Lucca has two months to save his Napoli career as a loan looms

Lucca has not scored this season. The clock is now running, and it stops on 2 January, when the transfer window reopens. Between now and then he will get a few short spells off the bench to change a verdict that seems already reached inside the club. If he does not, the winter window could end his time at Napoli.

The name being linked most persistently for January is Varela, Serie A's top scorer. He scored against Napoli at Monza on Wednesday 28 October, in the 43rd minute.

A loan in Italy is favoured, a sale is possible

If nothing changes, the preferred solution would be a loan, ideally in Serie A: giving the player minutes and confidence back without losing control of his registration. A permanent sale is not ruled out either. His valuation is put at around €20-22m, well below the roughly €35m Napoli paid Udinese for him.

On current form, though, it is hard to picture a queue of buyers. His physique and his qualities as an out-and-out striker still appeal, but a loan remains the more realistic route. There is a wider plan behind it. Napoli want to restore the value of three players, Lucca, Lang and Beukema, both for the current squad and to fund incoming signings through any sale.

Opinion on the striker is split. Andrea Carnevale, a former Napoli striker and now an executive at Udinese, where Lucca spent two outstanding seasons before the move, jokes that Napoli fans often tell him he "sold them a dud". He does not back down, though. In his view Lucca has a psychological block and is a little frightened, but remains "very strong". He asks the city to show Lucca the trust it once showed him.

Diego Armando Maradona Jr is far cooler. For him, Lucca is now "off even the coach's radar", in a Napoli side that is very thin up front and getting by with emergency fixes such as Vergara played out of position and Giovane.

The uncomfortable question

This is where the awkward question lies, and it is not only about the player. Napoli spent almost €90m on Lucca and Højlund. At the end of October one of them has yet to score, and the coach is apparently asking for another striker. Højlund's goal at Monza was his first since 5 September. But when such an expensive gamble ends up as a loan, the responsibility lies with whoever built the squad.

In an interview recorded in September, sporting director Giovanni Manna spoke of a cycle "probably at an end". Lucca was nowhere in his ranking of the best signings.

"molto forte"

Our doubt is a simple one. A striker who is stuck gets going again by playing, and Lucca plays little because he does not score. On Sunday 1 November at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET) at the Allianz Stadium, with Neres out, Napoli are short of attacking options. If Lucca is to get back on the radar, it will be through cameos like these, starting in Turin and then in Porto on Wednesday 4 November.