President of Napoli Aurelio De Laurentiis has hinted that the failure of his team to qualify for the UEFA Champions League might lead to a situation where wages of high earning players will be slashed.
The president made this known while speaking on the financial condition of the team as the wage bill has gone beyond what the club currently generates, no thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is not a problem not to have gone to the Champions League, the problem is that we have gone from 30 million salaries to 50, 75, 120 and today to 156 million. It is obvious that we must first of all heal this problem, Napoli spends figures that he does not invoice and must review salaries based on what he earns”, the president explained.
Presently Victor Osimhen (€5.4m) is among the highest paid players at the club with only the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly, Piotr Zielinski, Kostas Manolas, Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne earning more than him.
For now there is still some way to go before the pay slash will be implemented as the club is looking to move on some players before the end of the current transfer window and that will no doubt reduce the wage bill to an extent.