With no Azzurri games to watch this July, Napoli, Milan and Juventus are giving Italian football fans something else to obsess over: the most expensive summer transfer window Serie A has seen in years.
A country without a tournament, a league without a break
Italy failed to qualify for a World Cup for the third time running back in March, beaten on penalties by Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-off final. Spain and France are fighting for a semi-final spot this week. Italyโs biggest football story right now is happening in boardrooms, not stadiums. Napoli have made Rasmus Hojlundโs loan permanent for around ยฃ43.2 million. Milan have a new manager in Ruben Amorim and a squad theyโre actively taking apart. Juventus are chasing two players at once who might not even want to leave where they are.
Hojlundโs move is the cleanest story of the three. He scored 16 goals and set up eight more in 44 appearances as Napoli won the Supercoppa Italiana, finished second in Serie A and qualified for the Champions League. Compare that to the 4 league goals he managed in his last season at Old Trafford, under a manager Napoliโs own coach has since taken pointed digs at.
Speaking to Gambling.com, home toย reviews of real money online casino sitesย alongside its independent betting site comparisons, one football analyst put the deal in context. โUnited paid ยฃ72 million for him in 2023 and are getting ยฃ43.2 million back for a player whoโs just delivered 16 goals and a top-four finish,โ they said. โThatโs not really a transfer fee. Thatโs Napoli getting the version of Hojlund United always hoped theyโd signed.โ
Milanโs rebuild is bigger than one striker
Amorimโs arrival at San Siro hasnโt gone unnoticed by the manager he effectively replaced at United.ย Conte took a thinly veiled swipe at his former Premier League counterpartย back in January, over how Amorim handled Hojlundโs early struggles rather than adapting his system around him. Now Amorimโs the one doing the adapting, at a club thatโs already lining up an exit for Rafael Leao. The Portuguese winger scored nine goals and added three assists last season and is available for around ยฃ43 million after Milan missed out on Champions League football again. Manchester United have been mentioned as a possible destination, which would mean two of the summerโs biggest Italian sales going straight back to the Premier League.
Milan arenโt stopping there either. Youssouf Fofana and Fikayo Tomori are also being shopped around as the club reshapes its squad for Amorimโs system, on top of one signing already completed and a second close behind.
โSelling Leao and rebuilding around a new manager in the same window is a genuine gamble,โ said a former Bundesliga midfielder. โHeโs their most talented forward and their easiest player to sell for cash. Milan are betting Amorimโs system matters more than any single attacker. Thatโs exactly the bet that got Amorim sacked at United in the first place.โ
Juventus chase two names they might not get
Juventus have spent the window doing something trickier than buying: waiting. Theyโre in talks with Aston Villa over goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and with PSG over forward Randal Kolo Muani, and progress on both has been slow enough that the clubโs already tested the waters for alternatives like Zion Suzuki and Mateo Pellegrino. Michele Di Gregorioโs expected departure leaves Juventus needing a goalkeeper regardless of how the Martinez talks go, and Massimiliano Allegri wants Napoliโs Frank Anguissa and Stanislav Lobotka to stay exactly where they are rather than add either to his own midfield.
โJuventus are negotiating on multiple fronts at once, which usually means none of them are close,โ said a sports data analyst. โKolo Muani scored goals for PSG last season when he played, and Martinez is still one of the best shot-stoppers in Europe. Juventus want both without paying what either club actually wants for them.โ
Elsewhere in the league, Udinese have made Nicolo Zanioloโs loan permanent for around โฌ5 million, and Lazio have done the same with Boulaye Dia after two years of watching him from a distance. Neither move will make headlines outside Italy. Together they say something about a league spending real money in a summer when its national team has nothing to play for.
A window with no tournament to interrupt it
A transfer window with no World Cup competing for attention runs differently. Clubs arenโt waiting on international performances to set prices. Thereโs no risk of a breakout tournament run inflating a targetโs valuation overnight.
Reports from Italy note that Milan have already contacted veteran midfielderย Luka Modric about extending his stay, even after heโd reportedly decided to leave, which tells you this window is being shaped by conversations as much as by fees. Italy will spend the rest of July watching other nations play for a trophy it isnโt in. Serie Aโs clubs seem determined to make sure next season gives their fans something to be excited about instead.
Whether Hojlundโs numbers hold up in a title race, whether Amorimโs Milan survives selling Leao, or whether Juventus end up with neither Martinez nor Kolo Muani, none of it gets settled this week.
