- 13 hours ago
'Chelsea's Osimhen offer was the best for the player and Napoli'
Robin Bairner
- 6 Sept 2024 11:00 BST
- 3 min read
Chelsea’s offer for Victor Osimhen would have been the best deal for everyone involved in the transfer saga, according to a prominent journalist, who claims the terms the Stamford Bridge side offered were superior to those of Galatasaray.
On Deadline Day, Osimhen was the subject of an intense push from Chelsea, who believed they could land the striker on a loan deal.
This collapsed, however, when they were unable to reach an agreement with the 25-year-old, who was exiled from Napoli’s Serie A squad, with his shirt given to former Blues striker Romelu Lukaku instead.
READ MORE: Gallagher vs. Maresca: England star breaks silence on Chelsea exit
Current ETV
Victor Osimhen
F (C)
Galatasaray
Victor Osimhen
F (C)
Galatasaray
ETV Range
€53.3M - €88.9M
Galatasaray moved quickly to take advantage of the ensuing chaos by signing Osimhen on a loan deal that expires at the end of the season.
The Daily Telegraph’s Matt Law, though, has told the London Is Blue Podcast that the player and Napoli both missed out on the best opportunity.
“I’m told that Chelsea’s loan offer for Osimhen was better both for him and for Napoli than whatever it is he signed with Galatasaray,” he claimed.
READ MORE: Osimhen to Galatasaray and the 11 strangest transfers of the summer
“And yet Chelsea were told under no circumstances was he going to move on loan by the agent. Therefore, their loan offers were completely ignored.
“They saw Osimhen as a potential risk and reward deal, which is why they pitched how they pitched for him in terms of loans and all sorts of incentive-based wages and things like that.”
Lukaku all over again?
Law explained Chelsea’s refusal to match Osimhen’s Napoli wages.
“For me, they can’t go out and pay him £300,000-a-week because that’s going to cause massive issues when you’ve just given Cole Palmer an uplift that’s nowhere near that really. It would have been risky. You could easily have had another Lukaku situation,” he said.
Chelsea, meanwhile, did not go down the route of making a serious push for Ivan Toney, who moved to the Saudi Pro League instead, for a simple reason.
“I don’t think Chelsea believed Toney was a big enough upgrade on Nicholas Jackson,” Law said.
The Blues, meanwhile, are next in action against Bournemouth on 14 September in the Premier League.;
