Chelsea is willing to include Romelu Lukaku and Cesare Casadei in a trade package to negotiate a lower price for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen.
Osimhen is growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of transfer offers, despite his desire to leave Napoli this summer, which was a stipulation when he signed a new contract in December.
Napoli’s plan to sell Victor Osimhen for his €130m release clause has been met with resistance, as top Premier League clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea deem the price tag too steep, opting to explore alternative options instead of meeting the hefty valuation.
Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid don’t seem particularly interested in Osimhen either.
With this in mind, TEAMtalk claimed that Chelsea are talking to Napoli about various options to exchange players, which would bring down the overall cost of the operation.
Lukaku is the inevitable candidate, seeing as Napoli’s new coach Antonio Conte is desperate to reunite with the former Inter striker and he is not part of the plans at Stamford Bridge.
Armando Broja and Trevoh Chalobah were mentioned, but neither of them are of particular interest to the Partenopei.
A name that could well entice Conte is Casadei, the 21-year-old Italian midfielder who left Inter for €14.86m in 2022 and worked under Enzo Maresca on loan at Leicester City.
Following the departure of Piotr Zielinski to Inter on a free transfer, Napoli are looking to Cesare Casadei to fill the void left by the Polish midfielder.
By including Romelu Lukaku and Cesare Casadei in the transfer package, Chelsea aims to significantly reduce the cash component of the deal.
