As soon as we saw that Portuguese newspaper O Jogo featured an interview with Adrien Silva on Sunday, we knew they’d bring his Leicester City drama into the conversation.
Signed by the Foxes in a €25m deal from Sporting in the summer of 2017, the midfielder couldn’t be immediately registered by the Premier League side due to a mistake in the transfer process.
Silva waited until January 2018 so he could play for Leicester City, and to this day, this is pointed out as one of the reasons why he couldn’t succeed at the club.
This time, the 32-year-old points out another problem he had with a specific manager at the King Power.
“It is a very difficult story, but at the same time very important in my way of being, seeing the game and being in the game,” Adrien Silva told O Jogo.
“I went through that transfer moment at Leicester, but the worst wasn’t that. From that, I got up to play the World Cup, but coming back from this event and not having the opportunities I deserved with coach Puel… without knowing how or why and the type of treatment I received, are things that mark. They aren’t forgotten.”
Silva says he could only be happy again during his loan at AS Monaco in 2019.
“Anyone who thinks that a footballer’s life is a bed of roses is mistaken. When they don’t let us do what we like the most, it’s the worst feelings we can have. It’s the same in any job. It’s very negative. I recovered that at Monaco, after many months of fighting to have the opportunity to play again. I changed my air and thanks to the opportunity given to me by Leonardo Jardim. I was happy to compete again.”
Adrien Silva left Leicester City on a free move to Sampdoria last summer. He claims he had more adaptation problems due to the date of the transfer.
“At first, maybe. I arrived late, because Leicester released me in the last week of the market. And it always has an effect. Following the pre-season to the start of the championship is something different and I took the train in progress. The team already had four games played. So it’s more difficult, but I adapted quickly.”
When quizzed if he had any contact with Claudio Ranieri before the move, he claims the manager was very important for the transfer to happen.
“We had already spoken a few times. It wasn’t the first time that he tried to sign me. It happened when he was at Leicester. This weighed on my decision, the fact that he knows me well, that he knew my qualities and what I could add to the group.”
