[골닷컴] Reporter Kang Dong-hoon = As the possibility of Napoli lifting the Italian Serie A championship cup for the first time in 33 years has increased, a lot of attention is being paid to it. Recently, the club’s management policy was highlighted when wages, transfer fees and grades were compared to two years ago.
Italian media ‘Sky Sports’ said on the 17th (Korea time), “Napoli, which leads Italy’s Serie A this season, has implemented a wise spending policy in recent years.” It also left a net profit in the transfer market,” he said.
Napoli have reportedly implemented a policy of parting ways with their star players to reduce wages. In fact, during the transfer market last summer, Lorenzo Insigne (31, Toronto) and Dries Mertens (35, Galatasaray), who received high weekly wages, were sent as free agents (FA), and Kalidou Koulibaly (31 , Chelsea) pays 4,000. It was sold for 10,000 euros (about 53.5 billion won).
Instead, young and promising players were recruited on transfer fees and low wages. As a result, within two years, Napoli’s total spending on the squad has been cut in half. According to actual data, it was 155 million euros (about 208 billion won) at the time of the 2020-2021 season, but it has dropped to 68 million euros (about 91 billion won) this season. In the process of recruiting and selling players, the net profit was 13 million euros (about 17.5 billion won).
That doesn’t mean Napoli’s performance was bad. On the contrary, compared to two years ago, we had more multipliers. Based on the first half (round 19), we only had 11 wins in the 2020-2021 season, but this season, we have reached 15 wins even though we haven’t played one game less yet.
The reason why Napoli managed to continue with such a high march was Kim Min-jae (26), who started as the core of the defence, Andre-Frank Jambo Anguisa (26), who held the center in midfield, and Hvica Kvara, and he established himself as an ace in attack, and that because new players joined them like Tsuhelia (21) played a big role.
In fact, Kim Min-jae has played in 23 games across all competitions this season, tying down opposition attackers with solid physical defense, quick pace and stable defense. He also showed his advantage from set pieces and scored two goals. Angus and Kvarachhelia showed the best performance in 21 games (3 goals, 6 assists) and 20 games (9 goals, 12 assists) in the official game, respectively.
Meanwhile, according to ‘Five Thirty Eight’, a media specialist in sports statistics, Napoli’s chance of winning was set at 80%. Compared to the start of this month (59%), this is a massive 21% increase. It is no exaggeration to say that he has come closer to a ‘Scudetto’ (the shield pattern attached to the center of the Italian Serie A champion’s kit next season). Inter Milan 9%, AC Milan 6% and Juventus 2%.
The last time Napoli won the ‘Scudetto’ was in the 1989-1990 season. After that, he had nothing to do with winning the Italian Serie A. Although it is challenging for the first time in 33 years this season, the hope is that, on the current momentum, there is a good chance of ascending to the throne.
