Rudi Garcia wants a ‘physical player’ to replace Tanguy Ndombele, expects Victor Osimhen to remain at Napoli and insists he can already rely on ‘excellent’ defenders even if Kim Min-jae is set to leave.
Garcia joined Juan Jesus and Pierluigi Gollini at Dimaro on Monday night for a Q&A session with the fans.
Kim is set to join Bayern Munich, and Napoli are in talks with several potential replacements, but Garcia seemed to be in no hurry.
“We have Juan Jesus, Amir Rrahmani and Leo Ostigard, who are excellent players,” he said as quoted by Il Corriere dello Sport.
“They are here and they won’t leave. If we can find a new player with the quality of a starter, that’s fine, if not, I already have three defenders.”
Osimhen will arrive in Dimaro today and is in talks to sign a new contract with the club.
“He is under contract, tomorrow [today, Tuesday] he will arrive with the others,” said Garcia.
“When I spoke to Aurelio De Laurentiis, I saw we had the same ambition. He did great things last season and he doesn’t want to stop. We’ll have a quality team. I like logic, if a team plays well, there are more chances to win and that’s what we want to do.”
Napoli need one new central midfielder to replace Ndombele who returned to Tottenham after a one-year spell at the Stadio Maradona.
“There is a lot of quality in midfield and even players who can play on the wing. I knew Ndombele when he was in Lyon and he was an excellent player,” claimed Garcia.
“We must find someone to replace him. Napoli players must know how to play football, but I’d like to find a player with physicality to help Frank Anguissa.”
Ndombele joined Napoli on loan from Tottenham last summer, but the Serie A champions didn’t activate a €30m option to buy to make his move permanent.
The French midfielder scored two goals in 40 appearances at the Stadio Maradona.