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The Magnificent Seven - Serie A players who are like new signings

The Magnificent Seven - Serie A players who are like new signings

“There is a 99.99 percent chance he’ll stay with us”, “Our mercato is over”, “Some players will have to leave before we buy”- which one of these Adriano Galliani sayings is your favourite? I’ve covered transfers long enough to not put much stock into anything said publicly about potential moves, but one of Galliani’s saying is near and dear to my heart because it happens to be very true.
When Galliani refers to a current Milan player as being “like a new purchase” he is often mocked because it sounds like an excuse to not spend on a transfer, but in some cases this can be really true. While the January transfer window in Serie A has now cooled off after a fast start, many top teams are now focused on re integrating existing players as the most effective way of improving, let’s take a look at some who could impact the league during the second half:  
 
Lorenzo Tonelli- Napoli has a habit of completing deals right after receiving guaranteed Champions League revenue. When they qualified out of the group stage of the competition last December, president De Laurentiis completed the deal with Genoa for striker Leonardo Pavoletti, while last summer he acquired Tonelli from Empoli the day after his team clinched second place in Serie A- which came with a ticket to the group stage of the Champions League.


 
There were high expectations for Tonelli at Napoli, especially considering the fact that he had previously played for Maurizio Sarri for multiple seasons at Empoli. But unfortunately for Tonelli, his time at Napoli got off to a rough start because of a knee injury- De Laurentiis also acquired Nikola Maksimovic in the last day of the summer transfer window. But now that Koulibaly is playing in the AFCON 2017 tournament, Tonelli has an opportunity to show why he was so highly rated last season.
 
Domenico Berardi- one of the most puzzling moves of the summer window was Sassuolo’s decision to sell Nicola Sansone to Villareal for a relatively modest transfer fee. That transaction became disastrous once Berardi suffered an injury in late August; as a result Di Francesco was left with very few quality options up front.
 
To say that Sassuolo missed Berardi is the understatement of the millennium. The talented offensive winger turned down the opportunity to join Juventus last summer, and he then rewarded his club with excellent performances in the Europa League (5 goals in 4 matches). Sassuolo will need Berardi to have an outstanding second half to the season to return to being the fairy tale story team in Serie A, a title that Atalanta has claimed in recent months.
 
The level of Berardi’s performances the rest of the season will likely determine his market value next summer when he’ll still be just 23 years old. So far Berardi, a player his longtime manager Di Francesco described as shy and introverted, has decided to pass on the opportunity to join Juventus- so it’s possible he may decide to follow Antonio Di Natale’s career path. Inter will also almost certainly make another attempt to sign him should they decide to cash in on Perisic next summer. 


 
Marko Pjaca- had Berardi not turned them down; it’s unlikely that Juventus would have signed the 21 year old Croatian player. Pjaca arrived in Turin before the bianconeri were able to convince Chelsea to give them back Juan Cuadrado, and then he suffered an injury that caused him to miss multiple months. 
 
But make no mistake about it, Juventus believe so much in Pjaca that when Julian Draxler’s entourage contacted them about restarting negotiations to bring him to Turin last December, they were told “thanks but no thanks” because they want to focus on Pjaca.
 
The former Dinamo Zagreb winger showed at last summer’s Euro that he possesses  the attributes Juventus lacks- dribbling and creativity. Allegri has been using him off the bench in recent weeks and his role could expand even more before the end of the season.

 
Mario Rui/ Alessandro Florenzi- while Luciano Spalletti has to deal with fact Mohamed Salah is currently playing in the Africa Cup (and hope that the tournament doesn’t take the same toll it took on Gervinho a few years ago), he finally got Mario Rui back who recovered from an ACL injury he suffered during the US tour last August. The Portuguese left back was coming off an excellent season at Empoli when Roma acquired him last summer, and while Emerson Palmieri has performed well during his absence, his return will give Spalletti more options at a time where Roma will be playing many matches in a short amount of time.


 
In addition to Mario Rui, the giallorossi are also expected to get Florenzi back by mid-February. The versatile midfielder will be able to let numerous players (Bruno Peres, Strootman, De Rossi and even the offensive wingers) rest while he regains his form. Roma will have a lot of upside potential in second half of the season if they can hold on while Salah is playing in Africa Cup; the return of these two players will certainly help. 
 
Geoffrey Kondogbia- unlike the other players listed so far, the French midfielder isn’t coming off an injury but finally Inter has a manager who has figured out how to use him. One of the tasks given to Stefano Pioli was to re-energize Kondogbia, a player that Inter had invested a ton on and while there were some encouraging signs in the past few weeks, the arrival of Roberto Gagliardini may have also given the nerazzurri the ideal partner to get the most out of him.
 
While there have been some Premier League teams (as well as Marseille) that expressed interest in Kondogbia, it’s unlikely that anyone will come close to offering the remaining amortised value of the transfer fee Inter paid, so unless a Godfather like offer arrives from China, he’ll almost certainly finish the season with the nerazzurri.

 
Jose’ Sosa- for the first few months of the season, Milan’s summer transfer moves appeared to be as effective as Mariah Carey hosting a New Year ’s Eve party. But eventually Mario Pasalic and Gianluca Lapadula started to establish themselves as important players for Vincenzo Montella, so could Sosa be next?
 
The Argentine midfielder was heavily linked to Fenerbahce in the past ten days, but he didn’t appear interested in returning to Turkey after leaving Besiktas because of concerns over the safety of his family. Sosa got a start against Napoli because of Locatelli’s suspension, and he showed the ability to bring some much needed creativity to Montella’s midfield- he could end up being a good stop gap solution until Milan can spend significantly to upgrade at his position. 






David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal