New Southampton signing Jeremy Pied turned down several other offers in order to link up with his former manager Claude Puel once again.
Pied, 27, joined the Saints on a free transfer earlier this week after his contract with French club Nice expired.
The former Lyon and Guingamp player has recently been converted from a winger into a full-back and he said new Southampton boss Puel was a major factor in his choice of destination.
"It's important for me to have the confidence of the coach of my new team," Pied told L'Equipe. "He knows my qualities and knows what I can bring. It's now up to me to pay back this confidence on the pitch.
"We had several discussions. He knows that I have considerable room for improvement and that I can express myself in this league. It's up to me to prove it on the pitch.
"I had a nice season with Nice in my new position at full-back and it's important for me to back it up."
According to L'Equipe, Pied turned down offers from Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne and Turkish side Trabzonspor before moving to England.
"I tried to retain a lot of humility so as not to take myself for someone that I'm not," Pied said. "I received a good few offers. I looked, I listened, I visited.
"I also had contracts on the table. I thought it out well and Southampton was the best choice for me.
"My priority was to have an experience abroad. I also received phone calls from French clubs ... but I didn't change my course of action and I wanted to see the different proposals from abroad that could have been made to me. I didn't want to have any regrets."
