Diego Perotti spurns Watford transfer in favor of potential Napoli move

In the wake of failing to get a UEFA licence to play in the Europa League, players are abandoning Genoa in droves. The latest would seem to be Diego Perotti, who spent just one year with the grifone before heading for the exit door -- though exactly where he's going next seems to be up for some debate.

You see, Genoa had apparently agreed to a deal with Watford to send Perotti to the newly-promoted club in the English Premier League -- a team involved in the same ownership group as Udinese, for what that's worth -- but Perotti has rejected that deal. Why? Because apparently Maurizio Sarri is a fan of his and is considering pushing Napoli to make a move.

Perotti had a decent season for Genoa, scoring four goals and five assists in 27 league matches, but it's really hard to see his fit in Naples. The Argentine is a winger first and foremost, and while he can play behind the striker, that role is a distant second compared to his quality out wide. He's a quality dribbler with a pretty good cross, but both of those things get noticeably muted when Perotti moves centrally, and the rest of Perotti's skillset can't make up the difference.

Watch the video at the bottom to see some of that skill. He's great on the ball -- especially against a certain Colombian fullback wearing blue -- and he serves up a solid cross. Over and over you see him give fullbacks fits and create various forms of danger from wide areas.

But what you don't see is Perotti doing much of anything from the middle of the pitch. That's because it's entirely too easy for even mediocre midfielders to mark him out  or let him dribble in to cul-de-sacs because his actual regular passing skills are just OK. He needs space to be an effective creator, and if you deny him that then, well, uh, nothing much is going to happen.

Considering that Sarri doesn't really use wingers, it's really hard to see the fit here. If Napoli can get Perotti pretty cheap and plan to use him more as an attacking utility guy to help change things up late in matches, then yeah, sure, why not. Though seemingly departure-bound Dries Mertens would be far, far better at that. Otherwise -- why? What's the point? This rumor is a real head-scratcher.