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Napoli’s Transfer Splash: De Bruyne, Lucca & Lang Arrive
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Napoli are making major moves in the 2025 summer transfer window — but are they building a Scudetto contender or just stirring the pot?
In this episode of Calcio Culture, we break down Napoli's €43M spending spree and what it means for Antonio Conte's project going forward. We analyze the stunning signing of Kevin De Bruyne and how the Belgian maestro fits into a midfield that finally found rhythm late last season. Will KDB elevate Napoli, or disrupt the chemistry Conte was building?
We also look at big-name arrivals like defender Sam Beukema, striker Lorenzo Lucca and Noa Lang. Plus, we touch on new signing Luca Marianucci from Empoli, ongoing rumors involving Dan Ndoye and Vanja Milinković-Savić, and the bombshell report of Victor Osimhen possibly heading to Galatasaray for €75M.
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome back, my fellow Calcio lovers, to another episode of Calcio Culture. This is your host, Vos. I got both my co-hosts on the line as well with Mots and Logs. On today's episode, we're going to be kicking off our summer transfer series.
00:00:19
Speaker
We're going to be discussing Napoli's transfer window, who have been a little bit more active than the rest of the league. Before we get into that, we do have kind of a special and now announcement from Logs. Kind of. I mean, this is huge. A huge mile mark in the Calcio Culture culture.
00:00:33
Speaker
I would guess storyline as we grow together, paisans, we grow together, we take this ride in this cultural world. We are now one year and two days out from our inaugural episode, July 17th, 2024. We came to you live for the very first time. And here we are 367 days later, kicking off season two cultural culture, Syria coverage, the best pod in all the lands.
00:00:57
Speaker
We thank you for taking this ride with us. We appreciate all the support. We've been growing every which way, social media, Spotify, Apple pods. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for interacting.
00:01:09
Speaker
Thank you for taking this ride with us. We're incredibly excited to take on this next season with you all.
00:01:17
Speaker
Mott's really starting out of you. No, that Logan said that was great, but excited to take a deeper dive into Napoli's transfer business this season so far.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Napoli have really been the ones driving this entire market from Serie perspective, and that's why we thought it made sense to start with them. Defending Scudetto champions, a really convincing Scudetto season coming into this next year, a little bit different of an objective. They now have a couple more competitions that is namely the Champions League.
00:01:47
Speaker
So a different kind of puzzle for Antonio Conte in this next season. He had some promises from the owner and De Laurentiis that they were going to spend the money. And it seems they have done just that, particularly in building out the squad, maybe adding some better players than what they already have.
00:02:02
Speaker
So I think they're taking the bull by the horns and they're going after Scudetto again, and they're going to see if they can do some damage in the Champions League. And it's going to be interesting from an Antonio Conte perspective. But then from a player perspective, it's also different. It's not one game a week.
00:02:14
Speaker
There's going to be more rotation. And really their marquee signing, if I mean, free transfer, yeah I think this took the world by storm when it happened is Kevin De Bruyne. And that's definitely where we need to start because he immediately becomes probably one of the best 10 players in the league.
00:02:30
Speaker
He's been one of the best players in the world for the last 10 years. So it's a really exciting piece to add to this team. But I think there are questions around how is he going to fit in the midfield? When is he going to be used?
00:02:41
Speaker
How are they going to play with him in the midfield? So I'll just start with that. And I know Lovs are a big fan of De Bruyne. So this should be interesting. I know we're excited to see him in the league, but how do you feel about this transfer? yeah I think just going back on Napoli as a whole, certainly a whole different objective this season. Conte got a lot of promises, like you said, from the ownership, and they were able to come to terms after a rocky start aft right after the Scudetto.
00:03:04
Speaker
Conte fully in on this project here, starting off incredibly hot with KDB. This is a huge, huge signing, not only for Napoli themselves, but I think for the brand in general.
00:03:15
Speaker
Not so much getting a player in his exact prime, but he's still got a lot of gas in the tank. And looking at their past, at least last season's transfer pattern, this fits right in with what worked for them last season. You look at bringing in Scott McTominay.
00:03:30
Speaker
You look at bringing in Billy Gilmore. So the real question is, is the midfield too loaded now? Is it going to screw up the chemistry that they finally found that last third of the season that really brought them to glory? And I don't think so.
