After weeks of negotiations, Napoli completed the signing of left back Miguel Gutierrez. After three great seasons in Girona, Gutierrez has secured a big step to the Serie A champions.
In recent seasons, Gutierrez has attracted interest from a number of top European clubs, outside the back of a key role for the Upstart Girona by Michel Sanchez. The deal, which was confirmed on Tuesday by Napoli, went on for € 18 million plus another € 2 million in variables, as reported by Diario ALS. He is currently recovering from ankle operation and will soon be expected again.
The 24-year-old joined Girona, initially on loan of Real Madrid three summers ago, before Girona made the move permanent for a fee of € 4 million. Los Blancos, however, contained a sales costs of 50%, which means that they will get € 9 million from the deal and they can rise to € 10 million. In general, Real Madrid has made a profit of € 5 million of the deal, which doubles their money.
Without Gutierrez, Girona will miss one of their most important players who continued to perform last season in the midst of their struggles. Michel sometimes moved around Gutierrez to exploit weaknesses of opposition in midfield, and his assets on the ball was the key to both their ability to play the field and to cancel the opposition distribution.
It leaves something of a hole in their backline, without a natural left back in their team to replace it. In their La Liga opener, Daley Blind filled in left back, moving opposite the central defense. Arnau Martinez also occasionally played there. Intributed that Girona focuses their efforts on bringing in a striker, but also to Alex Moreno from Aston Villa and Reims' Sergio Akieme as potential additions to cover the loss of Gutierrez.