After Leicester City sent a scout to watch the match between Fiorentina and Sassuolo, there have been several claims about the club wanting to sign players from either of the two Italian clubs.
That would naturally lead one to assume that most, if not all, of the reports have been educated guesswork or agents taking advantage of the situation to perhaps try and get their client a new contract.
On December 21st, Italy’s TMW reported that Leicester were set to make an offer for 28 year old Sassuolo defender Francesco Acerbi, and we said to take it with a pinch of salt.
Then, on December 29th, Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Leicester were set to bid €10m for the player and try for a January deal.
A day later Calciomercato claimed Leicester had already made an offer for Acerbi, but Sassuolo weren’t interested in selling. We suggested that Leicester’s name may well be being used to up the player’s profile.
With claims everywhere, Italy’s Sky Sports spoke to Acerbi, with Calciomercato then quoting him as saying: “Sometimes it seems like a cliche, but I think only of Sassuolo. Then of course, the goal is to go back into a great team. Milan? There it did not go well, and if I failed it was only my fault.”
With a contract ending in June 2018, Acerbi is at the stage when his agent would be looking for future moves or trying to push Sassuolo into offering a good new deal. Maybe Leicester’s interest is genuine, or maybe the Premier League club’s scouting trip provided a perfect marketing opportunity.
