Napoli sacrifice Lukaku too as UEFA limits block new striker

Allegri wanted a new striker this summer and did not get one. Napoli's attack is unchanged from May, with Lucca and Hojlund still the only options through the middle, even though the head coach had asked for a profile different from the two forwards already in the squad. The club chose another path, and the reason is not tactical: it is UEFA's financial rules, which after two transfer windows the club itself has called "pharaonic" demanded an immediate tightening of the books.

The other name sacrificed on the altar of financial sustainability is Romelu Lukaku, whose gross salary of €11m was judged incompatible with the club's new budget limits. Same script, same cause: the club chose the conservative route over the attacking ambition Allegri would have wanted for his first season at Napoli.

The contrast with the real numbers of the window is striking: the transfer balance is still negative by around €47.5m, yet no one arrived in attack. The club spent to balance the books after years of heavy spending, but the department the head coach said needed reinforcement most stayed exactly as it was.

The result is there on the pitch: three straight defeats, the last of them in the Champions League against Arsenal, and a Napoli side that face Bologna at the Maradona on Sunday 13 September with Lucca and Hojlund as the only recognised centre-forwards available. Allegri has already demanded victory "without chatter" for Sunday's game — if there is any chatter, it is about a forward line the coach did not choose and now has to make work anyway.

That leaves the January 2027 window as the only real chance to strengthen the attack. Until then, the alternative tactical approach the reporting refers to will have to be enough — an elegant way of saying that, in attack, Allegri has to make do with what he has.