"An excellent player" – Napoli boss Antonio Conte talks up potential reunion with Chelsea attacker
Napoli manager Antonio Conte has showered praise on Chelsea attacker Romelu Lukaku, who has reportedly been linked with Gli Azzuri.
Lukaku, 31, spent the 2023-24 season on loan at AS Roma, scoring 21 goals and providing four assists in 47 games across all competitions. Now, he is believed to have no future at the Stamford Bridge outfit.
According to The Standard, Chelsea are willing to sell the Belgian striker for a fee of £38 million this summer. With Victor Osimhen likely to depart, Napoli has lately identified the Blues star as a replacement.
Now, Conte has talked up a potential reunion with Lukaku, who featured under the Italian at Inter Milan between 2019 and 2021. The former Chelsea boss remarked (h/t X/@FabrizioRomano):
"He's an excellent player, top player. There's nothing else to say. You always hope to have a player like Romelu on your side and not against you."
Lukaku, who rejoined the Blues from Inter Milan for £97.5 million in 2021, relished a fine two-year spell under Conte at the San Siro outfit. He scored a staggering 64 goals and laid out 16 assists in 95 games across competitions, helping Inter lift the Serie A title in 2021.
However, Lukaku failed to replicate his form at Enzo Maresca's outfit after moving to them ahead of the 2021-22 campaign. He managed to score just 15 goals in 44 appearances for the Blues before he was shipped out on a season-long loan at the Nerazzurri in 2022.
Should Lukaku choose to extend his stay in Italy by joining Napoli this summer, he would be a crucial starter for the Serie A side. He would fill the potential void left by Osimhen's expected departure this summer.
Chelsea hoping to snap up English striker
In his column for Substack, journalist Simon Phillips stated that the Blues are keen to sign Bournemouth attacker Dominic Solanke this summer. He wrote (h/t Caught Offside):
"He's absolutely seriously being considered. Last we heard was that Bournemouth do not wish to let Chelsea pay the release clause in instalments, and maybe it does end there. But there's always room for negotiations in these things. Solanke is open to a return. Again, nothing advanced, but certainly something going on there."
Solanke, 26, relished his best-ever campaign in the 2023-24 season, recording 21 goals and four assists in 42 matches for Bournemouth.
A one-cap England international, Solanke is a Chelsea youth product. He spent 13 years at the club after enrolling in their academy in 2004.