AS Roma boss Claudio Ranieri 'sorry' to see Enzo Le Fée leave as Sunderland transfer edges closer

AS Roma boss Claudio Ranieri has admitted that he was “sorry” to let Enzo Le Fée leave the Italian capital on Thursday, as the midfielder edges ever closer to a transfer to Sunderland.

The 24-year-old is expected to be unveiled as a member of Regis Le Bris’ squad in the near future, and looks set to join the Black Cats on an initial loan deal that includes an option-to-buy clause. It is understood that the clause will become mandatory if Sunderland secure promotion to the Premier League this season, and would make Le Fée the club’s record signing.

Quite remarkably, the Frenchman only signed for Roma from Stade Rennais during the summer transfer window, commanding a fee of around £20 million in the process. Since then, however, he has struggled to settle at the Stadio Olimpico, and had been limited to just six Serie A appearances before moving towards the exit door.

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For their part, Roma writ large are also enduring a tumultuous campaign. Former Leicester City and Chelsea manager Ranieri is their third boss of the season, and speaking in a press conference on Friday, the 73-year-old suggested that the general upheaval around the club had done little to help Le Fée’s chances of establishing himself.

When asked about the player’s looming exit, Ranieri said: “If he spoke to us, I won't tell you... We have a broad vision of everything, but everything is not a priority. We have to try to find those players for Roma, that's all. There's no point in dusting the eyes of our fans. Like, they took so-and-so, they took so-and-so, I don't like it.

“Whoever comes, has to be up to the task. If they make a mistake, [sporting director, Florent] Ghisolfi and I make a mistake. We take responsibility. Le Fée... Le Fée should go, yesterday he said goodbye to me and I was sorry to let him go, to be honest. I told him: ‘You had the misfortune of changing coaches, I never got to try you, I had priorities’. But I liked the boy a lot.

“As I told you some time ago, there are those who aren't happy, those who suffer too much to be here and I can understand that. I also left Roma when I was young. At the time, there was no long bench. There was the goalkeeper, the twelfth and the thirteenth. I was the fifth or sixth full-back, I said, ‘What am I doing here?’. So, I left.

“He left because he wants to play. He goes down a category like I went down going to Catanzaro in Serie B. He went to England because his coach [Le Bris, who worked alongside Le Fée at Lorient] was there who made him play, so he knew him and everything. We have two options. If they don’t buy him, we will have a player who will have played six months in the Championship - a tough, fast, beautiful, important championship - so a more mature player will return. If Sunderland buys him, however, we will have made a positive capital gain for the club. These were our visions”.