Rio Ferdinand tells Arsenal to sign Victor Osimhen in January

Carlo Garganese

• 18 Dec 2024 16:00 GMT
• 3 min read

Rio Ferdinand has told Arsenal that they should sign Victor Osimhen during the January transfer window.

The Gunners are on the lookout for a natural number nine during the winter window due to their goalscoring woes.

Arsenal have not scored a goal from open play for four matches and are at risk of completely falling out of the Premier League title race.

Kai Havertz, a natural midfielder, has been deployed as Arsenal’s number 9 this season and Ferdinand believes it is time the Gunners sign a proper striker.

What did Ferdinand say?

“Now, you ain’t having a number nine that’s coming on impacting games,” Ferdinand said.

“But I don’t even think you’ve got to buy an Osimhen, although I would buy Osimhen.

“But I’m saying like, you haven’t even got to buy the best out there who’s available. You’ve got to buy someone who can come in and impact games.”

Osimhen was heavily linked with Arsenal during the summer transfer window and have been linked with coming back in for the Nigerian during the January window.

The Nigerian is on loan at Galatasaray from Napoli but there is a €75 million release clause in his contract that becomes active in January.

Napoli would like to sell Osimhen next month in order to fund a number of signings of their own.

Osimhen to Galatasaray on loan

Osimhen joined Galatasaray on loan for the season from Napoli until June 2025.

It is a dry loan with Galatasaray simply covering his salary from September until June at a cost of €10 million.

He has enjoyed a fantastic start to the season with Galatasaray, already scoring 10 goals in 14 games.

The attacker had spent the entire summer searching for a new club and sacked his agent when this wasn’t forthcoming.

The 25-year-old had been frozen out of the squad at Napoli, with no chance of being reintegrated under new manager Antonio Conte.

Instead of spending the entire first half of the season training on his own, Osimhen opted to join Galatasaray on loan.

Osimhen saw his relationship with Napoli sour last season, following the TikTok scandal in which the club’s own social media team mocked his penalty miss with Bologna.

Osimhen had a largely difficult season on the pitch, while Napoli endured a disastrous defence of the Scudetto they won in the 2022-23 season as they finished 10th in Serie A.

The Nigerian had been a key player in the Scudetto campaign, scoring 26 league goals in 32 games.