00:03:44
Speaker
I think he fits in perfectly. I think he's coming in to be a team player. He's certainly not going to be They're starlet, they're number one guy. But I think on certain game days, and certainly with three competitions now, he will have to take over some games here and there. So given his tenure, given his experience, given his leadership, taking that talent, that play style from Man City that we've seen be so dominant over the last decade, I think is going to be a huge value add. And especially to some of these younger guys, there's a lot of names that have come into other teams.
00:04:15
Speaker
A lot of other very experienced players with a lot of talent in the past years coming into Serie So I think that if anything else, he's going to be a mentor, a teacher, a player manager on the field, which I think is going to be huge, especially with the volume of games they're playing.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, this guy had his fair amount of suitors. He could have picked wherever he wanted to He went to the Saudi Pro League, made a lot of money. He could have went to the MLS, made a lot of money. And there were teams in the top five European leagues that wanted this guy because he still got football left to give.
00:04:46
Speaker
And that's exactly what his mindset was. And that's exactly what he felt is that he still has a lot left in the tank to give. And that's one of the reasons why he was so interested and ended up signing to Napoli.
00:04:58
Speaker
It's huge for the league just because of the profile of the player that he is. He sees things on the pitch that other people do not see. Some of his passing that he can is going to be doing in game is going to amaze some people. If you haven't seen him, if you haven't watched him dominate for Manchester City over the last seven or eight years,
00:05:14
Speaker
is he has a running mate, which he already has a lot of chemistry with and did play ah a factor in him choosing Napoli, and that is Lukaku. They have great chemistry on the national team. Obviously, Belgium hasn't been able to maybe do what everyone would have liked them to do in their quote-unquote golden age, but that's not of a lack because of Kevin De Bruyne. He is going to be... He's far is the best player on the pitch almost every single time he steps on the pitch.
00:05:40
Speaker
And in terms of him fitting in... He had an absolutely loaded roster with Manchester City, and he he fit in every single time. So yes, there are a lot of mouths to feed in the midfield now.
00:05:53
Speaker
I think that is a luxury problem for Antonio Conte. But he has feel, he has IQ, he's got it all in his locker, where which he'll have no problem fitting into this team, this league, and making his marks immediately.
00:06:07
Speaker
I also think that another intangible here that KDB brings in, and we talk about this a lot when we talk about transfers and that getting your business done early is incredibly important for any team. The fact that he made his decision prior to the Club World Cup, very very few days after the season ending, just goes to show that Napoli is...
00:06:25
Speaker
continues to be a destination for other players, continues to be a project that that players want to be involved in and that this was not just a a flash ah flash performance winning the Scudette the season. This is a long-term project. This is a destination for players to come. This is an organization that players will want to be a part of, whether you're growing your game, coming into the prime, coming off the end of your career.
00:06:48
Speaker
this is going to help the rest of their window, certainly knowing that they've got guys like a Kevin De Bruyne coming in and wanting to build on this project, build on the momentum that they had from last season. Yeah. And I think you guys covered that for the most part. Two things that I, I really like about this is number one, when they lost Kovar at Skellia, a lot of what we talked about was everything that he did so well, he was a goal scorer. He was a playmaker as well.
00:07:10
Speaker
And I don't think they ever actually replaced that playmaking kind of guy who can create that incisive pass that creates the goal. So I think this is the player that you then add to do that. And I think he's going to help in those games where they couldn't get a goal, where they did have some draws against some lower level teams.
00:07:25
Speaker
Kevin DeBrian's the guy that's going to understand what's happening, put himself in the right place to then create that pass for whether it be Lukaku, some other players that just brought in to generate more goals. And then number two, one thing that we always talk about is been there, done that kind of guys.
00:07:39
Speaker
This whole team now has been there, done that in the league. Now they're going into the Champions League and most of them have not had tremendous amount of experience there. And you bring in Kevin DeBrine, Champions League finalist two times, Champions League winner once, has been in the competition numerous times.
00:07:54
Speaker
So it adds that extra level of comfort in that competition. One question that I do still think is is relevant for both of you guys and I'm curious of what you think when he will be used. Do you think he'll he'll be a starter every league game?
