Italian side Napoli reportedly hope to sign Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga “very soon”.
According to well-respected journalist Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, Napoli are close to loaning out their goalkeeper Alex Meret to Serie A rivals Spezia for the upcoming 2022/23 season.
It is explained this is “part of the plan” to sign Spanish shot-stopper Kepa.
Romano says that Napoli will now continue talks for Chelsea’s 27-year-old gloveman ahead of potentially an imminent transfer.
It’s recently been claimed by journalist Simon Phillips that Kepa’s potential move to Naples is likely to be a loan with an obligation to buy.
The goalkeeper has had a turbulent few years in Chelsea colours that has seen him eventually lose his starting position to Edouard Mendy, but he’s still a young enough player to go reinvent himself in Italy.
Napoli to sign Kepa very soon
It sounds like Kepa may be about to leave West London to go pursue regular first-team minutes with Napoli.
He impressed last season for Chelsea with eight clean sheets in 15 games across all competitions, which has started to rebuild a reputation that took a bit of a battering.
In fairness, he’s a great modern keeper when it comes to playing out from the back. He’s an agile goalkeeper in-between the sticks that is a great shot-stopper on his day, too.
Unfortunately, his £71million transfer will go down as one of the worst signings in Chelsea’s history purely down to the size of the fee.
However, he’s still an 11-time capped Spain international that could be a raging success at Napoli if he gets his confidence back.
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