Napoli Market, from Danilo to Casadei: maxi intrigue between defense and midfield

Naples, 8 January 2025 – Not just the goalkeepers' waltz, which is Cagliari he moved the pieces Simone scuffet ed Elia caprile: the January market of Napoli is just starting out and promises sparks in the next few hours both in and out. Having quickly resolved the goalposts, the focus now shifts to defense and midfield, two departments that are ready to be touched by a restyling that looks to the present but perhaps even more to the future.

The goalkeeper and the defender

In fact, talking about a 'repair session' for the league leaders (net of the asterisks) Atalanta and especially Inter) seems reductive and perhaps almost offensive. The same Antonio Conte, likely the deus ex machina of any move that will happen on the market now and in the summer, has repeatedly stated how much the team and its players 44 points in the rankings have gone beyond all expectations. Yet, something has changed and will change in the squad. It started with the posts, for an alternation explained by the agent of Caprile to the microphones of Radio Crc. "Elia has always respected the choices of Tale, but he wanted to play: then in the future nobody knows what will happen because nobody has a crystal ball": these are the words of Graziano Battistini which suggest that the decision to say goodbye (for now?) to the Napoli maybe it started more from Caprile that Tale, who in turn wanted to secure a more experienced and perhaps more ready goalkeeper in the intrigue as Scuffet.

Once the goalposts have been sorted, the Salento coach's obsession remains that central defender who has become urgent after the injury of Alessandro Good morning, who will still have a few weeks to go between healing and getting back into shape: the favourite, needless to say, remains Danilo although the solution is difficult to find with a Juventus who is asking for a severance pay to anticipate his farewell by a semester. The fact that at the moment in the headquarters of Castel Volturno there is no plan B suggests that the priority is only the Brazilian stopper, identified as the perfect prop to strengthen a team that, at the halfway point of the season, is only playing on one front, but what a front. Danilo, experience, quality, versatility and a winning mentality, responds to the identikit outlined by Tale, which will push for the operation to be successful now and not in July, when the economic savings for the Napoli it will be greater but the utility in the gears will be decidedly less.

In the event of a white smoke from an operation that was also publicly endorsed by the prosecutor Oscar Damiani, against all odds of a few months ago, would not be leaving the capital of Campania Juan Jesus, who on the field was able to regain the stripes of the first reserve and in the locker room those of the leader after the past frictions, but Rafa Marin, the mysterious object par excellence of the summer market. The rejection and the subsequent disappointment are almost automatic, especially when the business card speaks of the references of the Real Madrid, but so is the desire for Napoli not to completely throw away an investment that is not trivial in any case (11 million). Hence the idea of ​​a tour on loan or in the homeland, with the Villarreal in pole, or in Serie A to gain experience, with the ambitious As an which seems to have already been booked, in addition to dreaming of bringing back Lorenzo Insigne in Italy. But first the signature of Danilo, which would be linked to the blue cause until 30 June 2026: when we move from the conditional to the indicative, then the defense's waltz, after that of the goalkeepers, will also be unlocked.

The midfield

The third round of dancing should concern the midfield. Michael Folorunsho, perhaps the biggest mystery of last summer, is now at the door and ready to take up the cause Fiorentina after a courtship that began right in the summer, the day after the major renewal, with a salary increase, up until 30 June 2029. For some it was a meteor or, considering also the convocation of Luciano Spalletti for Euro 2024, almost of a collective hallucination: for the Napoli instead the class of '98, given the poor mutual feeling on the pitch, and in particular with Tale, which had also initially excluded him from the list, remains an investment to be made profitable in other ways. To be precise, through the market: in the next few hours Folorunsho will wear purple with the formula of a onerous loan with a right of redemption set at 8 million. Curiously, the same amount that the Neapolitan club could collect next summer from Cagliari for Caprile.

So, for two supporting actors (not to call them redundancies or, worse, outcasts), the Napoli could cash out 16 million or, at worst, find them back in the squad in a few months but presumably enhanced by the time spent on the pitch rather than on the bench. For the cycle, even from these so-called minor operations you can see the growth and foresight of a shrewd company. But also keep an eye on the input issued repeatedly by Tale: the squad must not be depleted either qualitatively or quantitatively, therefore for every exit there will be an entry. In midfield the new face should be Cesare Casadei, on which however the strong, if not very strong, Turin.

Compared to the Granata club, however, Napoli offers much more: short and long-term ambitions, solidity, a very probable future in Europe, if not even in Champions League and, above all, a coach like Tale sitting on the bench. Of course, the Chelsea and his requests, which John Manna will try to satisfy precisely to avoid further raids, with the Turin that still does not give up. The goal is to bring all these operations, more or less of a first level, to the checkers, to satisfy Tale, who in this first half of the season has deserved more than one gift from the market.