Napoli strategy for Lucca, Milinkovic-Savic and Ndoye sparked by Nunez

Originally posted on Football Italia | Last updated Jul 15, 2025 10:16 AM ET

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

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.

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

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