NAPLES – Romelu Lukaku rhymes with Antonio Conte: this is one of the most solid centre-forward-coach pairs in the collective imagination. Let him be a Rom a striker very suited to the Napoli coach’s game, well, it’s a story confirmed by the legendary Inter two-year period 2019-2021, enriched by the 47 goals scored in 72 games with Mr. Antonio on the bench. Well. Osimhen’s farewell, for the moment in the air although not yet certified, immediately heated up the track for the arrival of Lukaku at Napoli with his totem coach, the one that the Belgian striker himself defined «the best I’ve had in my career» during an interview given close to the end of the championship with Roma. And before returning to Chelsea. Conte, however, included him in his very personal transfer list and sporting director Manna immediately got to work: information, contacts with the entourage and an overview of the situation to understand how and when to act. Result? The current parameters, as is known, are very high: L’expected salary in his contract until 2026 is 10 million plus bonuses; and furthermore, Chelsea excludes the possibility of letting him leave on loan and is actually aiming exclusively for a permanent transfer, upon satisfaction of the release clause of 37.5 million pounds; more or less 44 million euros.
Lukaku, Arabia temptation
Strategy? It could be, also because the Blues are forced to realize collections and capital gains by June 30th to satisfy the rules of English Financial Fair Play and so they could even settle for 20-25 million. We will see. The fact is that the information collected by Manna to understand the margins of maneuver of a possible operation resulted in an obstacle. If not a wall. Among other things, in the famous interview above, Lukaku also spoke about the possibility of a future in Saudi Arabia, discarded a year ago. And in these days that separate Belgium from Calzona’s debut against Slovakia, scheduled for tomorrow at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, his national team colleague Yannick Carrasco, already in Saudi with Al-Shabab, also revealed a background story in the conference : «Lukaku and De Bruyne asked me for information on how things are going in Arabia. Living that reality makes it easier for me to give feedback”. Goalkeeper Koen Casteels, formerly of Wolfsburg, called him before signing for Al-Qadisiya. Oh well, things from the Belgian house.
