We are entering crunch time in the January window, and while we have seen some fairly significant moves in Serie A involving Iturbe, Rincon, Pavoletti and Gagliardini there are still some unanswered questions. Let’s take a look at six hot topics, I’ll provide the background and you can draw your own conclusions…

 

As Beppe Marotta has said every January since becoming Juventus’ executive director, it’s simply hard to find players good enough to significantly improve his squad during the winter window. As an example the bianconeri’s main targets for the midfield, Corentin Colisson and Steven N’Zonzi, are cup tied in the Champions League anyway which makes their pursuit more likely during the next fiscal year.
 

Marotta’s approach was to try and expand the gap between Juventus and the other top Serie A teams for this season, and more importantly beyond. To make that happen, Juventus acted quickly to sign Tomas Rincon, a player who was also linked to Roma- in the process, Marotta improved his own squad while taking away a good addition for another contender in the scudetto race.

With an eye towards the future, Marotta completed the deal with Atalanta for highly rated defender Mattia Caldara who will however stay in Bergamo through the end of next season. By doing so, Caldara will be able to play regularly rather than being a third string backup. Marotta also bought some insurance in case Domenico Berardi continues to refuse to move to the bianconeri by signing highly rated Ascoli winger Riccardo Orsolini.

 

In what has turned out to be one of my biggest blunders of the past few years, I wrote that Marco Sportiello had a better chance of succeeding Buffon on Azzurri than Donnarumma. Since that unfortunate column, Sportiello’s career has taken a turn for worse- he lost his starting job at Atalanta and he went from being scouted by Liverpool to joining Fiorentina on loan with option to buy.

Not that long ago, Sportiello was also expected to become Napoli’s goalkeeper of the future. The partenopei got an informal option of first refusal on the keeper as part of the deal that sent midfielder Grassi to Sarri’s squad, so it felt like just a matter of time until Napoli would bring him to the San Paolo to replace Pepe Reina. 
 

So where that does leave Napoli now? They could go after Mattia Perin but his second consecutive ACL tear may give them reasons for concerns, and he’s also been heavily linked to Inter should Handanovic push to leave for a team in the Champions League. 

 

 

This was supposed to be the transfer window where Milan could spend significantly to improve the squad, instead we are once again finding ourselves trying to decipher Galliani’s cryptic quotes as well as wondering if the Condor has another ace up his sleeve. 
 

While Milan has been able to add some significant players in recent years (Paletta, Suso,Bonaventura Kucka) on a shoe string budget, it would have really helped them to be able to buy more players like Romagnoli. Just last summer we saw Napoli land Diawara and Zielinki for approximately what Milan spent on Bacca- those two players would have been perfect for Montella’s project. 
 

This January we already saw Inter land Gagliardini, while Juventus and Bayern Munich completed the signings of Caldara/Orsolini and Rudi/Sule respectively- all players who had been linked to Milan in recent months.
 

The hope for Milan is that they continue to develop their excellent young players in the second half of the season, and that in the summer we finally see them spend enough to buy veterans who can take their project to the next level. 


 

Net of sales no club in Serie A spent more than Inter last summer. While we can certainly debate if it was wise to invest so much on Joao Mario and Gabigol, there’s no denying that Suning proved their financial power- in addition to opening up the vault for incoming players, Inter was also able to keep all of their best players.
 

Inter has gotten on track with the appointment of Stefano Pioli, a manager who previously lead Lazio to the Champions League and also performed well after taking over at Bologna. So far he’s been able to energise Geoffrey Kondogbia and turned Ever Banega into a valuable player off the bench. The acquisition of Roberto Gagliardini has also the side benefit of allowing Pioli to move Gary Medel to centre back permanently, which should improve Inter’s defence for the rest of this season.
 

Next summer Inter’s restrictions with Financial Fair Play are expected to be eased, and the club has big plans to further bolster the squad; at the top of their list is Wolfsbrug left back Ricardo Rodriguez who would address a serious need on the team. Inter is also expected to pursue Bernardeschi, Verratti and Manolas.

 

While the saying “offence sells tickets but defence wins titles” applies much more to American sports than football, we have seen the price of defenders sky rocket on the market in recent years because there simply aren’t enough top quality centre backs to go around.
 

Last summer we saw huge offers for Leonardo Bonucci, Kalidou Koulibaly and Alessio Romagnoli turned down, and while it’s likely that all three will stay in Italy at least through the end of next season, there are some other excellent current Serie A defenders who could be on their way out this summer.
 

Stevan de Vrij has battled injuries since joining Lazio, but his quality is undeniable. With his contract set to expire in 2018, it’s almost certain that Lotito and sporting director Tare’ will look to move him for a huge fee this summer. Both Chelsea and Manchester United are expected to compete for him, and assuming Milan’s sale goes through there is some hope he could stay in Italy by joining the rossoneri.
 

Speaking of Chelsea and Manchester United, they expressed interest in Kostas Manolas last summer, and now that the Greek defender no longer has the clause where half of his transfer fee would go to Olympiacos, Roma would have more reasons to sell him. On the bright side for the giallorossi, Federico Fazio has performed well and they have a reasonable option to acquire him on a permanent basis from Spurs.
 

While it makes sense for Sassuolo to hold on to Francesco Acerbi until the end of the season considering their precarious position in the standings, it’s possible he pushes for a move to the Premier League since he’ll turn 29 in a few weeks. Leicester City has expressed interest in him and he could be a target for Watford or another mid table club next summer.

 

These two clubs have been the underrated protagonists of the January window in Italy. Genoa has been incredibly active and may be a factor in the scudetto race since they sold Tomas Rincon to Juventus instead of Roma and shipped Leonardo Pavoletti off to Napoli. 
 

Unlike Atalanta who likes to develop their youth team players before selling them for huge profits (like they recently did with Gagliardini and Caldara), Genoa is known for buying veteran players cheaply and selling them for a big plusvalenze. Coach Juric has already welcomed six new players including Taarabt, promising Lazio midfielder Cataldi on loan, and two prospects from Serie B in Morosini and Beghetto who will likely be sold at a profit in a few years.
 

Because of Atalanta’s excellent first half to the season, they were in a safe enough position in the standings that they could sacrifice Gagliardini now. Since they have a great relationship with Juventus they were able to work out a deal that will keep Caldara in Bergamo for a year and a half, and they were also able to find a promising replacement for Sportiello with Aston Villa’s Gollini.
 

Atalanta still has some intriguing players on their squad that will have a big market in the summer in Frank Kessie, who will almost certainly finish the season on Gasperini’s squad since he’s participating in the Africa Cup, as well as fullback Andrea Conti and striker Andrea Petagna.