00:08:07
Speaker
Do you think he's going to kind of get picked by Conte to be in certain games? Because again, he is kind of at the end of his career. We know that Conte does like to play that high intensity style that DeBriand really hasn't been a part of something like that in the past.
00:08:20
Speaker
So just curious get your thoughts there. Because again, this is a different puzzle this year. Yeah. So Antonio Conte actually said in an interview pretty recently that he's kind of done with this whole mindset of you have starters and you have rotational players. He said, we're going to have a lot of competitions.
00:08:36
Speaker
Some players are going to start some games. Some players are going to start the other games. We have 22 starters on this team and we're to rotating them throughout because we need them all to play. in every game or sub on in every game in order to make an impact.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I really, really agreed with that statement. I think that's a great way of looking at it. I think this past year and including with this statement going into this year, Conte has really changed his mindset because The pass, Conte would roll out the same 11 for the most part.
00:09:04
Speaker
So I think he's really going to be flexible with De Bruyne, and that's a luxury that Conte can have. He can play De Bruyne probably from the start in the Champions games. He's got much more experience there. And then use him as a Swiss Army knife, kind of change the momentum of a Serie game that they need to go get a win on in the 60th minute earlier. so Manchester City obviously had plenty of guys to go to, and Pep would use De Bruyne like that a lot.
00:09:29
Speaker
And a lot of times it would be very successful because of De Bruyne's reading of the game and how he can impact it. So I think for the most part in the large games, like your clashes against your Milans and your Juventus and your Inters, you're going to see De Bruyne from the start along with the Champions game. And then in maybe potentially the lower ah lower level games, you're going to see him coming on in that 60th minute to deliver the final ball or score the goal to to deliver three points to Napoli.
00:09:58
Speaker
But I really like the way Conte approached the question that was asked to him and how he thinks I got i have more than 11 starters on this team.
00:10:08
Speaker
My take here is like I want to hedge how excited I am about KDB coming because, of course, he's a name brand and he's been there, done that. And we know he's a talent. I do have two concerns. Number one.
00:10:19
Speaker
Game management with KDB is going to be incredibly important just given his injury history. We know that he hasn't been able to play full seasons back to back all the time. So game management, especially through competitions, is going to be a huge thing. And we know that Conte can tend to get into a rut with what Matt said, the same 11 players.
00:10:37
Speaker
My other concern is that we saw last year with Napoli, what worked was that everyone had defined responsibilities and defined places on the field. With De Bruyne, you're going to see that he can play in multiple parts of the pitch.
00:10:52
Speaker
So it'll be interesting to see how the other two men in the midfield, whether it be Zombo and McTominay, whether it be Gilmore and Labaka, how they're able to adjust to where KDB is on the field because DeBron can drop in into the back line and facilitate the move forward. He can play as a second striker and play that final ball.
00:11:11
Speaker
So depending on how the game flow is going, he's going to pick his spots. I want to see how well the other two are able to adapt in real time wherever KDB ends up being on the field. But again, i think aside from the injuries, that flexibility that he's bringing is going to be a huge positive.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, and beyond that free transfer, which was a phenomenal signing, they have spent $43 million. So there's clearly other players to talk about. And probably that the most important signing and kind of a, I would call this like a no-nonsense, just a logical move, was the signing of Sam, I'm going butcher his name, Bukema from Bologna, who was Bologna's right center back.
00:11:48
Speaker
I think it was around $25 million, $30 million. It was definitely a good deal. Yeah, I think it was 30 mil around there. That sounds about right. So last year he was Bologna's right center back. 33 starts, 35 appearances, was widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the league.
00:12:03
Speaker
And this is really just another one strengthening the team. They already had the best defense in the league. If not, they had the second best defense in Europe last year. And you're just improving that. If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. And this is clearly a sign of that.
00:12:15
Speaker
I think what this does add is a better range of players if Conte does want to go to a back three. Because I think day one, the two best center backs are Bongiorno, who's a lefty, who's going to be playing on the left side, and Bukema, who's a righty, going to be playing on the right side.
00:12:29
Speaker
But it kind of pushes... God, I'm spacing out on the same. Rachmani? Rachmani. it It kind of pushes Rachmani, I think, a little bit out of the team, even though we thought he was one of the best defenders in league last year.
00:12:40
Speaker
But it does put you in a place, if you want to play a back three, you probably have the best defense in the league. Well, this signing was actually amazing because it shows that change of mindset coming from Napoli because they didn't have a need at center back. Their center back pairing was phenomenal.
00:12:54
Speaker
Even when Majorna was injured, they were still very, very strong back there. So to go out and bolster one of your strongest points in the field, I think is a ah very clear change in mindset. More games, they're going to need to rotate. So I think that there's plenty of playing time to go around for these three guys.
00:13:10
Speaker
And I don't think that that's going to be an issue. Yeah, this was a great signing for them. This is one of the best ball playing defenders in terms of on the ball in the league. And they have another one in Bongiorno.
00:13:22
Speaker
Obviously, Bongiorno last season had some injury issues. But what this is going to allow Kante to do is just have way more flexibility. Last season, their third center back was Juan Jesus, right?
00:13:33
Speaker
Like now you eat your third center back is Rachmani or Sam. So you have a lot of flexibility here. And it's just it just adding to the best defense in the league over the top five European um leagues. So this is a great ad. This was a bargain buy. I thought that he could have went for a lot more.
00:13:52
Speaker
He wanted Napoli at the end of the day, which is obviously good. So good business by Napoli. This is a player to watch for Napoli at this coming season.
00:14:02
Speaker
I do think that we need, as Vo said, there's they've made a ton of business already. We do need to move to the front line because as we know, last winter window, they lose Kovar at Skellia. They don't really replace him from a talent perspective.
00:14:15
Speaker
They were kind of filling in holes. It ended up working out. Lukaku was showing through, but I do think that they made a couple of moves here that continue to fill in that hole that Keperit Skellia has lost. And I want to point to Noah Lang, who is now an official signing from PSV.
00:14:29
Speaker
I believe they spent about $25 million to bring him in. Noah Lang has been a prospect of Serie A for a couple of seasons now. Certainly a tricky winger. He's going to play off the left. He's going to play very direct. I don't know of that he's so much a ball-playing winger, but he's certainly going to get forward. He's going to get behind the back line.
00:14:46
Speaker
He's good on the ball. He's good 1v1. So I think between the fact that they bring in KDB to play those final balls and they bring in Noah Lang, who's direct and very tricky, very skillful.
00:14:56
Speaker
I think they're finally filling in that hole. It may not be in one player, but they're finally filling in that hole that Cabrera has now taken away from them. think he's going to be a nice accent up top that they tried to do with David Neres and they tried to do with Politano.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, my concern with this one is you I think Noel Lang's a good player. Last year, 21 goal contributions, 11 goals, 10 assists, and the Eredivisie, which is ah that's a great tally for Manny Winger. I'm not going to disagree with that.
00:15:21
Speaker
My concern is that the David is, I don't think he's much better than David Neres. I think David Neres' problem last year was staying healthy, but I thought he was very effective in the games that he did play. And for me, in replacing Kovaritskelia, getting the, improving that front line,
00:15:36
Speaker
I've always felt they need to go one step further and sign that kind of elite lever player elite level player. And I'm not sure Noah Lang is that guy because with this team, where do they rely on players to get goals?
00:15:50
Speaker
It was Lukaku. And it was Scott McTominay. And I'm not sure that Scott McTominay goal output can be replicated this coming season. So you need to add goals elsewhere. And I don't think Politano is that guy. He's never really been that guy.
00:16:04
Speaker
And I'm not sure that David Neres, Noah Lang are going to be that guy. What I do like about it is you have more competitions. This is a guy that can play in any game you need him to because he's he's a high level player.
00:16:15
Speaker
But just for me, again, question marks about where you're going. Is this elevating you to that next level? I'm not 100% but I think that the elite level, it's I mean, losing Cavada, they didn't replace him in the winter.
00:16:26
Speaker
Trying to get somebody better than Cavada is very hard to do because Cavada is one of the best players in the world. And now that he's on PSG, everyone's finally realizing it, even though he's been doing that for the last two seasons for Napoli.
00:16:39
Speaker
They got their elite guy in De Bruyne, right? They don't need to go get another elite winger. I think this Noah Lang buy is a fantastic buy. They finally did, at least at the bare minimum, replace Cavada with a true left winger who has proven he can get goals and get assists.
00:16:57
Speaker
He had a great game ah against Juventus in the Champions League. And he's also got, in my opinion... the Napoli kind of swag that they have. He reminds me a lot of Insigne Lovetze when they were on Napoli.
00:17:10
Speaker
So I really, really like this by, I think he's a creative player. He's going to want to take on his man. He can play a lot of different positions. This allows them to be flexible. And it is actually finally going out and replacing Cavada.
00:17:23
Speaker
Sure, he's not as good as Cavada, but I think they brought in a player at Cavada's class in a different position in De Bruyne. So they were just re-bolstering that left wing that Cavada left, that hole that he left behind.
00:17:34
Speaker
I love the signing by Napoli. And in terms of talent level here... The way that he's progressed through the European leagues, I think is incredibly well done. And the fact that he's now 26 coming to a top flight league, trying to prove himself as he's gotten better every single season, again, starting at Club Bruges, then going to the Eredivisie, slowly. but surely always improving year over year, coming into a prime now, coming under Conte with a lot of talent, a lot of experience around him. I think he's going to be able to absorb that and take it to the next level here, especially given the stage that he's going to be on, the bright lights, the opportunity set that he's faced with. I think he'll step into it quite nicely.
00:18:13
Speaker
One last thing I'll say on Noah Lang very quick is that game against Juventus when I was watching, I kept saying, this guy's going to make a move somewhere because every time he got the ball, he wanted to take his man on.
00:18:24
Speaker
He ended up beating his man a lot of times. He played a large factor in a goal that they scored that game. And I just kept thinking to myself, this guy's going to be make a big move soon in his career because he's ready for that step. How many nightmares have you had about Noah Lang since that game? He was good, but it wasn't like...
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, at the last official signing here that we want to mention and talk about a little bit is 24-year-old Italian Lorenzo Luca, who's on a loan with an obligation to buy with that rising to 35 million euros, I believe it was, from Udinese. Last year, 12 goals, one assist.
00:18:57
Speaker
notable The most notable part about this guy is he gigantic. I think he's like 6'6". He's enormous. And that's his number one, right? Aerial ability has always been his number one trait. When we did, I mean, me personally talking about him last year, I've always had questions about what is his ceiling and is he kind of an elite player?
00:19:15
Speaker
35 million is a lot of money to spend on a striker. We saw AC Milan do that in the winter and Santi Jimenez didn't quite go well so far. yeah might There have been some room for improvement. This is just an interesting signing for me because that's a lot of money to spend on somebody that's presumably your number two striker this coming season.
00:19:32
Speaker
But again, a guy with Serie A experience, 12 goals in the league is is a good goal tally for anyone. So what do you guys think about this one? Where do you see him fitting in the team?
00:19:43
Speaker
I think his output is going to be relatively the same as he had last year, even as a second striker, even following in behind Lukaku as his lieutenant. I think that bringing a mid-tier talent here to be the backup from the same league is really important. yeah He's got a lot of room to grow.
00:19:59
Speaker
He's still rather raw. I chalk him up to kind of the same stage that Dobrik was in last year. I say that a lot about a lot of strikers these days, but I do think that Dobrik's... Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. When Dobrik got bought, he was the golden boot winner in La Liga.
00:20:13
Speaker
um But i'm so I'm saying in the same talent level that Dobrik showed last year yeah at Roma, I think that Luka is at the same stage and needs needs to improve immensely. I'm not saying that he doesn't need to be better.
00:20:26
Speaker
I think that he's clearly his best trait is that he's gigantic and a target man and can get in the box and you have to put a defender on him. You can't just let him be. He's going to be dangerous. But in terms of what he's going to do for buildup, that's and that's a huge hole in this game that they're going to need to work around.
00:20:43
Speaker
But in any case, I don't think that anybody's going to sit here and say that bringing on Lorenzo Luca is a step down from bringing on Gio Simeone when you need a goal. That's a good find. Yeah, so interesting signing. Obviously, this is a player that was linked with Juventus for a while every summer, it seemed like. And I would always pray that Juventus do not sign him because I do think 30 million is a lot.
00:21:04
Speaker
Napoli did a good job in kind of kicking that ah money down the line, right? They're only paying 9 million to loan him this season with an obligation for next season to buy him. But what I will say about this signing is that Antonio Conte has very famously said multiple times, you can get your wife wrong, but you cannot get your goalkeeper and your striker wrong.
