Serie A: Napoli rebuild starts with buying up talent this winter

Napoli, after a poor first half of the season, will need to spend money on new players this month in order to build a competitive team for the future.

Napoli is rebuilding their team — and it starts with a player named Diego.

Not Maradona, but rather Diego Demme.

The 28-year-old midfielder, named after the former Napoli and Argentine legend, has played regularly for RB Leipzig in Germany since Julian Nagelsmann took over as coach last summer. He made his Serie A debut Saturday in a 2-0 defeat at home against Fiorentina.

New Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso is hoping Demme and other transfer targets this winter (they also recently acquired Celta Vigo midfielder Stanislav Lobotka) can ultimately help salvage this season, while also looking towards winning a league title in 2021.

“If I had seen a dead team, I would have come out here and told you,” Gattuso told reporters earlier this month after a home defeat to Inter Milan soon after the Christmas break. “I see a great desire, but we need a great run to climb the table. This club can’t have a position like this, we have great values, great players, despite the need to put them in their best condition and give them peace.”

It’s now time for Napoli owner Aurelio de Laurentiis to open the checkbook and help rebuild a team very much in need of an infusion of both confidence and talent. Failure to do so could result in further disaster as the club continues to plummet in the standings.

A poor first half of the season, which included a team mutiny and the controversial firing of coach Carlo Ancelotti, has resulted in a tumultuous time as the Partenopei continue to trudge on in Serie A.

That doesn’t mean Napoli can’t still finish top four or win the Coppa Italia (they’re now in the quarterfinals, where they face a surging Lazio) or go deep in the Champions League. And why wait until the summer to buy and sell players when the winter transfer window allows for such a thing to happen now.

Napoli’s better-now-than-later approach could very well work. Gattuso has tried to bring harmony to the dressing room, something Ancelotti failed to do. Gattuso has also brought back the 4-3-3 formation (something they used under previous coach Maurizio Sarri) after Ancelotti insisted that the players adjust to his rigid 4-2-2.

Napoli hasn’t signed all the players on their wish list. The team had been pursuing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the brash Swede chose to play for his former team AC Milan. While the rebuild continues, Napoli need a splashy signing if they hope to be taken seriously.

Gattuso has had no real replacement for Jorginho, now at Chelsea, in his three-man midfield. That’s where a player like Demme can add both spark and stability.

There’s also the matter of who may be leaving. Players like defender Kalidou Koulibaly and Dries Mertens, both injured at the moment, have been rumored to possibly leave the club as early as this month or at the end of this season. The departures may not end there. Napoli may want to sell off other stars, like captain Lorenzo Insigne, in the hopes of getting a new batch of players that can help the club win a title.

While the results haven’t been great, Gattuso has largely garnered positive attention. Fellow manager Antonio Conte, now at Inter, said of the former AC Milan and Italy midfielder: “I see he has the same passion as me. He has lots of desire to do well and, like me, he started in the lower leagues. I have lots of respect for him. He also coached abroad and had challenges. Not everyone is willing to do that or coach in the lower leagues.”

However, the situation has grown so bad this month that a dejected Gattuso told reporters the team had “hit rock bottom.”

“I send the team out on the pitch and it’s a fact that we aren’t winning. I can’t think about the league table,” he added. “I must only think about improving this team.”

What Gattuso, who had rejected other offers before taking the Napoli gig, needs now is an infusion of talent and for his players to come together. Otherwise, he could be coaching in the lower leagues once again as Napoli could end up in a relegation battle in what is increasingly becoming a nightmare season.

Napoli came into this weekend languishing in 11th place (they remain there in a four-way tie along with Fiorentina, Bologna and Udinese), sliding down the standings with every mounting loss. Since the Christmas break, Napoli have dropped two big games (against Inter and Lazio) with seemingly no solution to get a win against a big club. Awaiting them this coming Sunday at home are league leaders Juventus.

The pessimists among the Napoli faithful will argue that the team’s season is already over and that they need to get 40 points to avoid relegation. The team is now dangerously close to the relegation zone. That would mean an even worse points total compared to the first half of the season. This seems like a goal Napoli could actually aim for in a season that is all but lost at this point.