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As we covered earlier, Thursday’s edition of Il Mattino, a Naples newspaper, reported Chelsea have agreed a deal with Aston Villa for the transfer of Romelu Lukaku.

The striker spent last season on loan at AS Roma, doesn’t have a place with the Blues and is very much available right now. Antonio Conte wants him at Napoli, although they’ve still got Victor Osimhen on the books.

The Aston Villa claims have obviously been seen as a big deal in Italy, with lots of people commenting on it.

Journalist Marco Giordano is relayed by CalcioNapoli24 insisting Lukaku has rejected Unai Emery’s side and “The Blues strategy is to put pressure on Napoli”.

Giordano clearly believes that Chelsea are looking to agree deals with other clubs, or at least give the impression they have, in order to make Napoli dig deeper into their pockets and pay more for Lukaku.

It’s transfer games, seemingly, and could get sillier given Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is known for being as dramatic as possible.