Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri has been speaking to Mediaset Premium about the season ahead and the summer transfer market.
 

ON THE TRANSFER MARKET – “We’ve made some good investments on young players but they will take time to reach their full potential and we will have to be patient. Let’s see in the meantime if we remain competitive but these purchases will give Napoli a bright future”.
 

ON SERIE A & THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – “The current timetable is madness. In September, October and November there are more international matches and we will play seven games in 20 days. When you think that the new players have only just arrived, between now and December they will hardly get chance to just train. There are too many games now; we have to take a step back”.  

ON THE GAME AGAINST PALERMO – It will be a dangerous match for us. Last season when players arrived back from the international break we dropped points against teams we should have beaten. De Zerbi will send his new team out with great enthusiasm and we need to be ready”.
 

ON STRENGTH IN DEPTH – “I keep reading that Napoli has two teams but the reality is that we have little scope for rotation. Tonelli has only had two workouts, Diawara has not done a full summer of preparation and Rog only arrived yesterday. Giaccherini has only just returned from injury so for the next few weeks we will not have a huge squad to pick from”.  

ON THE START COMPARED TO LAST SEASON – “Unfortunately, you cannot make an assessment after just two games. The reality is the squad has increased in overall value and when everyone’s fit it will be stronger but to lose a striker like Higuain who scored 36 goals last season is a huge blow”


S.M