Sabatini: Italiano asked Napoli for four signings, Allegri for one

The journalist's YouTube channel reveals how Napoli chose between Italiano and Allegri last summer — one demanding a rebuilt attack, the other convinced one experienced forward would do. With Lang, Lucca and Neres still on the margins, that bet is now being tested.

by Gennaro SanninoFriday 25 September, 19:39 CET· 1 hour ago

Sabatini: «Italiano chiese al Napoli quattro rinforzi, Allegri si fermò a uno solo: Gabriel Jesus» — Grafica Arena Napoli

Sandro Sabatini has revealed, on his YouTube channel, the backstory to Napoli's choice between Vincenzo Italiano and Massimiliano Allegri for the head coach's job last summer. Italiano, now in charge at Bologna, had asked the club "too brazenly" for four signings before he would take the job. Allegri undercut him with a line that carries a lot more weight now: "This squad can be managed, and at most it would need one more forward if Lukaku leaves." One reinforcement, not four.

That forward had a specific name, according to Sabatini's account: Gabriel Jesus, the experience and quality Allegri believed were enough to complete the attack. It was not the first name tried — Allegri's camp had gone for Dušan Vlahović first, ruled out over his financial demands, then for the Brazilian, a deal that never got off the ground and faded away over the summer. Napoli kept Lorenzo Lucca instead, signed from Udinese for €35m.

Five matchdays in, Allegri is the one paying for that call. Sabatini put it in black and white.

Allegri isn't happy with Lang, Lucca, Neres. Just as it happened with Conte.

The comparison with his predecessor is not incidental: Antonio Conte's final spell at Napoli also ended with complaints about missing reinforcements, and the same script is now repeating with a different coach on the bench.

The numbers tell the story of an attack struggling to have an impact. Rasmus Højlund touched the ball inside the opposition box only twice across the Genoa and Inter games. Lucca has not convinced despite the €35m spent on him. David Neres remains on the margins after a difficult start to the season. Napoli are ninth in the table with 7 points from 5 games, and the draw at Fiorentina, their last league result, has not changed the substance: the team is short of goals and is not closing out matches.

Sabatini closed his account with a line that reads like a verdict.

Allegri thought he could get by with the conviction typical of every coach, but now finds himself in a situation where someone is letting him down.

A conviction born of a precise calculation — one reinforcement if Lukaku left, not a rebuilt attack — that results are, for now, contradicting.

The January window, which reopens on 2 January and closes on 2 February, remains the only chance to fix the squad. But Sabatini's account explains, above all, how Napoli got here: a coach who trusted the squad he had in June, and a club that saved money in the transfer window by backing his reading over Italiano's more demanding one. Saturday 10 October, against Frosinone at the Maradona, will show whether that reading was the right one.