FOCUS: Napoli are right to spend Higuain money on promising youth
Then again, Juventus seem to have bought to win now, with only Pjanic (born in 1990), Marko Pjaca (1995) and Rolando Mandragora (1997) players still in the flower of youth.
Napoli, for their part, seem to betting heavily on younger players: with Arkadiusz Milik (1994), Piotr Zielinski (1994) and Amadou Diawara (1997) already in the bag, and Marko Rog (1995) almost there too.
Were they to sign Nikola Maksimovic (who is 24), the oldest signing would be Lorenzo Tonelli, who was still only born in 1990. This is a brave, and potentially very special path they’ve chosen to go down.
Is this really speculation, or betting on prospects? Once you tally the sums, you realize that most of the booty Aurelio De Laurentiis accumulated from the sale of Higuain has gone straight back into the transfer window, with €15m each being spent on Diawara, Zielinski and (likely) Rog, and €30m more on Milik. These aren’t bets, these are talented players who have already delivered in league football, the majority in Italy.
In fact, were Maksimovic to be signed too (talk is of €25-30m), suddenly Napoli will have spent more than the 90m or so they got for Higuain, around €100m for five players.
De Laurentiis is gutsy: he’s betting on these players to help him out both in the present and the future. How can we journalists complain of this, when we’re always banging on about Italian clubs not investing in youth?
Though it may be easier to win with the Higuains or the Alveses of this world, Napoli are building something special, instead of simply splurging €40m on a Carlos Bacca and telling the fans job done.
This isn’t just an alternative approach, it’s one we here at Calciomercato personally prefer. Let’s hope it pans out.
@steagresti, adapted by @EdoDalmonte
