Napoli scouted Mastantuono at River Plate before Real Madrid move

Franco Mastantuono is one of the transfer targets Napoli considered and dropped this summer. Sporting director Giovanni Manna contacted the Argentine's agents, the Fernandez-Tamer agency, for information and an assessment. It was never a real negotiation, but Napoli's interest was genuine.

When his name resurfaced this summer, the call to his agents stayed at the level of an inquiry. Napoli's budget limits, and the knowledge that Real Madrid would only sell on loan — an awkward structure for a player of that value — closed the discussion before it ever reached Mastantuono. He listened to Fiorentina and chose the viola, as Fiorentina are nicknamed for their purple shirts.

It is not an isolated case. Other big names have slipped away the same way, including Gila and Gabriel Jesus: real interest, then blocked by the budget. Napoli's summer window closed on 1 September with a net spend of -€47.5m, and Manna has had to respond more than once to Mertens's criticism of the window.

That a sporting director built to work with young talent could spot a player like this at River Plate and still fail to bring him to Napoli says more about the club's finances than its scouting. Napoli's squad currently has the oldest average age in Serie A, 29 years and 14 days, and the rejuvenation project built around Alisson Santos, Giovane and Favasuli remains modest next to the club's stated ambitions. A player identified early and then lost to budget limits is the exact picture of a summer in which Napoli, 10th in Serie A on 6 points after four games, defended its finances more than its own targets.

On Sunday at the Franchi, Fiorentina's stadium, at 12:30 CET (11:30 UK), that near-miss crosses paths with Napoli again — not as a possibility this time, but as an opponent, wearing the purple shirt Napoli could not offer him.