When Tiemoué Bakayoko arrived on loan at Napoli from Chelsea, he was received quite warmly.
After all, the Frenchman was seen as they key to shoring up the defence in Gennaro Gattuso’s team, and he started off well.
There was even early talk that an €18m gentleman’s agreement between Chelsea and Napoli had been pre-agreed for a future transfer without being made official in the terms of the loan.
As late as January, there was still hope that a move would be possible, with Bakayoko’s entourage revealing ‘great openness and willingness’ to completing the move to Napoli, but it now appears this might have dissipated.
Napoli are in a terrible run of form, winning just one of their last five games, and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight.
Their most recent defeat came in a 4-2 loss to Atalanta at the weekend, and Bakayoko didn’t impress, as Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport both give him a 4.5/10.
In fact, the former go as far as labelling him ‘slow and awkward’ as well as accusing him of ‘missing an easy ball on which Muriel pounces for the third goal’.
Furthermore, an article from Area Napoli see his entire experience in Naples as ‘significantly disappointing’, and while his initial loan was ‘strongly supported by Gattuso’, ‘it is unlikely that Aurelio De Laurentiis will decide to invest more money on the player’.
