Last week felt like unofficial kick off of the summer transfer window. The rumours became more specific in detailing fact that clubs are taking concrete steps to sign certain players, and we’re already seeing Roma and Milan in a duel to sign Frank Kessie’- so it’s pretty evident that with not much left to play for in most leagues, clubs are already focused more on the future.
 

This summer should be particularly interesting in Serie A because circumstances for some of the top clubs are changing: Milan has new owners, Inter no longer has to worry about Financial Fair Play restrictions, Juventus is receiving huge revenues from their deep run in the Champions League and Roma is starting a new era with Monchi. While there’s hope more top players will stay in Serie A because of these changes, sporting directors in Italy are also not afraid to accept big offers since they have shown they can replace stars.
 

Let’s take a look at some Serie A players who will be in headlines this summer, I aggregated those with similar circumstances into groups rather than sorting them by their value:
 

We could stay in Italy after all
 

In years past the following players would have almost certainly left Italy, but the changing dynamics in the league may help ensure they stay in Serie A. Last summer Kostas Manolas was heavily linked to Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton but because there was a clause in his contract that would haven’t half of the proceeds of his sale to his former club in Greece he ended up staying. That clause has now expired and Manolas could follow Luciano Spalletti to Inter should the nerazzurri sign Roma’s current manager.

During the last January window, Frank Kessie’ was also linked to top Premier League clubs as well as Paris St Germain. But between fact he was set to play in Africa Cup and Atalanta deciding to sell Roberto Gagliardini, his departure got delayed. Roma looked like the odds on favourite to sign him up until a few weeks ago, but Milan’s new owners and directors have been very aggressive in their pursuit of the Ivorian midfielder.
 

One of the rights of passage in summer transfer window was the soap opera surrounding Domenico Berardi. For the past three summers he looked on the verge of joining Juventus, but now that the bianconeri’s option of first refusal expired he’s much less likely to join them. Marott and Paratici seem much more focused on Keita Balde, so Berardi could either join Inter (the team he grew up supporting) or stay at Sassuolo to get ready for the World Cup. 

 

The clock is ticking group
 

The amount of leverage a player has in picking his next team is often tied to the amount of time left on his contract. In addition, teams who have players with just one year left on their deal must make a decision in the coming weeks to avoid the potential of losing a valuable asset for free. Lazio was able to pull off one of the best sales in recent years when they shipped off Hernanes to Inter for twenty million despite fact he had an expiring contract, and they’ll look to get a great return on Stefan De Vrij and Keita Balde this summer since they haven’t been able to extend their contracts. 

The former Barcelona winger has been linked to Milan for months, but Juventus is looking to close the deal quickly to ensure they have a more classic winger as an alternative to Mandzukic. Stefan De Vrij could end up at Inter should they fail to land Manolas or go to a Premier League club, when healthy he has proven to be one of the best central defenders in Serie A.
 

Milan’s new owners and directors will face a huge test when negotiating with Mino Raiola for Gigio Donnarumma’s extension. The super agent has made it very clear that he needs to be sure Milan has an ambitious project before the prodigy goal keeper commits to them long term- which is likely one of the reasons Milan has been so aggressive in their pursuit of Musacchio and Kessie’. Should Raiola not be convinced, a move abroad is much more likely than to Juventus- but in any event Donnarumma’s priority is to stay with the rossoneri. The exact opposite can be said for Mattia De Sciglio, who is expected to leave this summer with Juventus as his likely next destination.

On the incoming side of things, Milan would like to sign Faouzi Ghoulam who has been one of the best left backs in Serie A in recent years. Napoli has not been able to extend the Algerian defender’s contract, but are also not eager to reinforce another contender in Italy- since they have earned a well deserved reputation for being tough negotiators they could just sell him abroad.

Milan is also now linked to Wolfsburg left back Ricardo Rodriguez who was heavily linked to Inter a few weeks ago.

