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5 players Napoli should sell during the summer transfer window

By John Vaccaro

Marko Rog of SSC Napoli during the Serie A TIM match between SSC Napoli and Spal at Stadio San Paolo Naples Italy on 22 December 2018. (Photo Franco Romano)
Marko Rog of SSC Napoli during the Serie A TIM match between SSC Napoli and Spal at Stadio San Paolo Naples Italy on 22 December 2018. (Photo Franco Romano) /
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STADIO SAN PAOLO, NAPLES, CAMPANIA, ITALY – 2018/09/26: Mario Rui of SSC Napoli seen in action during the game. SSC Napoli vs Parma Calcio during the Serie A football match at San Paolo Stadium.(Final score Napoli 3 – 0 Parma). (Photo by Ernesto Vicinanza/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
STADIO SAN PAOLO, NAPLES, CAMPANIA, ITALY – 2018/09/26: Mario Rui of SSC Napoli seen in action during the game. SSC Napoli vs Parma Calcio during the Serie A football match at San Paolo Stadium.(Final score Napoli 3 – 0 Parma). (Photo by Ernesto Vicinanza/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /

Mario Rui

Transferring Mario Rui comes down to one thing for me. He was absolutely awful in big matches last season. The rest of the season he was perfectly serviceable, although Faouzi Ghoulam is clearly Napoli’s best left back, but in the big moments… wow was he bad. Against Juventus it was his red card that officially put Napoli out of what had been a very competitive match. Against PSG he was responsible for all 3 of their goals across the 2 matches Napoli played against them. He also had some very poor attacking performances in Champions League matches where he seemingly couldn’t put a cross in the box.

There is also the matter of Ghoulam’s health and the age of both of these left backs. The 28 year

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old Ghoulam returned from a major knee injury in the middle of last season. That means we could see him start to decline within the next few years and that’s if another knee injury doesn’t speed things up more. Rui is simply not the answer to fix that problem. Rui is also 28 and we saw last season that you can’t truly contend for a Scudetto with him as your starting left back.

Napoli’s best option right now is to move on from Rui and bring in somebody who can take over the left back role in the future as their current backup. Ghoulam should hold that spot down for a couple more years, which would only diminish Rui’s value. Instead if they brought in somebody to grow into the role then Ghoulam’s presence would give them a chance to develop. Rui came to Napoli pretty cheaply, so they should be able to sell him for a profit. His transfer fee would also be bigger than that of whatever developing talent they bring in to replace him.

Sometimes it’s better to get rid of a player too early than too late (cough, Marek Hamsik), and this looks like one of those times.

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