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Napoli not interested in Mario Balotelli or Ezequiel Lavezzi

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Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has played down rumours linking the club with moves for Mario Balotelli and Ezequiel Lavezzi.

The Serie A club have already strengthened this winter with the signing of Ivan Strinic from Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk while Sampdoria's Manolo Gabbiadini is set to follow as soon as the transfer market opens on Monday.

Napoli have also been linked with moves for Liverpool's Balotelli and PSG's Lavezzi, but De Laurentiis insists he does not need either.

"What use would they be?" he said in an interview with Naples' Il Mattino. "We've got an abundance of options in attack and [Lorenzo] Insigne will return in a few months.

"People forget that Lavezzi earns 4.5 million [euros] a year and that, above all, it was he who wanted to leave Napoli. He decided that in 2011 and we asked him to stay with us another year, and then in 2012 he went to Paris Saint-Germain.

"Sometimes the players' agents have fun linking their players to your clubs, but we've got nothing to do with Lavezzi or Balotelli either."

De Laurentiis also said he made a mistake last summer when he proclaimed his club would win Serie A this season and he admits now they are not yet mature enough for the title.

Heading into 2015, the Azzurri trail league leaders Juventus, whom they face next weekend, by 12 points, while second-placed Roma are nine points ahead of Rafael Benitez's men.

"I made a mistake in preseason when I talked about the title," De Laurentiis said. "Napoli's objective is to be competitive always. Sooner or later, we'll win the scudetto, but it doesn't happen just by signing one or two new players.

"You win when you have a united front formed of a team, the club and the fans. The scudetto will arrive when we are more mature."

The first step towards finding that maturity was taken by appointing experienced coach Benitez 18 months ago, although there is lingering uncertainty over the Spaniard's future.

"I hope he wants to stay because that would give some continuity to our project, and it would be the best solution," added De Laurentiis. "We'll know everything within the next two months, but one thing is certain: the international mentality which I wanted to offer by appointing Benitez will not change.

"We will carry on along this path, making it become our principle. We want to grow and remain competitive in the league, in the Europa League and in the Coppa Italia, having just celebrated winning the Supercoppa.

"We may be quite a way behind Juventus and Roma in the league, but we move forwards with faith; with the objective of not fearing anybody, like Benitez says.

"We finished last season in third place and now we're in the leading positions again. We're a bit like the cyclist who got a puncture and had to play catch-up, but there is still time for us to recover. There are 38 stages to a season and we're not even halfway there yet. You've got to add everything up at the end.

"Napoli are the only Italian club to have won two trophies in the 2014 calendar year."