Gabbiadini contract talks continue productively

Things have been mostly quiet on the Manolo Gabbiadini front for most of the last week, but that doesn't mean a deal has fallen apart as some are fearing. While the deal isn't completely tied up and agreed yet, all the major parts of the deal are finished and ready to go once secondary details are finalized.

While it took a couple of meetings with Gabbiadini's agent, a wage package was agreed between Napoli and their soon-to-be new player was agreed. What's been holding the deal up, though, was issues stemming from so-called "image rights," more simply known as marketing rights for the player.

Napoli typically prefers to handle all marketing for their players when possible, but Gabbiadini recently renewed a deal with a personal sponsor in a deal that runs until 2019. Figuring out how that would work with Napoli's marketing strategy has taken some time, but it sounds as though talks are proceeding in a progressive and positive manner.

Once those details are worked out, that should clear the last hurdle to getting a deal agreed. Napoli are in no rush to force the issue and potentially risk the deal breaking down by being too aggressive; they'd reportedly rather wait until the winter break to finalize the contract anyways, just so as to avoid the risk of agreeing to the deal in full and then having Gabbiadini get seriously hurt before the break begins.

Once the deal with Gabbiadini is done and the transfer window opens, the €11 million-plus-add-ons deal that Napoli has with Sampdoria and Juventus would then be able to go ahead, and before long Napoli will have a new forward to add to their rotation. Gabbi has some big shoes to fill with Lorenzo Insigne out, but there's a lot of reasons to like this deal for Napoli. Hopefully he has a long and successful career here, funky marketing situation and all.