Fiorentina is looking to turn the page on a disappointing season by extending the contract of Federico Bernardeschi. The excellent 23 year old winger is in an interesting situation, he could delay playing on a bigger stage while adapting to a new environment since the World Cup is just one year away, or just strike while the iron is hot since Inter, Juventus and Chelsea are all interested

You can try but we may not even take your call
 

Players in this group are either featured on teams who are in very good financial shape or have a set exit clause, so their current clubs may not even take the calls from those interested. After extending Paulo Dybala, Juventus is looking to do the same with Alex Sandro- the Brazilian left back is still a target for Manchester City, but the Citizens may find themselves regretting they waited to try to sign him on a free transfer when he was still at Porto since Juventus is determined to keep him.


 

While the players they ended up signing haven’t really panned out, last summer Inter outspent Juventus net of sales- and now no longer have the Financial Fair Play restrictions. Inter was also the only top team in Italy not to sell any of their core players last summer. Even without the Champions League it’s very hard to envisage Mauro Icardi leaving, he loves living in Milano and received raises in back to back summers. While he does have a 110 million exit clause valid only abroad, it’s very unlikely he would agree to leave. Icardi’s teammate Ivan Perisic has also been linked to Premier League clubs, but unless Inter can find two top wingers since they likely would want to upgrade from Candreva, it’s unlikely they would agree to let him leave. 

A lot has been made about Andrea Belotti’s 100 million euro exit clause valid only abroad. He could decide to stay one more season as he prepares for the World Cup, and his current club Torino has about 40 million coming in for the options to buy on Nikola Maksimovic and Bruno Peres, so they wouldn’t have pressure to sell him for considerably below his clause. 
 

While the sum of the clause seems outrageous, the same was said about Higuain’s last summer and the Argentine striker is five years older than the striker known as Il Gallo. It’s possible a club receives a massive infusion of cash just like Juve did with Pogba making Belotti’s clause appear more reasonable- is 100 million for Belotti really more outrageous than what Chelsea got for Oscar? 
 

Because Lazio will almost certainly lose De Vrij and Keita Balde they will be determined to hold on to Sergej Milinkovic Savic for at least one more season, especially after the former Genk midfielder recently agreed to a contract extension.
 

We may be available this summer
 

The following players were linked to clubs abroad last year but ended up staying either because their club sold someone else or because they signed a new contract. But this summer the circumstances could be different especially for Inter keeper Samir Handanovic- he’ll turn 33 this summer and maybe determined to finally play in the Champions League despite signing an extension. Handanovic has been consistently one of the best keepers in Serie A and would be a massive upgrade for numerous clubs.

Handanovic’s teammate Marcelo Brozovic was linked to Arsenal and other Premier League clubs last summer but ended up signing an extension with a 50 million exit clause valid only outside of Italy. Since then he’s been more known for his posts on Instagram and a change of scenery is very likely, Inter would certainly accept considerably less than his exit clause since they hit a home run by signing Gagliardini in January.
 

Chelsea fans certainly remember their club’s pursuit of Radja Nainggolan and Kalidou Koulibaly, two of the best players at their respective positions in Serie A. But the sales of Miralem Pjanic and Gonzalo Higuain made it much less likely that Roma and Napoli would let them leave last summer- but things could be different a year later. The race for second place, which comes with automatic entry into the group stage of the Champions League and guaranteed revenues, could make one of the two players more likely to leave than the other.

 

Buy us now before our price sky rockets
 

In the past few years Napoli has acquired Jorginho, Zielinski and Diawara for around 45 million combined. The value of these players has likely doubled already also thanks to having a great manager like Maurizio Sarri to develop them. The lesson here is that it usually pays off handsomely if you invest in good young players.
 

This season we have seen Atalanta cash in on two of their young jewels in Mattia Caldara (who will join Juventus in the summer of 2018) and Roberto Gagliardini. Other than Frank Kessie’, they also have two other exciting prospects in wing back Andrea Conti and striker Andrea Petagna- their value is only bound to go up after next season wherever they’ll be playing.
 

Another team that has launched numerous young players is Sampdoria who can count on striker Patrik Schick who has drawn comparisons to a young Ibrahimovic, versatile midfielder Lucas Torreira and central defender Milan Skriniar.  





David Amoyal