GENOA, ITALY - APRIL 4: Lorenzo Lucca of Udinese looks on during the Serie A match between Genoa and Udinese at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on April 4, 2025 in Genoa, Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images) (Inter, Milan, Roma and Napoli links)
GENOA, ITALY - APRIL 4: Lorenzo Lucca of Udinese looks on during the Serie A match between Genoa and Udinese at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on April 4, 2025 in Genoa, Italy. (Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images)
Napoli have made their decision to proceed for Lorenzo Lucca of Udinese, as Darwin Nunez was simply too expensive, so extra funds are freed up for Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Dan Ndoye.
The cost of the operation for the Italy international will be under €40m and, as we reported back on May 8 for Football Italia, Lucca was always the Plan B to Nunez.
For over two months the Partenopei tried to check the feasibility of that move for their primary target, making proposals close to €50m, but Liverpool’s intransigence meant that strategy simply had to change.
Lucca frees up further Napoli investment
BOLOGNA, ITALY - APRIL 07: Dan Ndoye of Bologna celebrates scoring his team's first goal with teammate Jhon Lucumi during the Serie A match between Bologna and Napoli at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on April 07, 2025 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
BOLOGNA, ITALY – APRIL 07: Dan Ndoye of Bologna celebrates scoring his team’s first goal with teammate Jhon Lucumi during the Serie A match between Bologna and Napoli at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on April 07, 2025 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
Unless something extraordinary happens, Napoli will secure Lucca and then use the money left over to invest in other roles that can reinforce the Scudetto holders.
The next focus is Torino goalkeeper Milinkovic-Savic, while the offer to Bologna for winger Ndoye must be improved.
In recent weeks, they also evaluated Mattia Zaccagni of Lazio and Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman, but after the arrival of Noa Lang for his medical from PSV Eindhoven, the favourite for Antonio Conte remains Ndoye.