I have a confession to make- even though I’m a transfer news junkie; I really wish the summer window closed before the official matches begin. But between the national team tournaments and fact that every league in world starts at a different time, this is pretty much impossible. I would love to do fully accurate previews for the main Serie A teams before the first matches kick off, but it’s hard when some clubs have so much business left to complete. So let’s make lemonade with lemons and take a look at what each top team needs to address before the summer window closes:

 

Juventus- just like last summer with Tevez and Vidal, Juventus replaced an outgoing star before their departure. Dybala and Khedira filled in admirably, and now the bianconeri are hoping Pjanic will do the same with Pogba. But the fact that Marchisio won’t be fully fit until at least October still leaves a hole in the midfield. 

Since PSG and Chelsea are determined to keep Matuidi and Matic respectively, Juventus is now mainly focused on Brozovic, who will be even more expandable at Inter should they close deal for Joao Mario. But signing a player from a rival is never easy (unless it’s Hernanes), so Juventus will continue to keep tabs on Luiz Gustavo, Witsel (whom they could just sign on a free transfer starting next January) as well as Rabiot and Kovacic.

 

Juventus is loaded everywhere else- they have Rugani and Benatia, who could start for any other Serie A team, backing up the BBC trio. For the attack they have Higuain, Dybala, Mandzukic and Pjaca which makes Zaza expandable, especially since Wolfsburg is making an offer that would allow Juventus to turn a profit on the former Sassuolo striker- in addition to a midfielder the bianconeri will likely look for a cheap fifth emergency striker to replace him.
 

Napoli- no team in Serie A has been linked to more players this summer than Napoli, who unlike Roma had the certainty of the Champions League revenue after finishing second last season and qualifying for the group stage. Unless Napoli can pull off a miracle by convincing Inter to sell Icardi, the partenopei will count on Milik and Gabbiadini to replace Higuain’s production. 

Napoli is set to complete the deal for Marko Rog, who will arrive after Dinamo Zagreb’s- along with Giaccherini, the Croatian player will bring quality depth to Napoli’s midfield- a very important factor when you consider that Sarri almost ran Allan/Jorginho/Hamsik into the ground by the end of the season.

  

For the defence Napoli is focused on holding on to Koulibaly, especially when you consider that Albiol has an expiring contract and that newly acquired Tonelli suffered an injury. Napoli is looking to bring more depth to the backline because both Koulibaly and Ghoulam will participate in the Africa Cup- the partenopei are looking to bring back either Crisicito or Darmian to Serie A as well as potentially signing former Juventus defender Caceres.
 

Roma- the giallorossi are still benefitting from Sabatini’s excellent moves in the January transfer window- El Shaarawy and Perotti give Spalletti many options up front to mix and match with Salah, Dzeko and Totti who proved to be an excellent super sub in second half of last season. While Roma lost a very significant contributor in Pjanic, they’ve brought back Paredes after he had an excellent season at Empoli- the Argentine midfielder will stay in Italy’s capital unless Roma makes a last minute push for Bologna’s Diawara. In addition to Paredes, Spalletti is keeping his fingers crossed that Kevin Strootman can stay healthy.

Roma has reached an agreement with Torino for Bruno Peres, who would bring many of the attributes that made Maicon so important to the giallorossi when he first joined them. Bruno Peres would give Spalletti the option of playing the 3 5 2 formation as well as using Florenzi in the midfield more often.

 

Inter- the nerazzurri lived up to their “pazza” (crazy) nickname by hiring De Boer, who has no connection to Serie A, just two weeks before the season starts. It’s certainly a gamble, but on the other hand many of the Twitter critics always said they liked Inter’s squad but just didn’t have faith in Mancini.

It’s not easy these days to attract top talent from abroad to Serie A- but Inter continues to do so even with no Champions League. Last summer they signed Kondogbia and Perisic, and this year they managed to sign Banega on a free transfer. If that wasn’t enough, Inter is now very close to signing Joao Mario after he was one of the stars at the recent Euro. Inter will also continue to work on signing Gabigol, but they won’t have too much urgency unless Icardi is sold, which is however a very unlikely scenario.

 

Milan- there is no doubt that Milan desperately needed a change in ownership, but I’m still emotional thinking this could be the last edition of “The Days of the Condor”. Galliani has been known for his ability to wheel and deal in the last days of the transfer window, but it’s obviously much harder when you have a very small transfer budget like this summer. 

With Bacca almost certainly staying as well as the signing of Gustavo Gomez and Paletta’s (very underrated) return- Milan is focused on bolstering the midfield in last two weeks of the transfer window. Signing Bentancur was never going to be easy because Juve had an option to buy him, so Milan appears more focused on bringing Jorge Sosa to Serie A. In addition Jorge Mendes has offered the rossoneri another opportunity to sign Ajax winger Anwar El Ghazi. 

For the sake of Serie A who desperately need Milan to be great again, let’s hope this is the last transfer window in which we don’t see the rossoneri linked to big names.

 

Fiorentina- the Tuscan club hasn’t had a very exciting summer transfer window, but they also haven’t lost any significant players which is rare these days for Serie A teams. While Badelj is pushing to join Milan, Fiorentina has no intention of potentially improving a rival for a Champions or Europa League spot. The viola have also turned down Everton’s recent offer for striker Kalininc who is coming off a good first season in Serie A. 

Sporting director Corvino is working hard to add an experienced defender for Paulo Sousa’s squad- but the negotiation with Lokomotiv Moscow for Corluka has proven to be rather difficult. As an alternative, Fiorentina is interested in bringing back De Maio to Italy from Anderlecht as well as Palmeiras defender Vitor Hugo. It’s also not out of the question they just sign Martin Caceres who is still available on a free transfer after his contract with Juventus expired. 

 

Fiorentina has also been able to keep Tello after reaching an agreement with Barcelona, while Giuseppe Rossi returned after spending the second half of last season on loan in Spain. Continuity with many of the same players in their second season under coach Paulo Sousa could be an asset for Fiorentina, especially since all other top Serie A teams made many changes.

See you next Tuesday for another round of transfer talk…



David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal