Giuffredi pitches Esposito for Napoli, but an €11m deal looks like a summer move

"Physically, he's a bull." Mario Giuffredi, a Neapolitan agent who deals with Napoli regularly, spoke on the radio about his client Sebastiano Esposito. He was asked to picture him alongside Rasmus Højlund and Antonio Vergara, and he had the front three ready straight away.

"We are not Napoli's directors or coaches."

He added that he has always helped when the club asked, but that he does not push to place a player. In other words, if Napoli want him, they know where to find him.

Esposito's name is back in the news after Italy's 3-1 win over France. Mancini also used him away from the box, practically as a winger, and he played an intelligent game tactically. At 1-1, though, he put a penalty wide. Vergara came on for him, won the second penalty, and Pio Esposito, Sebastiano's brother, scored it. Giuffredi defended his client: to miss a penalty like that, against Maignan and that France side, you first need the courage to step up. He said he would have been angry if Esposito had hidden.

Radio talk aside, the interest is real. The club rates Esposito and has followed him since last summer, when he came close to joining. The difficulty is who owns him, even before the money. He belongs to Cagliari, who have loaned him to Sassuolo. Signing him would cost around €11m and need a deal involving all three clubs. The summer looks more realistic than January. Giuffredi himself is cautious about the future: Esposito is very happy at Sassuolo, there is no talk of a transfer now, and whether he is ready to step up "we'll see along the way".

A plan for June, a problem for now

That is the point. Napoli are tenth with 15 points after 11 rounds, nine behind fourth place, the target Allegri has set. They have gone three games without a win. After the 4-1 at Monza came the 2-0 against Juventus in Turin, the 4-1 in Porto and the 1-1 with Lazio. Up front, Højlund has 3 goals in 13 appearances. Lucca is still on zero, and a January exit for him is described as a real possibility. A striker who can back up Højlund and drift wide is needed now, not in seven months. A plan for the summer does not fix the season being played now.

The window reopens on 2 January. On 6 November De Laurentiis promised reinforcements for it, but sporting director Giovanni Manna has already lowered expectations, calling the January window "not simple". For the attack, Monza's Gustavo Varela is still the first name. For now Esposito is an idea, not a negotiation. Even people who find him interesting ask whether he is a Napoli player, given that the team still has no clear tactical identity. The former defender Fabiano Santacroce has raised that doubt, and we think it is the right question.

Giuffredi's front three assumes something we cannot see at the moment. Against Lazio, Allegri used Vergara as a wing-back covering the whole flank, far from the opposition goal. Asking who should play next to him only makes sense once you have decided where he plays. Before any new name, supporters need to know what kind of team this Napoli wants to be.

The first answers are due on Saturday 21 November against Torino at the Maradona, kick-off 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET). It is the first home game since the whistles and protests on Sunday 8 November.