Napoli move for Šime Vrsaljko, transfer could come this week

While most of the rumor focus for Napoli's pursuit of a right back of late has been on Matteo Darmian, there's another name out there connected with the team who has flown under the radar: Šime Vrsaljko.

The Sassuolo defender impressed last season, and has generally done well as a part of the Croatian national team in his ten caps with the senior side. While he's not as high-profile as Darmian, he's not actually all that far behind the Italian in terms of talent and might have greater technical upside, though he lacks some of the physicality that Darmian possesses.

The clear advantage that Vrsaljko offers Napoli in the short term is this: he actually wants to join the partenopei. His agent has been quite vocal about how good a match it could be, and frankly it's hard to disagree with the assessment. He knows Serie A, he'd be comfortable with a growing Croatian presence in the club, and oh yeah, he's a pretty good player too.

Supposedly, there's already a rough agreement in place between Napoli and Vrsaljko, leaving only a deal between the clubs to complete. For what it's worth, the right back's agent thinks that a deal could be done very quickly, maybe even by the end of the week. Sassuolo want some €12 million for him to help offset the 40% sell-on clause Genoa hold from his sale a year ago, but could probably be talked down from that somewhat. Even if they can't, that's still a fair bit cheaper than Darmian without having to huck a boatload of players at them to do it.