Sarri’s Lazio keep dreaming of Kepa Arrizabalga — report

Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio are doing pretty well so far this season sitting in fifth place in Serie A — two points and one position above bitter arch-rivals (José Mourinho’s) AS Roma in fact — but there are ambitions of greater things at the club that hasn’t finished higher than third since winning the Scudetto in 2000.

Part of that involves a contract extension that’s supposedly in the works for Sarri to 2025, but also reinforcements through the transfer market. And a primary target in that regard continues to be Chelsea backup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who’s supposedly “Sarri’s favorite” to replace both Pepe Reina and Thomas Strakosha.

Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness) are the latest to bring up this notion, elaborating on previous reports by claiming that Kepa “wants a change of air” and will “surely” leave and probably end up at Lazio, having kept in touch with Sarri all this time. Of course, as also noted countless times before, the main obstacle to all this will be Kepa’s wages — so only a loan deal would be feasible, and that too with Chelsea covering part of his €7m annual salary.

Meanwhile, Sarri reportedly also wants a midfielder in the mould of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (as opposed to Ruben himself, as rumored back in the summer), now that the 25-year-old himself has once again become a regular part of the Chelsea midfield rotation. They don’t make many like RLC though!