00:21:25
Speaker
He's definitely got his fingerprints all over this signing. He sees something in him that he thinks he can get the best out of. He has done it before with Lukaku. We've seen Conte or Lukaku go elsewhere and stink.
00:21:38
Speaker
He comes back to Conte and he's good again. Another thing I will say is Napoli scored a ton of goals yeah with crosses in the box, having Scott McTominay and Zombo.
00:21:49
Speaker
This is another large body in the box. You have Kevin De Bruyne who can deliver the most delicious ball in the world from the right-hand side. Absolute peach. Not comparing this man, Lorenzo Luca, to this guy, but he has a very similar build to Erling Haaland in this very similar poorly poor in the setup play, but very good at running on balls that De Bruyne can deliver, getting on the end of balls that De Bruyne can deliver, so on and so forth. so Once again, not comparing them similar builds though, and similar, like I'm just going to smash the ball in the net at the end of the day when you guys did all the hard stuff.
00:22:23
Speaker
So I think he has room to grow. I think Conte sees something in him. can get, he's hoping to get stuff out of him. So it's a great addition. We've now kind of talked about almost all of the the business that Napoli has done. And you'll notice they've gotten two people up top. They've gotten a midfielder. They've gotten multiple defenders. So they are bolstering every single line.
00:22:44
Speaker
And there and there there are a couple more people that they're rumored to that we're about to cover that's just going to show that they're bolstering even more than just their outfield players as well. So trust overall, great transfer window so far for Napoli.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, and to wrap on Luka, I agree that it he, there's question marks about how good he actually is. But regardless, I'm having nightmares of Lorenzo Luka and Kevin DeBrian coming on in like the 70th minute.
00:23:09
Speaker
And DeBrian just slinging crosses into the box. Six, seven guy, like actually unmarkable. That's a problem. They're going a problem on set pieces where you include Bon Chorno in there and Lukaku in there and Zombo.
00:23:22
Speaker
za domini yeah like That is problematic. So I think regardless, they'll get something out of him and he's going to be an issue to deal with. Just kind of wrap out the other business that they did do. They signed Luka Marionuccia from Empoli for nine million, another defender.
00:23:36
Speaker
So like Mont said, a couple more guys strengthening that back line. And then there was two rumors that we did want to cover quickly because it seems like these these might have legs. The first one is of Vanya Milinkovic-Savage from Torino, who was their goalkeeper. It's looking like they're looking at a fee around $30 million.
00:23:53
Speaker
I question whether this needs to get done, although Vanya is a great, great player. He was Logue's and I's goalkeeper of the season last year. He's the best goalkeeper in Syria. Why wouldn't you bring him in? But at the same time, I think we were all in agreement.
00:24:04
Speaker
And I don't think anybody can disagree that Alex Moret had a great season last year. So it's kind of a question mark. Is this the right place to be putting that money? What do you guys think? I don't know if it's the right place. They've definitely done enough business where they can start looking at those at those spots where they don't necessarily need 100% help. But I think a lot of it depends on the business that goes out, most namely Victor.
00:24:25
Speaker
Ozymin is still and still on the roster, still on their books, and is still linked heavily away, looking to go back to the Turkish League. Not sure what the fee is there, but depending on how that goes, they could have a lot of expendable income where they're like,
00:24:37
Speaker
mean, we have it. Why don't we spend it to get it even marginally better? And I do think that bringing in a player like Vanya would take him to and the next level, at least from the back line. Because as we've seen, Vanya basically did it by himself last year. And having the best defense in Serie A in front of the best goalkeeper in Serie A, I do not know how you score goals against that team.
00:24:57
Speaker
Best goalkeeper in the Serie a subject of, that's an opinion. I'll just quickly comment on the Oseman saga that Logue's brought up. Looking like it's going to be back to Galatasaray. It's going to be for $75 million. It's just, are they going to load it up front and pay it the first year? Are they going to load $40 million payment and then $35 in a couple of years down the road?
00:25:16
Speaker
De Laurentiis is playing real hardball with them. He's asking them for bank letters and things like that. He doesn't think they they can actually give the cash. But yeah, I mean, if you have if you sell like you spent 40 million, you spend ah if you sell Oseman for 75, you now have an additional 30 million to play around with.
