Vying with Roma to sign a player from Juventus for a fee of more than £25m – Leicester City are back in the big leagues. If City are to meet Juve’s asking price for Matias Soule, it would be their biggest signing since Wesley Fofana arrived for £30m four years ago.
There are conflicting reports coming out of Italy at the moment over whether the 21-year-old would prefer to stay in Serie A or move to the Premier League. Perhaps helping City’s cause is Caleb Okoli, his team-mate on loan at Frosinone last season, who can now sell Seagrave and Steve Cooper to the Argentinian.
Because if City are able to bring in Soule, then he could potentially be a game-changer. It feels like one of their signings needs to fit that brief this summer.
That’s not to dismiss the arrivals of Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Michael Golding, and Okoli, nor the new contract for Wilfred Ndidi. All of those deals look like good business.
But it doesn’t feel like any of them are game-changers. City are one short of those now Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has gone and they need to buy one for Steve Cooper this summer. He needs his Morgan Gibbs-White.
Having players with exceptional individual ability does not automatically make a team better. City had plenty of brilliance scattered around their team when they went down two seasons ago.
But what a game-changer can do is turn a decent team performance into a victory. City will need to play well as a unit to pick up points this coming season. But if Cooper can get the team to a place where they can match some of their opponents, those game-changers will occasionally come good and produce a spot of magic to grab victories.
City have a couple of players in that bracket already. The returning Abdul Fatawu is one. Stephy Mavididi is hit-and-miss, but when he’s a hit, he’s definitely a game-changer too. Jamie Vardy’s ability to be one is perhaps waning a little, but you can’t count him out.
If Soule was to come in and play anything like he did for Frosinone, he would certainly be one. Despite playing for a team in the relegation battle, and despite being just 20 years old for most of the campaign, Soule finished last season as the leading chance creator in Serie A. He completed more take-ons and more carries into the final third than any other player, and was second for passes into the penalty area. He has a very bright future.
So what would be the risks? Firstly, he has spent most of his career playing as a right-sided winger, cutting in onto his left foot. With Fatawu returning, City don’t need a starter in that position.
Soule did play inside in a more central role at times, but he would still drift right, towards his natural position. What City need is a man in the middle, and so he would have to be more diligent in his positioning. It would be detrimental to the team’s fortunes if he was to get in Fatawu’s way.
The other risk is the price. At £25m or more, City would be spending a significant amount of their budget. They would be putting a lot of their eggs into one basket, which can be dangerous. It only takes one injury to be a problem.
Finally, there’s his inexperience. He has started 41 games of senior football in his career. While he’s been very good, that’s a small sample size.
The argument there is that Fofana had barely had a full season of senior football when he joined City in a big-money deal, but he made an immediate impact and continued his trajectory, leaving for more than double his arrival fee in spite of a serious injury. There would be no reason why Soule can’t follow the same path.
There’s no doubt that City are up against it. They’re newly-promoted, they’ve lost their manager and their best player, and they’re probably going to get a points deduction. But a signing like Soule would give their survival hopes a real shot in the arm.
