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Napoli are unlikely to meet Manchester United’s valuation of Alejandro Garnacho and are exploring other targets.
The Italian club have had an offer of around £40million rejected for Garnacho, whose valuation was estimated at €97.4m (£82.27m) by the CIES Football Observatory last week.
Napoli coach Antonio Conte wants Garnacho to replace Paris Saint-Germain-bound Khvicha Kvaratskhelia but sources in Italy believe United’s valuation of Garnacho is too high.
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The 2023 Italian champions prefer to recruit players with potential high resale value. Dan Ndoye of Bologna and Deportivo la Coruna winger Yeremay Hernández are also of interest to Napoli. Agency sources maintain a deal for Garnacho could still be revived.
Garnacho, 20, has started in United’s past two games but he was dropped from the Manchester derby squad last month.
United coach Ruben Amorim clarified on Wednesday that he sees Garnacho’s future at United but the club have deemed are open to any academy sales.
Premier League clubs secure a pure profit from academy sales under the profitability and sustainability rules that United are striving to comply with.
Garnacho was listed among a handful of United players as not for sale in the summer but he is no longer a certain starter and recently went seven games without a start.
When asked if he sees Garnacho as having a bright future at United, Amorim said: “That is clear. He has talent. He needs to learn to play in a different position. He needs to play better inside.
“He improves a lot in the recovering position when he doesn’t have the ball. But doing that, sometimes he’s not in the right place to make transitions like he was in the past. I prefer to defend and then build up with all the team to reach the final third.
“He’s finding the best way to play in this system. He’s improving during training. He started the last game. Let’s see tomorrow. I think he changed the way he sees himself.”
Garnacho is under contract at United until 2028, with the option of an additional year.