Team Focus: How Napoli Are Replacing Edinson Cavani

No club wants to lose its best player. And yet there were times during this summer when Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis gave the impression that he was enjoying the prospect of losing Edinson Cavani. 

Why? Because, whatever happened, he felt confident he’d be a winner. If Cavani stayed at Napoli, he’d retain one of the world’s finest strikers. If he didn’t, De Laurentiis had ensured that, by extending the player’s contract a year ago and including a €63m buy-out clause within it, Napoli would be handsomely remunerated. And they were. 

That figure, wired into their accounts by Paris Saint-Germain, the club who bought Ezequiel Lavezzi from them for €26m a year ago, was added to an already sizeable budget. Profitable for six straight years and in the Champions League for the second time in three seasons, De Laurentiis claimed in a tweet that it had grown to a staggering €124.5m. 

Within the financial context of Italian football that is a huge amount. Some questioned De Laurentiis’ decision to make the number public. On learning Napoli have a lot of money, wouldn’t clubs whose players they declare an interest in opportunistically raise their prices?  Hadn’t he made things difficult for himself? 

De Laurentiis didn’t seem to care. After taking over Napoli in Serie C1, this was another indication of how far they’ve come. And besides, more money doesn’t necessarily mean more problems. Knowing how to spend it well, though, is the challenge Napoli face. How would they replace Cavani too? They’ve never had a striker like him. No one as prolific. 

In his first year at Napoli, he broke their single-season scoring record, which had stood for 78 years. In his final one, he was Capocannoniere in Serie A with 29 goals, a feat he accomplished despite a 675-minute drought through the spring. Napoli were dependent on him. Not totally but significantly enough. 

39.7% of their goals last season were scored by Cavani - no player made a greater individual goalscoring contribution to their team in Serie A. Cavani dominated the league. No one scored more goals from inside the box (27), more goals with their right foot (17), more headers (6), more penalties (7), more clear-cut chances (21), attempted more shots (157), had more on target (70), off-target (64) and against the woodwork (8). Had Cavani chosen to remain at San Paolo for another season it’s projected he would have become Napoli’s all-time top scorer, overtaking Diego Maradona’s total of 115 goals in approximately half the time. 

Make no mistake; his boots are big to fill. And Napoli have accepted, a little like Manchester United did after selling Cristiano Ronaldo, that they won’t find another player like him. So rather than sign one striker and heap the responsibility of replacing Cavani solely on his shoulders, Napoli are buying several players - wide men, withdrawn forwards, a target man and a movement-based striker - to spread the burden. 

A lot of the attention has fallen on the signing of Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuaín and the mooted transfer of Jackson Martinez from Porto. Providing the deal for the latter is completed for a reported fee of €32m, the combined (initial) cost of both would amount to €69m. 

All but €6m of that is covered by Cavani’s sale. Think of it as a little like when Liverpool sold Fernando Torres to Chelsea and bought Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. Then again, don’t. Because while there’s a sense Napoli have ever so slightly overpaid for Higuain, he’s much closer to his value than Carroll was and a much better, not to mention different kind of player to him too. Should Martinez join, they look to have acquired two great forwards for the price of one.

Higuaín is still only 25 and arrives with six-and-half-years experience of playing in Europe, all of them at Real Madrid where he scored 121 goals. Quick, clever, he’s the movement based striker that coach Rafa Benitez wanted. A clean hitter of the ball, Higuaín had a higher conversion rate (28.6%) and was more accurate (51.8%) than Cavani last season, although those stats must be seen in context: they were recorded in a different league by a player with a different playing style - he shoots a lot less. 

As for Martinez, although he’s nicknamed 'Cha-Cha-Cha', it’s assumed he is the target man - not the mover - that Benitez has requested. With 26 goals, he was the top scorer in Portugal last season, which, incidentally, was also his first campaign in Europe. He got three in eight Champions League games too. 

The prospect of one or both up front is exciting. Behind whoever it is Benitez starts as his No.9, there are plenty of options too. His first signing, Dries Mertens, a €9.7m buy from PSV Eindhoven, is expected to compete with Lorenzo Insigne on the left-hand side. He appears to have slipped under many people’s radar. 

In the 82 games he played at the Philips Stadion over the last two years, the Belgium international was involved in no fewer than 84 goals. Mertens scored 42 and assisted 42. He got one each when he played against Napoli in the Europa League last season. Incidentally, no one made more key passes per game (4.8) or crossed the ball as many times (3.6) as he did in the last edition of that competition. 

With Mertens on the left, Napoli have added Jose Maria Callejon on the right. Of Napoli’s summer signings, no one - aside from Raul Albiol perhaps - has been greeted with more scepticism. His €9.5m price tag raised a few eyebrows. Benitez, however, believes that, with the kind of run in the first team he never got at Real Madrid, Callejon can “get to 20 goals.” 

Then there are the players Rafa inherits. Insigne, for instance, will be better after his first full season in Serie A. He was excellent at the Under-21 European Championship in Israel and the hope is that ‘Napoli’s Del Piero’, who Benitez also sees “behind the striker”, can contribute in goals like he did at Pescara the year before last when he hit 18 in Serie B. Goran Pandev will chip in here and there, but the player around whom a lot is expected is once again Marek Hamsik. 

Asked by La Gazzetta dello Sport if he can become like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, Benitez replied: “He can get to their level. He’s a great professional and above all is hungry to win and can still improve.” Hamsik got into double figures in goals (11) and assists (14) in Serie A last season. Only one other player managed to do that and that was Francesco Totti (12 goals, 12 assists).

So, all told, maybe Cavani won’t be missed too much. Judging by the reception Higuaín received at the airport in Rome on Tuesday when 200 fans gathered to welcome him, he has already been forgotten. 

Napoli’s summer signings will be presented to the fans at the San Paolo on Monday. De Laurentiis will also release a new version of the club’s anthem and introduce a cheerleading troupe. “We can say that we’ve worked a lot,” he tweeted, “but we won’t stop here!” Where they end up, nobody knows. But Napoli appear headed for the top and will run champions Juventus a lot closer than last season.