Napoli: The three signings currently tearing it apart in the Champions League

We are four games away from the Champions League group stage and Napoli are flying top of Group A, having amassed 12 points, scored 17 goals and conceded just four. It’s a good start considering they’ve played twice against Liverpool, Rangers and Ajax.

Ok, maybe not so hard against Rangers.

It’s not just the fact that they win either. That’s how they do it. Liverpool were probably very lucky to get it in their 4-1 defeat at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Meanwhile, Ajax’s defeat on home soil – 6-1 at the Johan Cruyff Arena – was their heaviest loss since 1964 and the biggest home defeat in their history.

To put it simply, teams are sidelined by Napoli at the moment and Luciano Spalletti has the legendary Italian club playing attacking football with the kind of bravery worthy of all their top teams in the past. Maybe even the man their stadium is named after. This despite the considerable reconstruction work it has had to face this summer.

It’s not easy to lose your captain. Or your vice-captain. Or your all-time top scorer. It is unthinkable to lose all three in a single window. Yet despite Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly and Dries Mertens, Napoli have stormed out and currently look more dangerous than any other team in Europe so far this season.

Signed for not much more than €10m from Dinamo Batumi, the powerhouse Georgian winger is already being called the deal of the summer and has taken over Napoli’s suddenly vacant left flank – occupied by Insigne for a decade – as the tomato mozzarella.

What people might overlook is the fact that the transfer was only made possible at such a high price due to Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, meaning FIFA allowed Russian Premier League players to terminate their contracts early and sign elsewhere.

Kvaratskhelia opted to leave Rubin Kazan and return home to Georgia, where he scored eight times in 11 appearances and was named the most valuable player in the second half of the season. Although he made the difficult leap to Serie A and Champions League football aged 21, his form has shown no signs of slowing after nine goals in 15 appearances for club and country since August.

Between the nickname, the sock liners and the fearless way he carries the ball through waves of defenders only to walk out with the ball still glued to his feet on the other side, it’s easy to see what the fuss is about.

Reportedly Dries Merten’s replacement, Giacomo Raspadori has been signed from Sassuolo after hitting double league goals for the Neroverdi last season. He can play anywhere along the front three or as a pure number 10, but looks most comfortable as a false nine in Napoli’s system, exemplified by his four goals and one assist in just 127 minutes of Champions League action so far.

Quick, two-footed and technical, Raspadori has already drawn comparisons with just about every (really good) tiny centre-forward you can think of. Still just 22 and with five goals in 15 appearances to his name for the national team, it looks like Raspadori has all the potential to lead the line for Napoli and the Azzurri in the years to come.

Familiar to any reasonably keen Football Manager player, Kim Min-jae made his long-awaited move into the top five this summer, snapped up by Aurelio De Laurentiis for €18million after just one season of Super League football. Turkish.

Unlike the two players above him, Kim is less of a spring chicken at 25 and with 44 international caps to his name. Beyond that, he’s played the vast majority of his club football to date in Asia, meaning he was probably seen as a gamble when Fenerbahce snapped him up from Beijing Guoan last year – d ‘where the advantageous price of 3 million euros at the time.

There are no such doubts about his ability now. Towering in stature but with the speed, intelligence and elegance of the ball game that Harry Maguire could only dream of, Kim is the all-around defender and slotted into Spalletti’s backline so easily that the loss of Koulibaly was barely felt.

There is no better testament to the importance of a defender than his playing time. Kim has played every minute of all but one game for Napoli since his arrival. And for all those minutes, he was absolutely imperious. May everything continue for a long time in Naples.