We paid 11m for half of Gio. About 9m for Caceres who we had loaned earlier and Marrotta chose to lose the loan amount instead of redeeming him, and then loaned him again and eventually bought outright.
But whatever, that alone is not the cause. Conte for a large part has made those signings work. A lesser coach perhaps may not have gotten the same out of Barzagli, Bonnucci, Padoin, Pepe, Peluso, Giaccherini, Asamoah(LwB), Matri, Quag etc. he had some clarity in his ideas and their implementation.