Conte DEMANDS Garnacho: Napoli boss fumes and insists on Man Utd star

Tom Weber

Updated: 1 Feb 2025 17:39 GMT
3 min read

Antonio Conte, Alejandro Garnacho, Napoli — © IMAGO

Antonio Conte is unimpressed with Napoli's failure to adequately replace Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

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The Serie A giants lost their star winger earlier in the window, with Kvaratskhelia joining PSG in a €70 million deal. The Georgian had pushed to leave Napoli after failing to secure a transfer in the summer and this time, the club granted him his wish.

This meant that Napoli would have to scour the market for a replacement and this task has proved to be eminently difficult. They have held talks with a host of targets but so far, nobody has been signed.

With the window slowly drawing to a close, the 2023 Scudetto winners appear to have settled on Al-Ahli winger Allan Saint-Maximin who spent the first half of the campaign on loan at Fenerbahce.

Unsurprisingly, and this is with all due respect to the former Newcastle fan favourite, head coach Antonio Conte appears to be quite underwhelmed by this.

Conte fumes of transfer failings

Speaking ahead of Sunday's clash between Napoli and Roma, Conte voiced his frustration with the lack of transfer activity on the winger front and appeared to call for a more high-profile acquisition than Saint-Maximin.

"I said that the transfer window had to bring me the same level of team," Conte said. "We lost an important player, and today he has not been replaced.

"Everything is fine, but we must not hide our faces. Kvara is an important player, sold for €70-75m. The other starters have been replaced, but not him to date."

Of course, the former Chelsea boss is likely unhappy with the fact that Napoli have failed to secure him his top target, Alejandro Garnacho of Man Utd. The Red Devils have slapped a €70m price tag on him and the Italians have baulked at this demand.

Napoli initiated fresh contact with Man Utd earlier in the week, but precious little has come of this and the pursuit of Saint-Maximin indicates that they have given up on landing the Argentine, who is also on the radar of Chelsea.

Napoli also failed to land other targets like Karim Adeyemi of Borussia Dortmund and Edon Zhegrova of Lille.