It’s been decided (overnight, it seems): Napoli are willing to spend €25m on a new striker in January, and could sell one of their own to make room.
Since Arkadiusz Milik’s injury, the Serie A side have struggled to get their strikers to score goals, and Manolo Gabbiadini is looking more and more likely to be on his way out after a €25m price tag was slapped on his back.
The club were already looking to get someone in, at least temporarily, but with Gabbiadini possibly leaving in January on loan or permanently, a new striker purchase is going to happen, according to Il Mattino.
The targets haven’t changed, with Simone Zaza still up there, and Aurelio De Laurentiis’ decision to invest should make things a bit easier to negotiate with West Ham, yet the London club still need to make a decision.
Coming off the bench in the 3-2 loss against Tottenham, the Italian striker is now four appearances away from the Hammers automatically having to pay Juventus around £20m.
Zaza remains the top target due to his experience, Serie A knowledge and would find it very easy to adapt to his surroundings, and the fact that Napoli have decided to invest €25m in a new striker when Gabbiadini would be available for that price is no coincidence.
Give it a few weeks, and we can almost guarantee you that a Zaza-Gabbiadini swap story will appear somewhere in the Italian press.
That’s just how the transfer market rumour mill works.
