Napoli negotiating with Cagliari for Davide Astori transfer

There's been some quiet whispers over the last week that Napoli might want to get their hands on Davide Astori. Why is something of a mystery -- he wasn't great two years ago, and was worse with Roma last season. But Napoli still need a defender, and with those rumors becoming a full on rumor mill roar, apparently they've decided that defender is Astori! Yay. And stuff. Or something.

Astori played for Roma on loan last season, but they decided not to pick up his purchase option and returned to Cagliari. The isolani were relegated after a miserable season, though, so can't really keep him, setting up a certain sale this summer at a likely low price. The going rumor is that they want some €6 million, which actually isn't a completely awful price in this summer's market, especially with some of the nutty prices being paid and demanded for Italian players.

Enter Napoli. The partenopei need defenders, that's no secret, but there have to be serious questions as to whether or not Astori is actually good enough to improve the team. They need to add a starting upgrade in the heart of defense, but Astori doesn't seem to provide that. The foul- and mistake-prone defender has a lot of raw talent, that's for sure, but he's never been able to harness it effectively. At 28 years old, time's running out for him to make a real impact with that talent.

Still, Astori could be a decent, and relatively inexpensive, backup option, which they need with Miguel Britos on the verge of leaving and Henrique a possibility of departing as well. A deal could be done as soon as Wednesday, which would leave Napoli plenty of time to secure that starter they need as well. As long as he's not the only central defender brought in, Napoli can be in good shape, but if he is the only one... well... that might not be so much fun.