00:25:32
Speaker
So this is kind of a luxury buy here. But what it would do for them is just absolutely bolster their defense, which is already extremely strong defensively. Correct. But who I'm more interested in and them buying is going to be the other guy that they're rumored with. And that is Dan and Doyne.
00:25:48
Speaker
I think if they get this done, they would have improved their left wing, their right wing, and their striker, their midfield, and their defense. They would be a scary team. They would have depth at every position. ah Antonio Conte, who we know what he can do when he has a deep team like this.
00:26:02
Speaker
The Dan and Doin deal, for me, would be massive for Napoli. And it would they're already going to be, spoiler alert, my Scudette favorites. I'm sure they're going a lot of people's. favorites, not favorites to win the Champions League for me, but I'd be saying quarter to semifinals with the roster that they have and the players that they have if they bring in both of these players with the depth and the quality at every position.
00:26:25
Speaker
Before you jump in, just really quick, want to cover last year, Dan and Doy, winger from Bologna, eight goals, one assist. But I think his impact on that team was a lot bigger than even nine goal contributions. I think he's very much agreed upon one of the top wingers in the league and would probably be the best forward on the team as soon as he signed.
00:26:42
Speaker
But kicking back to you, I just want to get that other. No, I think that was important. So for the listeners that are coming in for season two. four assist Sorry, I said one assist. I'm at four assists. Yeah, you're skipping them out a little bit. But again, for the listeners coming in for season two for the first time, Dan and Joy came to the scene first for Bologna two seasons ago under Thiago Mota.
00:26:59
Speaker
Had a very decent season, I would say, but it certainly came to the scene. Had been balling out for Switzerland as well. And certainly had a great season last year under Italiano at Bologna.
00:27:09
Speaker
This man torched the United States men's national team a couple of weeks ago. he still obviously got in all levels, can play on different stages. I think this is the guy that Vose you're looking for in terms of where's the elite buy. This will be an elite buy if they get this business done.
00:27:24
Speaker
He's been in the league. He's been there, done that. This guy is incredibly talented. super team oriented, not so much a star in his mindset, but it can be a star in the field. And again, if they can get him into the rotation of those wingers between Paulitana, Noah Lang, that to me is a perfect rotation for the amount of games that they have to play.
00:27:44
Speaker
So he would be a beautiful addition to this roster. Yeah, and the thing for me with this one is I, you guys might disagree me. I think he's still undervalued. I mean, $40 million for, i would say, an elite winger is kind of like that. Why wouldn't you just go and just pull the trigger there? I don't think there's any reason not to.
00:28:02
Speaker
When you're talking about $35 million for Lorenzo Luka, you get $5 million more thrown at that deal, and you get a player that is drastically better than Luka. So 40 million i on a guy that you know is an elite winger in the league that he's already that you're playing in. Like, it's such an easy swap.
00:28:19
Speaker
He's going to a better team. You know, it's going to work. So why not just pull the trigger on this one? And I agree, Logs, you said it. You took the word out of my mouth. This is the guy that I see as your elite winger. You bring him on. He's miles better than Politano ever was even.
00:28:33
Speaker
So now you have a guy who's a creator and a goal scorer and is going to play every game. Like this guy, he doesn't just play games. And we talk about Rafael Leal a lot. And there's some luxury players like that that can fade out of games.
00:28:45
Speaker
Dan and Dwight never fades out of games. He does so much off the ball stuff in terms of pressing, getting into good positions, helping his teammates. I just I don't even know how he's still on Bologna at this point.
00:28:56
Speaker
What is going to be hard with this deal is Bologna don't need to sell him. And it's going to be really up to him whether or not he wants to push himself out of Bologna. And he's not in a bad situation there. That club is still building. We really like them. We've talked about them all last season. and They're in a good place to kind of push for that top four.
00:29:13
Speaker
So I think that's going to be the ah hard part of getting this deal done. One doubt you have to have in the back of your mind in this deal to your point of $40 million just pulled the trigger makes a ton of sense on the surface, of course.
00:29:25
Speaker
But we look back to last transfer window last summer and Motsy's boys going after Nico Gonzalez for who we thought was going a surefire plug-and-play guy coming off of Fiorentina for about the same fee.
