Federico Chiesa remains keen on leaving Liverpool this summer, despite his fondness for the club and his strong relationship with everyone in it.
Chiesa was viewed as an opportunistic addition to Arne Slot's squad last summer but he made just two starts across the Premier League and the Champions League, both of which effectively came in dead rubbers.
Chiesa — who recently admitted he found this season "tough" — was made to wait until May for his first league start, as he lined up against Chelsea after the title had been wrapped up, while his only start in the Champions League came against PSV Eindhoven, after qualification for the knockout phase had been secured.
Napoli has made contact with Liverpool and Chiesa could return to Italy, where he spent the entirety of his club career before moving to Merseyside a year ago.
Addressing Chiesa's future on his YouTube channel, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano said: "Federico Chiesa wants to leave Liverpool with a bit of a bad heart, because Chiesa is happy at Liverpool on a club level, on a relationship level with his teammates, with the coach.
"In short, he doesn't have any kind of negative relationship with the Liverpool world but Chiesa wants to play. He believes the time has come to play more.
"His injuries have now been completely resolved but in Liverpool he has found little space. Florian Wirtz's arrival at Liverpool means there is little space for Chiesa to do well and for this reason the player is pushing for a return to Italy.
"From what we understand, there were some informative calls with Napoli. Napoli called to understand the situation to be informed about the possible conditions of the player's exit.
"It is still too early to indicate a favourite [target of Napoli's] but Chiesa is one of the players Napoli has had contact with. The relationship with his agent is very good and in short Napoli is informed of this desire on the part of Federico Chiesa to return to Italy.
Chiesa wants to play more regularly
Chiesa wants to play more regularly (Image: MI News/NurPhoto)
"We will understand more about the other Italian possibilities for Chiesa if another club was to arise. We will see what happens with Milan but as for now we only know of interest from Napoli."
Meanwhile, Romano said the Reds are closing in on an agreement to sign left-back Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth.
"Liverpool have almost, almost closed verbally this story for Milos Kerkez," Romano said. "For Milos Kerkez, we are not yet at the ‘Here we go’ but verbally we are almost there.
"I can tell you that Milos Kerkez will be the next signing for Liverpool. But also remember in terms of timing, it could take some time.
"Liverpool are getting there for their third signing of the summer, Milos Kerkez. Kerkez wants to go to Liverpool, Kerkez has an agreement with Liverpool, Kerkez is only waiting for a green light with that."