Napoli Transfer - Departures

Two key players have shockingly departed Napoli. Both Insigne and Hamsik have left the club, Sky Sports can report. With the quality of both these players the pressure is on Villas-Boas to bring in tremendous quality as replacements.

Marek Hamsik

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Manchester City have signed Hamsik for £40 million. The Napoli board are said to be upset to see Marek go, however the amount of money offered was too much to reject and the money can be used to see the club go further forward.

Lorenzo Insigne

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Insigne has joined Paris Saint Germain for £15 million. With many wingers at the club it is thought that Insigne was not a vital player for Napoli, however fans will be sad to see him leave.

Napoli Transfer - Arrivals

Andre Villas-Boas has added two new high profile signings into his Napoli side. One being a young German goalkeeper, predicted to be the future best goalkeeper in Europe. The other being a well known attacking midfielder from a highly reputable European club, Dortmund.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

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Napoli have signed henrikh mkhitaryan from Dortmund, for £31.5 million. The atatcking midfielder is a replacement for the recently sold Marek Hamsik. AVB has announced how estatic he is with this signing - "Henrikh brings with him Champions League experience - I was looking to bring in a player that had this. I was sad to see Marek go as he was a great individual with huge footballing talent; however Henrikh is a year younger than Hamsik and brings with him greater European experience and in my opinion even more talent."

Marc-André ter Stegen

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A huge signing for Napoli. This kid provides a world class keeper for a good decade - one of the reasons the Serie A champions paid £37.5 million for. With Reina leaving from his loan spell Napoli needed a new keeper, and AVB has not surprised anyone by brining in a young face. However some are saying the price is extortionate but it has been revealed the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Dortmund were in talks with the youngster raising his price considerably. AVB stated "I was not going to lose the battle to sign Marc. He is key in my aims in my future here at Napoli, he will be the best goalkeeper no doubt about it. He will already be one of the top goalkeepers in Serie A even at his age - I feel lucky he chose to come to Napoli"

Italia Super Cup

Napoli faced AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup, which saw 70,000 fans travel to the Olimpico stadium on a very warm summers evening in Rome.
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The Super Cup has not been won by Napoli since 1990 and it gave AVB his second chance of winning silverware with Napoli - it would also give the Napoli side a huge morale boost going into the new Serie A season.

The Match

The match begun with Napoli playing their usual possession based football, however their attacking threat did not seem to be apparent. AC Milan looked more dangerous and this paid off for the side in the 20th minute when the mighty Italian side took the lead with a goal from Allesandro Matri.
This goal seemed to kick some spirit into the Napoli side, and it took them only 10 minutes to get an equaliser, which was scored by their new man Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The game then kicked into life with good football from both sides. Villas-Boas made a substitution by putting the Belgium star Mertens onto the pitch who quickly made his presence pay by hitting the post with a freekick which was quickly rebounded in by the player of the season last year, Abdennour. The game was then going Napoli's way with good attacking football that paid off again with AC Milan's Andrea Poli making a mistake and scoring an own goal, making it 3-1 to the reigning Serie A Champions with only 10 minutes left.
AC Milan got one back in the dying minutes of the game, with a good goal from Zapata. However the goal proved to only be a conciliation and Napoli won their second piece of silverware under their young manager Andre Villas-Boas! Napoli look a dangerous side this year.
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Napoli Loan Fernando Torres

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Spanish star Fernando Torres has shockingly moved from Chelsea in a last minute loan deal seeing him move to Serie A Champions Napoli until the rest of the season. Napoli's main striker Higuain has not started to score as of yet since joining Napoli and AVB has said he hopes the two will compete for the starting spot making them score as much as they can.
Napoli fans are said to be estatic to see such a high profile individual arrive at the club, and this signing will certainly help Napoli achieve big things this season.

Napoli - Champions League Draw

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Chelsea

Basel

Napoli

Dinamo

October Review

An outstanding start to Napoli's season. Two very tough sides to start the season off, yet 9 points were managed with a +5 goal difference. A 3-0 away win to AC Milan just shows what a force this Napoli side could prove to be this season.
Torres also scored on his debut, AVB told Sky Sports he was delighted with a goal already from Torres. This is likely to put pressure on Higuain to add more goals to his name. However, will AVB give him the chance? Villas-Boas started Torres in his first available game and Higuain didn't even come on as a sub.

League Standings

Player of the Month

Sebastian Corchia
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The young French right back has put two outstanding performances in for Napoli. The coaching staff have been working on his attacking skills as they want attacking full backs; and with two assists from crosses it seems to be paying off. His pace has proved to make it hard for attackers to beat him.

October Review

Very mixed month for Napoli. Not a bad run in the league, only losing one game - however Sassuolo should be a team Napoli easily beat (a red card for Inler did not help matters).
Perhaps even more dissapointing was the 4-0 loss to Chelsea. Napoli's defence are known to be one of the best in Europe, only conceding 18 in the league last season - so seeing 4 go past them in one game is horrific for them, even against a side like Chelsea. Napoli fans were expecting a better performance, and it has not filled them with hope to compete with the best in Europe.
The next Champions League games are cruical for Napoli if they want to progress through the group stage.

League Standings

Player of the Month

Dries Mertens

The Belgian winger has been playing in the CAM role that Hamsik played in last season and the injured Mkhitaryan has been playing in this season. He has performed way beyond expectations and has been running defences ragged scoring 3 goals this month making him the top goalscorer so far this season.

October Review

Napoli have enjoyed a wonderful October, losing no games. They have battled there way back to the top of Serie A but is proving difficult to stay there infront of AC Milan and Juventus. The Serie A looks a lot more competitive than last season where Napoli looked comfortable at the top for the majority of the season. Napoli's draw to Juventus away from home can be looked at very positively and AVB looked in bright spirits after the game knowing a loss would have allowed Juventus to sit at the top clear by quite a few points.
The only down side of the month is the draw with Roma as they equalised in the 90th minute.
The Parnopei also won both games in the Champions League, including a great battle with Basel, where Napoli managed to win 4-3, being 2-3 down at one point in the game. Napoli's Champions League run looks positive for the first time in Andre Villas-Boas career with Napoli.

League Standings

Player of the Month

Dries Mertens
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Yet again this man is the player of the month. AVB has spoken publicly about his admiration for the Belgian saying he is "in the form of his life."
Astonishingly Mertens has already overtook the amount of goals last seasons top goal scorer, Marek Hamsik, scored last year. Mertens is top goal scorer for Napoli this season with 12 goals to his name. Second place to Mertens in this area is on loan Torres who is on 5 goals.
Dries Mertens is very quickly becoming a fan favourite in Napoli.