West Ham United offered £33 million for Piotr Zielinski but Napoli would have only allowed the Serie A star to join the Premier League outfit for a colossal fee closer to £70 million, reporter Ciro Venerato tells Luna TV.
It’s easy to forget, with Luciano Spalletti’s flying high at the top of both the Serie A and their Champions League group, that there were almost riots on the streets of Naples only a couple of months ago.
With Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly, Fabian Ruiz and Dries Mertens all departing, some serious questions were being asked – rather loudly – about Napoli’s ambition under the increasingly under-fire owner Aurelio de Laurentiis.
One can only imagine the scene if Il Partenopei had accepted that £33 million bid from West Ham for Poland international Zielinski too (Il Mattino).
West Ham United made £33 million bid for Napoli’s Piotr Zielinski
“Napoli thought about selling the midfielder,” Venerato explains; suggesting that the one-time Liverpool target would have only departed for a fee in the region of £70 million. “But the English team that he wanted him (West Ham) only offered 50 per cent of what De Laurentiis wanted.
“Napoli, having taken note of the low offer from the English club, consequently decided not to sell Piotr Zielinski. The choice then fell on Fabian Ruiz; sold to PSG.”
It’s a funny old game, football.
No one expected to see Napoli cruising at the top of the table. On both the domestic and the European stage. Not after so many star players departed during a turbulent summer. The inspired additions of Kim Min-Jae, Giacomo Raspadori and the exhilarating Kvicha Kvaratskhelia have more than compensated for some high-profile departures, however.
The masterful Zielinski, meanwhile, is now playing some of the best football of his career.
He’s scored four goals already, including against Liverpool and Ajax in the Champions League. Zielinski has matched his tally of five assists from the whole of last season too.
“I think (Napoli) can build their team around Zielinski. A great player,” Jurgen Klopp said before the one-time Empoli man orchestrated last month’s 4-1 obliteration of Liverpool at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Napoli face Ajax in the Champions League tonight. They battered the Dutch giants 6-1 in Amsterdam a week ago.
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