Napoli sold Kvaratskhelia and still won the league, and that is the wrong lesson for the McTominay talks
McTominay’s camp want more than €8 million a year and Napoli offered about €5 million. Real Madrid are asking about him, and the clock on his contract favours them, not Napoli.
Oct 9, 2026
Scott McTominay was cleared this week to play again after a heart procedure, and he should be available when Napoli host Frosinone on Saturday. The return is good news. The contract talks are not.
McTominay earns around €3 million a season on a deal that runs to June 2028. According to Football Italia, his camp want more than €8 million a year to extend it to 2030, and Napoli’s summer offer was closer to €5 million. Tuttomercatoweb now reports that Real Madrid have sounded out his agents. Their coach is José Mourinho, who gave McTominay his first run of games at Manchester United.
Napoli have been here before
The last time Napoli had a stand-off like this, it was with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He was Serie A’s player of the season when Napoli won the title in 2022-23, and he was still on about €1.5 million a year. His agent asked for €8 million. Napoli would not go that high, and the gap never closed. In January 2025 he went to Paris Saint-Germain for €70 million plus bonuses.
And here is the awkward part for anyone arguing that Napoli should simply pay up. They sold Kvaratskhelia mid-season and won the league anyway. McTominay scored 12 Serie A goals that season, was voted the league’s MVP, and scored the first goal in the 2-0 win over Cagliari that clinched the title by a point from Inter.
Aurelio De Laurentiis could look at that and decide nobody is irreplaceable. I think that is the wrong lesson.
Why this one is different
The title Napoli won without Kvaratskhelia was carried by a midfielder Manchester United had decided they could live without. That was a scouting win, and a lucky one. Napoli cannot plan on finding another McTominay at the next club that undervalues one.
There is also the clock. Kvaratskhelia had two and a half years left when he went, and that length is a big part of why PSG still had to pay €70 million. McTominay has about 20 months. If nothing is signed by next summer, he will be a year from free agency, and the fee will reflect that. Napoli would be negotiating from a weaker spot than they were with Kvaratskhelia, not a stronger one.
The case for Napoli’s caution
None of this makes Napoli’s hesitation silly. McTominay turns 30 in December. A deal to 2030 at €8 million would cover his age-33 season, and he has just had a heart procedure, even if it was a corrective ablation for a benign arrhythmia and he has been cleared. Paying more than double his current wage to a player at that age is the kind of contract clubs regret.
But there is a middle. Napoli could go above €5 million and keep the length shorter, or load the money towards appearances. Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio said the club is “already working to try to find an agreement” and that he believes one can be found in the end. He is usually well informed.
My view is that Napoli should settle it well before next summer. Reports in Italy say they would block a January move anyway, which buys them time but not leverage. Leaving it until the summer hands the leverage to whichever club, Real Madrid or one from the Premier League, wants him most. Napoli let one leader of a title team go over money. Letting a second one go the same way would look less like a policy and more like a habit.