Ivan Strinic confirms he will join Napoli

Sometimes the best holiday gifts come after Christmas: After weeks of rumors, reports, and belief, Ivan Strinic himself has confirmed that he will be signing with Napoli on a free transfer once his contract with Dnipro Dniproprtrovsk expires on Wednesday.

Speaking to Croatian media this morning, Strinic said that "it 's true, I'm about to sign a contract with Napoli, but that's not all completed yet. If all goes well, and I think it will be so, the signing will come soon." There had previously been some reports of a small holdup on contract structure between Napoli and Strinic, but it sounds as though the two parties are mostly just waiting for his contract in Ukraine to expire first.

As previously reported elsewhere, Corriere dello Sport is claiming that Strinic will sign a four year deal with Napoli worth €1.5 million per season in wages, or roughly €29,000 per week. If some previous reports are to be believed, where negotiations had been held up had to do with incentive bonuses, such as appearance bonuses. In all likelihood, neither side was in much of a rush to get everything hammered out straight away, considering that Strinic can't officially sign until his current contract expires on December 31st.

The report follows up nicely from Aurelio De Laurentiis' confirmation that Gabbiadini won't be Napoli's only business, and given the minimal impact on the club's budgets thanks to the lack of a transfer fee and low wages, they could easily do a little bit more business yet to come. If you're taking requests, ADL, we'd love to see an upgrade at center back, please.