Player ‘strongly wanted’ Brighton exit – Convinced president to buy him eventually

 

 

Billy Gilmour convinced Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis to buy him this summer, with the latter having initially decided against the transfer.

That’s according to Area Napoli, who say the Scotland international managed to convince the Napoli president to change his mind.

Gilmour joined the Italian side in a €14m deal at the end of August after two years with Brighton following his time at Chelsea.

He was one of several Premier League players to join Napoli this summer as Antonio Conte looked to his old stomping ground to reinforce his squad with signings such as Scott McTominay, Romelu Lukaku and Gilmour.

 

Unlike the former two, though, it appears De Laurentiis needed convincing of the move for the Brighton man.

 

Area Napoli explain that the Napoli president ‘was convinced not to make the move’ for Gilmour this summer as the failure to sell Victor Osimhen outright had pushed him not to make any further investments on the squad.

Gilmor, though, changed De Laurentiis’ mind. He ‘strongly wanted’ to leave Brighton for Napoli, so much so that he put pressure on the Seagulls to make the deal with Azzurri happen.

De Laurentiis was convinced by the midfielder’s attitude and decided to give Conte one more signing because of that.

It’s yet to really pay off as Gilmour has had a slow start to the season so far but that’s not a problem, as De Laurentiis was convinced already and is likely to remain so.

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