Osimhen’s ‘bad attitude’ scares off Arsenal

Carlo Garganese

Updated: 19 Jan 2025 12:20 GMT
4 min read

Victor Osimhen, Galatasaray, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Arsenal have been warned against signing Victor Osimhen this month due to his perceived bad attitude.

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

Arsenal have struggled all season in attack, leading to them falling out of the Premier League title race - with Liverpool running away with the championship.

Kai Havertz, a natural midfielder, has been deployed as Arsenal’s number 9 this season, while the recent ACL injury suffered by Gabriel Jesus has only further emphasises the crisis in attack.

Arsenal are now expected to sign a striker before the end of the January window and a host of top-class names have been linked, including Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko, Dusan Vlahovic and Osimhen.

But Darren Bent has warned Arsenal off signing Osimhen as he believes he has a bad attitude.

What did Bent say?

“Victor Osimhen, is he really going to be the answer?” Darren Bent said on talkSPORT.

“Yes, he was good at Napoli, but maybe his attitude has been questioned on occasions, that’s still a risk.

“I just don’t think you can just go out there and guarantee, right, we know he’s the guy who’s going to go and score us 20, 25 goals.”

Indeed, Bent wasn't too hot on any of the strikers linked with Arsenal.

“[Benjamin] Sesko would be a risk by coming to Arsenal,” he said. “[Dusan] Vlahovic, he turned Arsenal down before. What’s his desire going to be to come back and actually come to the club and score goals?

“[Viktor] Gyokeres is another one. I watched him a lot of Coventry. Big fan of his, he’s at Sporting, Sporting have been doing really well.

“Can he come to the Premier League, which is the hardest league in the world to score goals in, and can he score 15 to 20? Again, it’s another risk.”

Osimhen was heavily linked with Arsenal during the summer transfer window and is now on loan at Galatasaray from Napoli.

There is a €75 million release clause in his Napoli contract that became active in January.

Napoli would like to sell Osimhen this 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 season with Galatasaray, already scoring 14 goals in 18 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.