As customary, many Serie A teams took it down to the wire to round out their squads and made some big moves on deadline day. Here’s what went down with some brief commentary.

Napoli formally announced the acquisition of Rasmus Hojlund from Manchester City. In the end, the numbers are a little higher than anticipated. They’ll shell out €6M for the initial loan and €44M for the conditional obligation to buy, which will hinge on their Champions League qualification, Radio CRC reports (via MSN). He’ll make €5M annually, and there’s an €80M-plus release clause in his contract.

Milan

Milan have been busy in both directions. They’ll bid farewell to Alex Jimenez and Yunus Musah and sign Adrien Rabiot. They’ll spend €10M to stage the reunion between the Frenchman and Massimiliano Allegri, with part of the sum going to his mother and agent, Sky reports. He’ll earn roughly €5.5M. Instead, the Rossoneri could pocket €20M from Bournemouth for the fullback and €25M from Atlanta for the midfielder. The formula is a loan with a conditional obligation to buy in both instances. Instead, after testing the waters for Joe Gomez and Manuel Akanji, they settled for Wolfsburg youngster David Odogu for about €7M, Calciomercato reports.

Ardon Jashari suffering a serious lower leg injury opened the door to another addition, and, while he’s not young, the veteran is an almost no-brainer at those numbers. They can certainly use all the leadership they can get, and their coach knows how to bring out the best in him. They have soured on the youngster, also for some minor off-the-field stuff, and, while he’s at worst a useful back-up, the fee is strong, even though they’ll have to give part of it to Real Madrid. Instead, the USMNT representative rarely had consistently good stretches. He could bounce back in a place where he’ll have less pressure.

Juventus

Juventus have completed the transition they had set up, sending Nicolas Gonzalez to Atletico Madrid and adding Edon Zhegrova. They’ll pocket €35M for the former, if he’s indeed redeemed, while they’ll spend about €20M for the Kosovar forward. In the end, they couldn’t come to terms with PSG for Randal Kolo Muani and pivoted toward Lois Openda, grabbing him for roughly €40M from RB Leipzig, La Gazzetta dello Sport informs.

Their new brass decided not to give a second chance to last year’s expensive flops and contained the damage from a financial standpoint. The Lille star was a bit pricey for his contractual situation and injury history, but he’s a proven and versatile commodity. Ultimately, they had the money for a coup, provided it would impact next year’s balance sheets, and not the current one. The Bundesliga side accepted the terms, unlike PSG.

Kolo Muani, who would have had much higher wages, would have been better for the future composition of their frontline in terms of skill set. Instead, since they couldn’t get rid of Vlahovic and didn’t necessarily need a pure center-forward this season, they could have gone in a number of directions to shore up their attack and choose a very talented player that can handle multiple roles and should pair up well with their talents and make them more at ease in case of injuries. Moreover, they didn’t roll the dice with any high-upside prospect, only hand-picking sure things on the market not to get burned again. We’ll see whether that’ll be the case, as there’s always an element of risk in bringing foreign players to Serie A, as good as they may have looked abroad. Finally, it’s not totally over for Kolo Muani, as he’s going to Tottenham on a simple loan. 

Inter

Inter will tweak their defense but not straight-up add to it. They have come to terms with Manchester United for Manuel Akanji on a €1M season-long loan with a €15M option to buy that will be automatically activated if they win the Scudetto, Gianluca Di Marzio relays. Instead, Benjamin Pavard is headed to Olympique Marseille in a similar fashion

It’s a lateral move at best. Perhaps the impetus came directly from him, but it’s unclear why they were so eager to offload the Frenchman this summer, and they didn’t get a haul for him. It was time to start rejuvenating the department, but they might have run out of resources after bringing in some notable reinforcements elsewhere.

Around Serie A

Fiorentina added a fairly established option on the right wing behind Dodo, nabbing Tariq Lamptey from Brighton.

After signing starlets all summer long, Como closed their impressive window with two experienced players: Stefan Posch from Bologna and Diego Carlos from Fenerbahce on cost-effective deals. Cremonese have completed two outside-the-box signings: they have lured Leicester City legend Jamie Vardy and young defender Mikayil Faye from Rennes. Torino snapped up a young left-back from Eintracht Frankfurt, Niels Nkounou, to challenge Cristiano Biraghi.

Udinese are the latest team to take a shot at Nicolò Zaniolo and bet on Alessandro Zanoli, who are joining on loan from Galatasaray and Napoli respectively, Sky reports. Sassuolo won the Walid Cheddira sweepstakes and are bringing former Parma fullback Woyo Coulibaly back to Serie A from Leicester City. Pisa are adding a lot of experience to their defense, as they have come to terms with Raul Albiol.

In non-Serie A news, Gianluigi Donnarumma is indeed going to pretty much the only place he could go to after being ousted by PSG, Manchester City, replacing Ederson, who’s headed to Fenerbahce. The Sky Blues will pay €27M plus bonuses. His salary will be around €16M for the next five years.

It was the most logical solution, as the Premier League champions could actually use an upgrade between the sticks, and were one of the few outfits that could afford him. Gennaro Gattuso can breathe a sigh of relief, as one of his cornerstones won’t be on the sidelines over a contractual dispute in a pivotal season.