Frosinone, manager Eusebio Di Francesco was impressed, saying that Soule “doesn’t lack qualities and has excellent dribbling.”
With that in mind, there was a rush to buy the Argentine when it was revealed that Juventus intended to sell this summer.
Soule was close to signing a lucrative contract with Leicester, but he recently gave an explanation for his decision to leave the Foxes in favour of a transfer to Roma.
“Leicester wanted me so much, both the coach and the sporting director called me to convince me of their project,” Soule said in an interview with Corriere dello Sport.
“But then I felt the love from Roma, from [Daniele] De Rossi, and from my teammates who reached out to me, and I made the decision right then and there to turn down all other offers and focus solely on Roma for all of these reasons and one more.”
Roma get fired Daniele De Rossi, a few weeks after Soule rejected Leicester City, citing the management as the reason.
Before being deployed as a substitute in the team’s most recent match, a 1-1 draw away at Genoa, Soule started the first three Serie A games of the season at Roma.
The 21-year-old has not yet scored or assisted for his new team, Roma, who have had a dismal start to the season and are currently 16th in the standings after just three games played.
Despite the fact that De Rossi has only truly lost one of Roma’s four league games thus far—he has drawn three—his dismal run of play led to his unexpected dismissal on Wednesday morning.
The winger may now feel a little silly because Soule mentioned De Rossi as the main reason he turned down a transfer to Leicester in the Premier League.
Soule may have been a fan favourite of the Foxes supporters considering how eager Leicester was to sign him this summer, but there are no assurances that whoever Roma chooses to replace De Rossi will like him.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE
