‘Juventus made Hamsik bid’

By Football Italia staff

Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis confirms Juventus made an offer for Marek Hamsik.

It was reported yesterday that the Bianconeri had made an offer for the Slovakian midfielder, which was swiftly rejected by the Vesuviani.

Speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli, the patron confirmed an offer had arrived, and defended the club’s summer transfer campaign.

“This is a team which has kept its stars,” De Laurentiis pointed out.

“We had offers totalling €98m, not including [Gonzalo] Higuain, not selling them is the same as if I had bought players worth that much.

“I offered [Roma sporting director Walter] Sabatini €28m for [Alessio] Romagnoli, who then sold him [to Milan] for €3m less than previously discussed.

“Juventus wanted Hamsik for €25m, I asked them for [Stefano] Sturaro and [Daniele] Rugani and they refused… they got Hernanes instead!

“Chiriches is a good buy, if anything the problem isn’t that we couldn’t Rugani or Romagnoli, it’s that identifying and getting the best central defenders is difficult.

“If you’re man-marking, you need a certain type of defender, if not there’s a different attitude, and that’s why we’ve struggled.

“In the first game we were good for 20 minutes, in the second for 55 minutes. We have the best attack in Italy, unfortunately in the Sampdoria game injuries stopped us making changes in that area.

“I have to laugh when fans want everything immediately, this year there’s a different style of play [under Maurizio Sarri], the defensive line is very high and it takes a lot of energy.

“We’ve gone from doing one training session a day, to doing two a day in 40 degree heat, and it’s obvious it takes patience for the team to gel.

“You can’t immediately turn up your nose, thinking that since we’re Napoli we can only have [last season’s Coach] Rafa Benitez.

“I smile when people say we failed last season with the Spaniard, we missed four penalties, if they’d been goals then where would we have been?

“Neapolitans should realise the difficulties their city faces, the port hasn’t been busy for years, and the Chinese prefer Civitavecchia.

“Our goals also depend on what the other teams do. Sarri may lose another five or six games, I knew when I chose him that it would take time, we can’t win everything right away.”

De Laurentiis also discussed the arrival of Nathaniel Chalobah, and says Napoli will try to sign him if he does well.

“I hope he’s a great player, but for example Sarri is not using [Ivan] Strinic because he’s got less training in his legs than the others.

“The new buys are likely to be used in a month or so. Chelsea didn’t want to give us a buyout clause, because they have a lot of faith in him, but if he’s a revelation then we’ll go on the attack.”

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