There Is A New Target For Napoli’s Attack After Missing Out On Dan Ndoye

Written By Onyeka Daniel

In what is definitely a clear distinction of the difference between the English Premier league and Italian Serie A, Nottingham Forest have beaten Napoli to the signing of Dan Ndoye in what initially appeared to be a race between the Serie A champions and the EPL club.

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After selling Anthony Elanga to Newcastle United, Forest went all in for the Switzerland international and have agreed a €40m plus bonuses deal with Bologna. It will be worth around €40m plus add-ons, believed to be €3m with a percentage of the sell-on fee.

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This was enough for the Rossoblu as it was closer to their €45m valuation for the player while the Partenopei were not prepared to go beyond €40m including bonuse as the player and his entourage had agreed personal terms with the two clubs over a week ago.

Hence, he was waiting to see which club made the necessary steps first and Forest has won the race and soon be announced. He scored nine goals with six assists in 41 matches last season and also helped them to win the Coppa Italia by beating AC Milan in the Final.

He Is now expected to fly out to England for his medical tests within the next 24 hours and with this development, Napoli are reportedly preparing a €35m offer to RB Leipzig for Antonio Nusa instead. They had set their spending limit for Ndoye at €35m plus €5m in add-ons.

It was also made clear that they’re not ready to go any further, an offer which was rejected, forcing them to turn towards other options, with names like Raheem Sterling of Chelsea and Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa on the agenda, but there is a new name on the list.

According to a report from Sport Mediaset, the first option is Nusa, with a proposal worth €35m including add-ons already on the wings. We already saw a similar scenario with Darwin Nunez and Lorenzo Lucca as the latter was signed when the former proved to be too expensive.

For Nusa, he turns 20 In April and can play on the left or right of a trident attack. The Norway international already has 15 senior caps for his country, providing five goals and seven assists. RB Leipzig only bought Nusa from Club Brugge a year ago for €21m.

Now, his value has sky-rocketed thanks to a season with five goals and eight assists in 35 competitive games. In a related development, former Milan and Italy head coach Arrigo Sacchi has claimed that Serie A clubs do not have what it takes to compete and win the Champions League.

He spoke in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport where the two-time Champions League winning manager argued instead that Inter and Napoli should “focus primarily on the league” as trying to give their all in Europe “could jeopardise their Serie A campaign.” He started out with.

“Looking at the Italian landscape, I feel I can advise Napoli and Inter, who are the two clubs best equipped for competing on multiple fronts, to focus primarily on Serie A. In my view, they are not yet ready to fight on equal footing with Europe’s top sides and trying to do so could jeopardise their Serie A campaign.”

The former coach continued, adding “International matches drain both the muscles and the minds of players, leading to a risk of a chain of injuries and inevitable dips in form. To play at a high level three times a week, you need an extra-large squad.”

“With players of equal technical and physical quality, along with the kind of experience and resource management that, frankly, I don’t think Napoli and Inter have yet.” Inter reached the final of the Champions League final again in 2024-25 but were completely dominated as PSG strolled to a 5-0 victory.

It was the second time in three years that Simone Inzaghi had led the Nerazzurri to the final of Europe’s top competition, with his side losing 1-0 to Manchester City in June 2023 and for Sacchi, Inter’s ability to reach the final changes nothing, from his own perspective.

“One might object and say ‘but Inter reached the final last season and if they hadn’t come up against those monsters from PSG, maybe we’d be having a different conversation right now.’ A fair point but the reality is that Italian teams, all of them without exception, are not yet at the level of their foreign competitors.”

Finally, Sacchi was asked what the clubs in Italy can do to close the gap on their continental rivals, to which he claimed “When you cannot afford the superstars who fire up people’s imaginations, your only option is to rely on the game itself. Over time, that is what makes the real difference.”

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“Napoli and Inter need to channel their energy into becoming more and more European, knowing they can reach that level, as long as they refuse to settle.” He concluded. Apart from the two teams mentioned, Atalanta and Juventus are the other Serie A representatives in the UCL for the upcoming season.

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