Born in Naples on 03/10/88, graduated in Philosophy and Politics from the Oriental University of Naples. He has been working for TMW since 2008 and was deputy editor for 10 years. Sent to follow the national team
To understand the reasons that in the summer pushed Napoli to focus without hesitation on Romelu Lukaku and De Laurentiis to make an investment that does not fall within his usual reasoning, we need to go back to last August 29th. The transfer market is coming to an end, the negotiation is closing precisely in those hours and Antonio Conte, in a press conference, explains why he wanted the Belgian center forward at all costs: “Romelu is an atypical center forward. The big ones are usually also slow: you use them in the area as a buoy but they don’t have great legs to exploit the pitch. Lukaku on the other hand is different, I’ve always defined him as an American football player: he’s 190 centimeters tall , but he is very fast and also very powerful. We need both someone who can keep up, who makes us go up and find combinations, and someone who attacks spaces and hurts.”
Lukaku has always been an obsession for Conte. As soon as he took charge of Inter, the Belgian center forward – who was 26 years old at the time – was the Lecce coach’s first request to his new club. The negotiations set up that summer were exhausting, a soap opera. But in the end it ended with an investment of 75 million euros which at that time clearly explained the ambitions of the Zhang family.
In that Inter Lukaku made the difference. He was a driving force, a leader, the great goalscorer. In the second season probably the best player in the championship. That adventure, his first with the Nerazzurri, lasted two seasons. Exactly how long Antonio Conte’s adventure at the helm of Inter lasted. Anything but a coincidence.
That two-year period still represents the pinnacle of Lukaku’s career today because in the following years the Antwerp-born center forward never again expressed himself at those levels: the return to Chelsea with millions turned out to be a real bloodbath for the blues’ coffers, the one to Inter on loan revealed that it wasn’t the same story with Inzaghi. Finally the landing in the capital: the adventure at Roma certified that yes, Lukaku is still an excellent center forward, but being the best player in the championship was already something else entirely.
In short, over the years there has been no shortage of warnings and they have all gone in the direction of a career in downward spiral, signals which however have not changed Conte’s idea of Lukaku by a millimetre. Even if several seasons had passed in the meantime, even if now one of the most expensive strikers of all time is 31 years old.
Why didn’t he solve the center forward problem like he did with Kvara and Di Lorenzo?
Antonio Conte took over as Napoli manager at the end of a disastrous season. The post-Scudetto celebrations also brought rubble. A bit of pride, too much superficiality. Exactly the ideal situation to allow the manager from Lecce to make the difference.
Having concluded the tenth place season, Conte first found himself having to deal with the desire of half the team to leave. In Germany, during the European Championship, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, irritated by the criticism he received, hoped to be sold every other day. The same can be said of Kvaraktshelia, more than annoyed by Napoli’s decision to reject an offer of 100 million euros which would have brought him a salary of around 8 million euros net per season.
In both cases, Conte’s work to convince them to stay was fundamental. Meeting after meeting, phone call after phone call, the new Napoli coach convinced the captain and number 77 to stay. A very precious job, a job that was never even mentioned towards Victor Osimhen. In this case Conte only acknowledged the desire of the player and the club to separate and did nothing to change the status quo. Why? Especially because Romelu Lukaku was already in Conte’s mind. Even if today that explanation given to motivate the purchase of the new center forward (“number nine who plays alone but at the same time attacks spaces”) today speaks more about Osimhen.
For Conte’s current idea of football, a player like the Nigerian striker would probably be perfect. More than Lukaku. And it’s not a question of physical condition because the former Chelsea player has only left for Belgium’s match against Italy since he arrived at Castel Volturno. Twice he gave up Red Devils just to be physically impeccable: he is trying in every way to go back to what he was, but who knows if he will still be.
Even ADL risks paying a very high price…
However, there is also another aspect of the story, which is the economic one. Because today it is still not easy to estimate how much this decision to publicly sideline Victor Osimhen to focus on Romelu Lukaku cost Napoli. It is known, for the moment, that in the summer Aurelio De Laurentiis spent 30 million euros on a 31-year-old center forward who will earn six million per season for three years and who will almost certainly be unsellable should he no longer be part of the Neapolitan club’s plans. And it is known that publicly putting Osimhen out of the squad made his transfer impossible. If until a year earlier ADL was asking for 200 million euros, a year later the Nigerian was not sold for 100 or even for 80 million. Now, after the loan to Galatasaray, a 75 million euro clause has been included in the new contract which will be valid (only for foreign clubs) as early as January.
The Osimhen-Lukaku switch was very costly and time will tell how much. But now it’s no longer just this because, game after game, doubts about the validity of the operation increase. On the choice of field. The paradox is that at the end of the season Napoli could need a new center forward, a younger Lukaku (Bonny is being monitored) because Romelu may no longer be able to lead a team that wants to return to the top. This would be another very costly investment for a company that last summer would only have had to try, in every way, to get the Osimhen case included just as it did with Di Lorenzo and Kvaratskhelia. Did Conte do his math badly?