Can Milik Fill the Higuain-sized Void Following Napoli Switch?

Marc Overmars was as quick to rule out the sale of Arkadiusz Milik as he was running down the wing with Arsenal, Holland and Barcelona. “We don’t want to sell him,” Overmars insisted in his role as Ajax’s director of sport.  

The 43-year-old was reacting to the news that Napoli and Milik had met in Capri while the Ajax striker holidayed on the island after the Euros. Overmars didn’t rule a move out completely. At the very least he hoped Milik, Ajax’s top scorer last season with 21 league goals, would stick around long enough to help the team through the Champions League preliminaries.

Milik, however, wasn’t a member of the side that qualified for the play-off round by the skin of its teeth on Wednesday night. In the end it was Davy Klaassen, the player Napoli were scouting intensely last season, who put them through with a goal three minutes from time to eliminate PAOK. Milik meanwhile was settling into life in Naples. On Monday he was presented before the fans, a warm-up act before a friendly with Nice at the San Paolo to mark the club’s 90th birthday.  

Napoli’s owner Aurelio de Laurentiis claimed Milik had cost just €25m. Ajax, however, had different figures. Overmars got his “monster offer.” According to a statement they put out, Napoli have spent €32m, a fee just short of what they invested in Gonzalo Higuain three years ago. Some feel de Laurentiis has overpaid.  

To put the Milik deal into context, Vincent Janssen, the Eredivisie top scorer last season, cost Tottenham €10m less. Call it the Higuain premium. Ajax knew Napoli had €90m burning a hole in their pocket. Ajax were also aware that Napoli needed to act to reassure the fans. Up until then all they had done in the transfer market was reunite Maurizio Sarri with Empoli centre-back Lorenzo Tonelli and add Emanuele Giaccherini to their squad ahead of their return to the Champions League.  

Milik’s transfer has not had close to the same effect as when Higuain replaced Edinson Cavani in 2013. In fact, what has become abundantly clear over the last week is that Napoli believe only stripping Inter of Mauro Icardi could heal the wound opened up by Higuain’s sensational move to champions Juventus. All of which shouldn’t necessarily stop us appreciating the acquisition of Milik. He was generating his fair share of hype at the end of last season going into the Euros.  

Ajax hadn’t had a striker as prolific as him since the days of Luis Suarez and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, both of whom played in better Ajax teams. Milik scored and was generally involved in significantly more goals in his first two years in Amsterdam than Zlatan Ibrahimovic was in the same timeframe during his spell in Holland. To give an idea of just how many, the Pole struck 47 goals and laid on 23 assists while the Swede hit 30 and set up only 7 for his teammates. Incidentally Milik also matched Suarez in scoring in five consecutive games.  

His emergence made Poland a dark horse at the Euros. They were the top scorers in all of qualifying. His strike partner Robert Lewandowski got 13, six of which were put on a plate for him by Milik. It left the impression of a complete player, the archetypal graduate from the Ajax finishing school.  

Milik grew up in Tychy, a city in Slesia, the industrial heartland of Poland. Like the chimneys of its factories, Milik smoked. He shoplifted as well. “Only little things,” he reflected. “Sweets. Cigarettes.” Slawomir Mogilany got him on the straight and narrow. A coach at Rozwój Katowice, he was the first person to see potential in Milik. It would take him to Górnik Zabrze where he first encountered Adam Nawalka, the current national team coach.  

Disappointing spells at Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg still raise questions about whether he can cut it in one of Europe’s five major leagues, particularly one like Serie A where the average goals-per-game is the lowest and chances few and far between. But Milik was a teenager then - albeit one still lighting up the Under-21 game with nine goals in six games in qualifying for last summer’s Euros in the Czech Republic, which Poland failed to make. He has developed considerably.  Dennis Bergkamp no less has called his left foot “a magic wand.”  

What really impresses about Milik is his movement. He might miss a few sitters, like the one against Germany at the Euros, while his conversion rate in France (5.6%) was the lowest of all goalscorers, but the intelligence and the instinct to get in the right position is there for all to see. The transition from Ajax to Napoli, who play a beautifully fluid passing game based around constant movement should be relatively seamless and with Piotr Zielinski expected to join from Udinese in the coming days, he will have a compatriot fluent in Italian to help with his integration in the dressing room.  

It will then be up to Milik and Manolo Gabbiadini to make Napoli forget Higuain. That will not be easy. Higuain 36-goal haul broke the single-season scoring record in Serie A last campaign, a record that had stood since 1950.  

“Napoli is a paradise for players,” Zibi Boniek, the former Juventus and Roma legend explained, “but I’ve got to admit Milik has chosen a very difficult path. The comparisons with Higuain will not make it easy for him. The pressure on him will mount if he goes two or three games without a goal. Maybe he still needs a couple of years to establish himself. But Arek is young and belongs at this level. We all know his ability. His left foot can do a lot of damage. He can have success.”

Can Milik transfer his Eredivisie form to Serie A? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below