Napoli will make a new and improved bid for Brighton and Hove Albion’s Billy Gilmour after their first bid was rejected.
That’s according to journalist Gianluca di Marzio, who reports that a second bid will be made once the Italian side have secured sales to fund a move.
Antonio Conte’s side are continuing to reshape the squad this summer and after already making signings in other areas are now focused on adding midfielders.
Gilmour is one of the players they are currently focused on, and they’ve already had a bid rejected by Brighton for him.
The expectation was that they would return with another offer before too long and Di Marzio insists that is on the cards.
“Not just exits: Napoli is also working on two possible additions in midfield,” he said.
“The suspects to leave the Azzurri are Gianluca Gaetano and Jens Cajuste. With these two transfers, Napoli will be able to close for Marco Brescianini from Frosinone, for whom he has entered in recent weeks.
“Furthermore, the Azzurri will return to Billy Gilmour from Brighton after the offer was rejected by the English. Napoli will then present themselves with a new offer.”
The question is what Napoli will offer to try and get the midfielder out of Brighton this summer and how much of an improvement their second bid will be.
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has never been too keen to spend his cash, even for a manager like Conte, so it seems unlikely he’ll suddenly up a bid for Gilmour significantly.
We’d perhaps suggest the next offer would be a small increase in what could be one of many small, painfully slow steps before a deal is agreed in a few weeks’ time.
That’s usually the case with these matters and we’d expect the same here as they target the Brighton man.
