Seen by many before the transfer window as one of the stories to watch this summer, Faouzi Ghoulam’s future ended up being a rather quiet affair, as Napoli made it very clear they weren’t interested in selling
The Algerian defender, whose contract is due to expire at the end of the season, is now expected to sign a new deal with the Serie A outfit, and put a few transfer rumours to bed.
Just because we didn’t hear about them at the time, however, doesn’t mean that clubs weren’t interested, as Corriere del Mezzogiorno reported over the weekend.
The small Italian newspaper claim that both Tottenham and Liverpool were interested in signing the left-back, mostly because of a juicy carrot a certain Jorge Mendes was dangling in front of them.
Corriere del Mezzogiorno explain Tottenham and Liverpool had their appetites whet by the super agent, who has been helping the player’s agent out recently, as Cristiano Ronaldo’s representative kept talking about a possible free transfer.
With Danny Rose’s future still in doubt at Wembley and Alberto Moreno still not the most convincing at Anfield, you can see why both Tottenham and Liverpool would have been interested by such a prospect, but it just wasn’t to be.
Napoli are said to have asked around €40m for their defender over the summer, probably with the knowledge that they could convince him to stay if they just waited it out.
After all, what’s not to like there at the moment? Maurizio Sarri has got them playing wonderful football, they have very attractive players, are regulars in the Champions League and are favourites to challenge Juventus for the Serie A title this year.
Maybe Mendes has worked some of his magic by using Tottenham and Liverpool to scare Napoli, and make that new contract offer all the juicier.
