5 Things you need to know about Napoli ahead of the Serie A season

1. Our third Serie A preview ahead of the season is the 24/25 league champions Napoli, they are led into the season by who else but Massimiliano Allegri who comes in following Antonio Conte reaching an agreement with the club to terminate his contract following a really rocky season that saw Conte falling out with the board yet again after disagreements over signings following their league win the season prior, last season failed to live up to expectations for Napoli finishing 2nd but 11 points off Inter in the end trying to defend their title. Their Coppa Italia journey ended in the quarter-finals in a penalty shootout loss to Como whilst the Champions League league phase was a complete disaster finishing 30th in the league phase on 8 points, they did manage to win the Super Cup in December beating Bologna in the final in Riyadh. There’s a lot of questions surrounding Napoli heading into this season so lets see how their summer has gone so far.

2. How has Napoli’s transfer window gone so far? It’s been an extremely worrying summer for Napoli so far only permanently buying players that were at the club on loan last season such as Rasmus Hojlund, Alisson Santos and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic. They’ve brought Allegri no new players whilst also losing the likes of Miguel Gutierrez, Giovanni Simeone and Romelu Lukaku, finances are clearly running low at Napoli following last summer’s expenses but to not give Allegri any new players up until now is crazy in my opinion and could cost Napoli heavily this season. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

3. How has Napoli’s pre-season gone so far? Napoli kicked off their pre-season early in July with a 3-1 loss against S.S.Arezzo with Mateo Politano scoring the only goal for Napoli on the day, their next game was a 2-0 win against Carrarese with Rasmus Hojlund and Giovane Nascimento scoring both goals for Napoli. They followed that game with another win this time against Osasuna in a 2-1 victory with Mateo Politano and Lorenzo Lucca scoring the goals for the former Italian champions, they stayed in Spain for the next pre-season game drawing 1-1 with Celtic Vigo in a game where Giovanni Di Lorenzo scoring the only goal of the game for Napoli. Their final pre-season game came against Aris Thessaloniki with Allegri’s team winning 6-2 with De Bruyne and Lucca grabbing braces along with Rrhamani and McTominay getting on the scoresheet, Napoli kick off their Serie A season at Genoa tomorrow.

4. Who are the players to watch for Napoli this season? With no new players coming in thus far for Napoli it’s down to the remaining platers to step up for Allegri this season, the first player I’m backing to step up is Alisson Santos who has permanently joined the club this summer after spending last year on loan in Naples. He’s a winger that has qualities very few in the Serie A have in that he is extremely direct along with having the end quality to back it up, I think he’s going to kick on again this year and be one of Napoli’s best players. The next player to watch for me is Rasmus Hojlund, similar to Alisson Santos he spent the year on loan at Napoli and has now joined the club permanently. With Romelu Lukaku leaving the club the goal scoring is now down the Dane who I think can improve on his tally of 16 last season, it wasn’t a bad season at all but with a year in Italy under his belt I think he’s another one who can kick on this season. The final player to watch is the most interesting of them all, Kevin De Bruyne. He made it pretty clear last season that him and Conte didn’t get on so I’m interested to see if his improved relationship with Allegri allows him to show his full qualities in the Serie A this season, his form has to improve drastically if Napoli are to have a good season this year.

5. Predictions for Napoli this season? I’m extremely worried for Napoli this season to say the least, no new signings along with their competitors improving has me thinking that they will easily fall out of the Champions League places this season. Allegri’s best days as a manager are behind him as we saw last season at Milan so I really can’t understand why Napoli have gone for him as a coach, they have a young core that have to step up this season but I don’t think it’s enough to keep up with the likes of Inter, Milan, Juventus and Roma who I think have them top 4 places locked up this season. Who knows maybe Allegri will work miracles with this squad but I just can’t see, surely they make a few signings before the deadline?