Manna: ‘Napoli welcome Giovane, interested in Juanlu Sanchez’
Napoli director Giovanni Manna welcomes new signing Giovane on the bench against Juventus, while confirming interest in Sevilla right-back Juanlu Sanchez.
It kicks off at the Allianz Juventus Stadium in Turin at 17.00 GMT (18.00 CET).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s Serie A games on the Liveblog.
The injury crisis just keeps intensifying for the Partenopei, as goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic sustained a muscular issue in training yesterday, so Alex Meret gets his first game since September 28.
David Neres flew out today for ankle surgery, with Matteo Politano, Amir Rrahmani, Pasquale Mazzocchi, Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Billy Gilmour out of action.
Manna acknowledges Napoli difficulty
“We’ve been battling with a limited number of players for a while now, but that’s not a problem, because we’ve got guts and mentality, we’ve given everything and will continue to do so,” Manna told Sky Sport Italia.
Napoli released Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca this week, making way for the arrival of Giovane from Hellas Verona at a cost of €20m, and he goes straight onto the bench just hours after his medical.
“We had wanted to do something earlier, but the general conditions are not optimal, so we had to make do with the exits first. Giovane has shown something interesting in his first few months of Italian football, we hope he can bring sharpness and enthusiasm. He might make his debut today, if the coach sees fit.”
Despite the crisis, Napoli did not even call up squad players Luca Marianucci and Giuseppe Ambrosino, so does that mean they are expecting transfers?
“The transfer window is open right now, there are many dynamics in flux, we will be ready if opportunities emerge. I want to focus only on what happens on the pitch right now.”
Sevilla right-back Juanlu Sanchez has been linked with a possible move to Napoli, although he is also targeted by today’s opponents Juventus.
“He is a good player with prospects, we have talked about him and we like him, we don’t deny that. I repeat, in our current condition, we need to ponder every choice very carefully before we act. There are 10 days to go, so we’ll see.”