{"id":645137,"date":"2024-08-23T18:07:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T22:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=645137"},"modified":"2024-08-23T18:10:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T22:10:19","slug":"chelsea-lukaku-transfer-conte-napoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/08\/23\/chelsea-lukaku-transfer-conte-napoli\/","title":{"rendered":"Romelu Lukaku Poised for Italy Return Under Antonio Conte\u2019s Guidance: A New Chapter Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years after his \u00a397.5 million transfer to Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku <\/span>is <\/span>close to returning to Italy with former boss Antonio Conte. After two temporary loan spells at Inter Milan and Roma, the Belgian is set to permanently leave the Blues for Conte’s Napoli.<\/span><\/p>\n

Romelu Lukaku Close to Napoli Move<\/span><\/h2>\n

Details Of The Deal<\/span><\/h3>\n

As reported by renowned journalist Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea <\/span>have<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>accepted a proposal from Napoli<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of around \u00a338 million as the total package. Around \u00a325 million of it is guaranteed, while another \u00a313 million could be achieved through potential performance-based <\/span>add-ons<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Lukaku agreed to a <\/span>three-year<\/span> deal with Napoli that would expire in 2027. Napoli manager Antonio Conte has\u00a0<\/span>pursued the Belgian striker all summer<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as the two of them hope to reignite their success from their time spent in Italy together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lukaku’s Underwhelming Chelsea Reunion<\/span><\/h3>\n

Lukaku’s return to Chelsea quickly turned out to be a catastrophic disappointment. Chelsea supporters expected the Belgian to remedy their infamous ‘number nine curse,’ but he only worsened it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since his <\/span>big-money<\/span> arrival in 2021, Lukaku only scored eight goals in the league and two in the Champions League. Following a <\/span>Scudetto-winning<\/span> campaign in which he registered 40 goal contributions in 44 games, the Belgian’s woeful record in front of goal for the Blues was universally underwhelming. However, the disappointment doesn’t end there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Why Chelsea <\/span>Need<\/span> Victor Osimhen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

He sent the Chelsea fanbase into pandemonium after an\u00a0<\/span>infamous interview with Sky Sports<\/span><\/a>\u00a0during the 2021\/22 season. Despite his recent transfer to Chelsea, the Belgian expressed his regret <\/span>about<\/span> leaving Inter and desire to return sooner than expected. Consequently, many Blues supporters viewed his messages as a lack of loyalty, and the ensuing controversy continued to burn bridges between Chelsea and the Belgian striker.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the following years, Lukaku trained separately from the first team and went on loan back to Italy in consecutive seasons. He returned to his beloved Inter for a temporary stint before joining Roma the following season, but his form already started to massively decline. Lukaku never played for Chelsea again after his first season back, as he was always on the periphery looking for a permanent transfer departure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lukaku’s Chemistry With Conte<\/span><\/h3>\n

As briefly mentioned earlier, Lukaku enjoyed the best form of his career under Antonio Conte. The Belgian scored 64 goals in 95 games under Conte at Inter Milan en route to their Serie A title in 2021. Likewise, Lukaku earned Serie A’s Player of the Year award that season as he was one of the world’s most prolific number <\/span>nine’s<\/span> at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Chelsea Set Strict Wage Demand For Signing ‘Top’ Striker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Ironically, Conte even\u00a0<\/span>lobbied to sign Lukaku<\/span><\/a>\u00a0back when he was Chelsea’s <\/span>title-winning<\/span> manager in 2017. It seems as if Conte knows what it takes to get the best out of the Belgian wherever he goes, and the two of them are close to being reunited at Napoli for the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years after his \u00a397.5 million transfer to Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku is close to returning to Italy with former boss Antonio Conte. After two temporary loan spells at Inter Milan and Roma, the Belgian is set to permanently leave the Blues for Conte’s Napoli. Romelu Lukaku Close to Napoli Move Details Of The Deal As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5222,"featured_media":645147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7188],"tags":[8611,7509,299],"class_list":["post-645137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-rumours","tag-chelsea-transfer-rumours","tag-napoli-transfer-news","tag-romelu-lukaku"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}