00:29:39
Speaker
went totally south. Nico had a very subpar season, very injury-ridden season. And so you just have to have a little bit of doubt in the back of your mind of, are we pulling trigger on a $40 million dollars guy who, yes, has has proven himself in Syria, but with that transition to a new system, is it going to just directly be the same thing?
00:29:58
Speaker
There's a little bit of doubt, at least for me, in the back of my mind, doing the same thing that we saw last season not work out. but i push Where I would push back on you on that one, it's because he's been able to carry this form over to the Swiss national team.
00:30:13
Speaker
i would say, okay, he's already done it at two different levels. Like there's no drop off. And I would say he almost raises his level even more when he plays for Switzerland because his star power, and they kind of need him to step up.
00:30:23
Speaker
So I just feel more confident about Even i was high on the Nico Gonzalez one and got that completely wrong. So that is something you always need to You always do need to ask the question, but just the way that he plays, i would have this would have been my number one on this list of everybody to get done, period.
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, just so we'll quickly wrap up, it's also just his work rate. like He's going to at least work hard off the ball. He could play it left, he could play right. So he just gives work rate and flexibility at the very least if he's not giving the statistics, which he didn't do in the first year under Mott. He only had like one goal, but he gave the work rate, he gave the attitude, he gave the desire, which is what Conte...
00:31:00
Speaker
Wants and needs. So he he'll give that at the very least. So I like that. And I think that would be a huge ad for them.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, just to wrap your months, you wanted it to highlight. There were some outgoings, not all that significant, I would say. Yeah, I mean, there was some some players left like Nathan left for nine million, but in total, there's about Nine players that Napoli have sold in this window for about $24 million.
00:31:27
Speaker
So right now, they're only at like a net spend of $19 million, dollars and they haven't sold Oseman yet. and Exactly. So but what I'm trying to highlight here is just great business being done all around for Napoli.
00:31:39
Speaker
Transfers out, transfers in. They're probably going to be looking at a profit once they sell Oseman, depending on how much more they sell. But just of a great job by De Laurentiis and the sporting director there at Napoli.
00:31:51
Speaker
Two years in a row now, they had a great transfer window last year. They're doing it again. They're getting guys of all different levels, whether it be world-class in De Bruyne or slightly newer, and they're going to develop. So great job by Napoli.
00:32:03
Speaker
Very exciting season to come. Looking forward to see what they can do and defending their current champions. Yeah, and i think, i don't know how Logs didn't mention this. They also released a new kit and it looks very nice.
00:32:16
Speaker
The away kit with some gold trim on it. I might be buying that one. The kits in Serie A are this season. There will be a sole episode of just going over kits from me.
00:32:27
Speaker
Keep an eye out for that. But yes, folks, their second kits here are pristine. Their first kits are nice too. Napoli's always got nice kits. That nice baby blue is always nice. De Bruyne also will be wearing the number 11. They gave him the number 10 for practice, which is pretty big because obviously Maradona was at Napoli.
00:32:44
Speaker
But yeah, very nice jerseys. Last shout out I'll say is that parents over in Napoli right now um Should be my favorite team, but obviously not. that They are still big in my. Shout out to Koozies.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah, but that's it for us, guys. We're going be back talking more transfers. Like I said, this is kind of our summer transfer series. When things happen, we're going to hop on here. But that was everything about Napoli. We're going to be talking about another team on our next episode.
00:33:08
Speaker
But with that, Logs, where can everybody kind of find us and leave us reviews? We really need that. Why Zanz, let us know what you think. Let us know where you think Napoli needs to continue to improve any positions that we haven't covered today.
00:33:19
Speaker
But you know where to find us. You know where to interact with us on all socials, X, Instagram, TikTok, and specifically YouTube. Definitely trying to grow there. Please like, subscribe, comment. And we are on all your podcasting sites, Spotify and Apple Pods.
00:33:34
Speaker
Paizans, it's been a great 365 with you. We're looking forward to the next 365. Cultural Culture is here to stay. Big milestone pass this week. So thank you for coming along for the ride, as I've said.
00:33:45
Speaker
And Mats, take us away. Forza, or do not be a Gagutz. Forza, Cultural Culture.
00:34:28
Speaker
Thank you.