Poor old Fabrizio Romano has had to struggle through a pretty slow and dull summer so far in terms of transfers – but now things are really starting to warm up, and Chelsea are bringing him plenty of stories.
We’ve only just brought you the news from him about Alfie Gilchrist and his future on loan. Now he’s got a much higher profile update – albeit a less concrete one – on the situation with Victor Osimhen.
He has just written that Chelsea are still “exploring talks” with his club Napoli, but that the Italian club are “not open” to the two proposals the Blues have made so far – one for a loan, and one for a loan with an option to buy.
They valued him at €120m not long ago , and while there’s no way they’ll get close to that now, they’re not willing to concede just yet, and they are still keeping their asking price miles beyond what we can or would pay.
The clock is ticking – and if anything it feels like Chelsea are planning more and more for another season where they don’t make a decisive move for a top tier forward.
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1820530117590086016
A log jam with no obvious solution
Basically – it’s stuck. We want him, Napoli are happy to sell, Osimhen is happy to move. But if he doesn’t reduce his salary and Napoli don’t play ball on the arrangement of the transfer fee, it’s just not going to happen.
The good news for Chelsea is this – Osimhen looks like he’s proving difficult for Napoli to shift full stop. At the very least our Lukaku angle on the deal gives them a ready made replacement, while also potentially making it economically feasible for us.
We still have major doubts that we’re going to break our wage structure for him, having stuck to it so closely, but anything can happen, especially when an elite striker is involved.
Napoli are playing a game of chicken and they don’t seem to realize that neither Chelsea nor PSG (the other Osimhem suitor) aren’t going to blink! We don’t need him badly enough to pay the ridiculously high valuation they’ve placed on him. Full stop. Thank goodness the Chelsea hierarchy are being shrewd on this one because it helps set a tone in all our other dealings that we won’t be extorted (despite what we paid for Enzo and Caicedo).
Omorodion is the most ridiculous signing. And Alvarez not being chased? Madness.
He’s unproven. Clumsy, poor shooting, falls over half the time. A disaster waiting to happen. The sporting directors are deluded.
Should stir clear of Osimhen completely another Lukaku waiting to happen.