Wolverhampton Wanderers fans, let’s take you back to the summer when Julen Lopetegui was still in charge and you had just sold Nathan Collins to Brentford.
This was also a period when Napoli were going to lose Kim Min-jae to someone, and the idea was to replace him with Max Kilman.
In the end, the defender stayed and renewed with Wolves, but there was a point when the Serie A side went as far as making an offer, which La Repubblica, relayed by Tutto Napoli, look back on on Monday.
The reason for this is after giving up on Kilman, they decided to go for a Brazilian centre-back named Natan, who hasn’t lived up to expectations.
Replacing Kim Min-jae was a huge task, and few were going to do it smoothly, but Cristiano Giuntoli, then in charge of transfers in Naples, had highlighted the Wolves star as the ideal man for the job.
The price to get Kilman from Molineux was €25m, which Napoli never reached and they are now sorely regretting it, as they have lost their defensive stability, and are struggling to repeat last season’s form without Luciano Spalletti at the helm.
Then came the idea of Robin Le Normand, at Real Sociedad, also suggested by Giuntoli, that was never followed up on.
In short, the Wolves defender and the Frenchman are ‘two of the great misunderstandings of a campaign that turns out to be wrong and expensive’, as Natan continues to disappoint in a position where it was believed Kilman would excel.
