Fernando Llorente was released by Tottenham last summer and joined Napoli on a two-year deal, but his return to Italy hasn’t gone to plan.
The 35-year-old has been short of form and playing time at the Stadium San Paolo and may have an uncertain future after being denied a shirt number this season.
So, what happened to Llorente at Napoli?
Lack of goals led to a lack of minutes
The Spanish international has made 24 appearances in all competitions, scoring four goals with one assist. He managed only four starts in his debut season at Napoli and racked up a paltry 666 minutes of playing time. Llorente’s last outing for the Italian outfit came in January, as he spent most of 2020 on the treatment table.
Gennaro Gattuso preferred Arkadiusz Milik and Dries Mertens in attack, so the 35-year-old barely got a sniff. And with the news that Llorente has been frozen out of the first-team, he could be searching for his third club in just over a year. With only three league goals for two clubs in the last 24 months, Llorente may not attract a lot of interest.
Where could he go this summer?
According to Area Napoli (h/t Sport Witness), Everton and West Ham United are keen on Llorente, but it remains to be seen if they’ll be successful in their pursuit. The Spaniard shouldn’t fetch a lofty transfer fee as he didn’t cost Napoli a penny, but is he worth paying €61k-per-week/€3.17m-a-year (£55.8k-per-week/£2.9m-a-year)?
It’s unknown whether Llorente could still make an impact in the Premier League either. He didn’t play a lot of football in 2019/20 and has suffered a serious injury, so he may not be the same player that left Tottenham last year. Time will tell.
Were Tottenham right to release him?
Considering we’ve failed to bring in another striker to take the scoring burden off Harry Kane, no. Llorente contributed a goal (13) or assist (6) every 117 minutes (66 games), so he was useful in a backup role. We’re yet to find another player willing to play second fiddle to Kane, so Llorente would have been worth keeping. That ship has sailed now, however, so I don’t think we should return.
In other news, Tottenham have been dealt a transfer blow in pursuit of Ruben Dias