Sky Sport report that Napoli secured a verbal agreement with the Spanish centre-back on Thursday evening, with the Naples club offering a five-year contract that the 2000-born defender is ready to accept once terms are settled with Lazio.
There is confidence within Napoli over completing the deal, though negotiating with Lazio president Claudio Lotito is expected to prove difficult.
Lazio consider the figure being discussed for Gila, around €15m, too low, even with the defender entering the final year of his contract, in part because 50% of any future sale must be paid to Real Madrid under terms agreed when Gila left the Spanish club in 2022.
That financial complication has opened the door to player-plus-cash structures that could appeal to both Lotito and incoming Lazio head coach Gennaro Gattuso. One name under consideration is Lorenzo Lucca, the 2000-born striker who returned to Napoli following a loan at Nottingham Forest and does not appear to fit the club's plans. A transfer structure still needs to be agreed, though Lucca is understood to have Gattuso's approval as a target.
Napoli's rebuild extends to the goalkeeping department as well. While the club awaits the signature of incoming head coach Massimiliano Allegri, still finalising the terms of his exit from Milan, sporting director Giovanni Manna has been working closely with the new coach on reshaping the squad, including a surprising shift in the pecking order between the posts. Alex Meret, who spent much of last season on the margins, could return to a leading role, with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic now on the market instead.
Signed for around €22m from Torino last summer, Milinkovic-Savic never delivered the upgrade Antonio Conte had hoped for. He did not prove clearly superior to Meret between the posts, and his distribution — supposedly his standout quality — did little to ease Napoli's persistently difficult build-up play, which often relied on long balls rather than controlled possession. Conte's faith in Milinkovic-Savic also came at the cost of sidelining both Meret and prospect Elia Caprile.
Meret could now stay despite his own contract expiring in a year, given the chance to reclaim his starting role, reassert his value and potentially commit to fresh terms. Regaining the number one shirt at Napoli has remained his priority throughout.
Should offers arrive for Milinkovic-Savic, who would no longer be considered central to the club's plans, Napoli have long been monitoring PSV's Matej Kovar, born in 2000 and currently on World Cup duty with the Czech Republic. Tottenham's Guglielmo Vicario, 29, also remains on the radar, though he represents a different profile entirely — a more expensive, ready-made starter following his experience in the Premier League.