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Chelsea are in discussions with Napoli about a loan switch to Serie A for full-back Emerson Palmieiri in January.
The 26-year old is completely out of favour at Stamford Bridge, and has yet to play a single minute of Premier League football.
He still has hopes of making the Italy squad for next year’s European Championship but knows that he needs to be playing on a regular basis if he wants to achieve his ambitions. He started for Italy in their friendly win over Estonia last week.
Palmieri moved to Stamford Bridge from Roma when António Conte was in charge of the side, but has never really established himself in West London, and the summer signing of Ben Chilwell has pushed him further down the established order under Frank Lampard.
If he does join Napoli he will find a familiar face there in the form of midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko who is already on loan there from Chelsea and who is tipped to make his switch permanent at the end of the season.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.