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With the close of the transfer window rapidly approaching, Napoli have moved to acquire two new players. They're not terribly exciting, and it's likely that they won't have a huge impact on the side, but hey, signings are fun.
Mariano Andujar is Catania's current backup goalkeeper, though he did start thirteen of Catania's first fourteen league matches, allowing 24 goals in those matches. Once a star at Estudiantes de La Plata in Argentina, the 30 year old has mostly been just an acceptable keeper in Serie A, shipping 186 goals in 146 matches in Italy's top flight.
Andujar will remain at Catania for the rest of the season and join in the summer, serving as insurance in case Napoli can't secure a permanent deal for Pepe Reina. In any event, he's a far superior backup option to Antonio Rosati, who is currently on loan at Fiorentina and is widely expected to move to another club in the summer. Andujar is not an exciting transfer, but he is a useful one.
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The other potentially inbound player is Henrique Adriano Buss, better known simply as Henrique and late of Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras in Brazil. The one-time Barcelona man spent several years bouncing around Europe on various loans before being shipped unceremoniously back home to Brazil a year and a half ago. Now Napoli is reportedly paying around €4 million to bring him back to Europe at 27 years old.
The signing is... not an exciting one. Henrique is a wildly inconsistent player. At his best, he's been somewhat more than mediocre, and he's rarely been at his best. He's sloppy, has poor positional discipline, and isn't that great on the ball. Henrique is quite good on set pieces, on both ends of the pitch, but that quality isn't enough to offset the flaws in his game. He's not better than Miguel Britos or Federico Fernandez, which makes me wonder what the point of his acquisition is, as the club is in more need of quality rather than simple depth.
There's still a bevy of rumors kicking around involving Napoli, including the Etienne Capoue talk that just won't die, so hopefully Napoli will be able to tie up more business by the end of the window. As always, we'll keep you covered here on everything going on.
