It’s always fascinating when you see certain players who are outstanding for some managers, but just don’t get a look in when somebody new takes over.
It’s not clear if that will be the case with Fabian Ruiz at Napoli, but there have been some murmours that Rino Gattuso might not rate him as highly as Carlo Ancelotti did.
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This came from a report from Gazzetta Dello Sport via Football Italia, who claimed there’s a chance the Spaniard could be marginalised under the new coach.
As a result they go on to say that Real Madrid are preparing a €70m offer to take him back to Spain next Summer. They also indicate that Napoli may find this hard to reject if Fabian doesn’t feature as much under the new regime.
This could also call the long term future of Luka Modric into question. The Croatian was always going to struggle to live up to the standards he set as he won the Ballon d’Or last year, but he has started to show signs of ageing this season.
Fabian and Modric both play in a similar style, they are elegant and like to create so he could be seen as a direct replacement, but the Napoli man also carries a significant goal threat.
It will be interesting to see how much he featured under Gattuso in the next few weeks, if he finds himself on the bench then a Summer move could become inevitable.