Napoli fail to complete Roberto Soriano transfer

The transfer deadline has passed, and Napoli's mercato has closed -- but it does so with a notable absence of a certain official announcement. Earlier in the day, it was reported that Napoli had an agreement to sign Roberto Soriano in exchange for a big pile of cash and Camilo Zuniga, but apparently when the deadline passed, the paperwork to finalize the deal had not yet been filed.

Insert facepalms and muttered curses here.

It's a bad look for Napoli, failing to get what seemed like a done deal finalized before the window shut. Fans are hammering the club and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli for the flub, but right now it seems too early to rush to judgement. We just don't know what happened yet, or even if it was Napoli's fault or something they could control that caused the deal to fail.

Maybe Sampdoria dithered on getting their end of things together. Maybe Soriano refused to sign his contract. Maybe Zuniga refused to sign his. Maybe both players did. There's so many things that could have gone wrong, and many of them are completely out of the club's control. Until we actually know why the deal wasn't filed in time, pointing fingers and getting livid isn't going to help anything.

Heck, there's even still a chance, albeit a remote one, that the transfer still goes through because of some technical glitch or the like.

No matter what, though, it would have been nice to have Soriano, and finding a use for Zuniga would have been good as well. Now Napoli still have no backup for Hamsik, and have a very expensive fullback who doesn't want to be there. That's wonderful.