Napoli boss admits to barely having seen Vlad Chiriches play

It's not OFFICIALLY official yet, but Vlad Chiriches is going to be a Napoli player. While neither team has made the formal announcement, the Tottenham Hotspur central defender has traveled to Italy, completed a medical, and agreed to a deal, for a transfer fee said to be €6m.  He's even been photographed wearing Napoli training gear. I think we can probably safely say this is in the bag.

Napoli defender Vlad Chiriches with his new club today following his transfer from Spurs. #THFC pic.twitter.com/ttpZUJF1de

— Hotspur Related (@HotspurRelated) July 29, 2015

Which makes it odd that Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri apparently knows very little about who Vlad actually is. Sarri gave a press conference during which he commented on Napoli's incoming signings. When asked about Chiriches, he had this delightful nugget to say:

Chiriches, nuovo arrivato: "Lo conosco poco, l'ho visto mezza partita, sei mesi fa. Ha discrete qualità tecniche, se è stato preso significa che vale". Hamsik, nuovo ruolo: "Ha qualità importanti. E' un giocatore di alto livello e l'ha subito dimostrato: poi si è dovuto fermare per un malanno".

Roughly translated, Sarri has essentially said "I know him a bit. I saw him play for a half about six months ago. He seems to have technical quality, but I don't have a real clear picture about him."

Oh honey.

Sarri has only be manager at Napoli since early June, replacing the departed Rafa Benitez. I can't say I know much about the inner workings of Napoli, but it's not unusual for some clubs to be run under a director of football model where the manager doesn't have direct control over transfers. So Sarri may not have intimate knowledge of Vlad's signing and what the Romanian defender can do.

That said, maybe we should collectively just keep quiet for a little bit until the paperwork is signed and the money is transferred.