Chelsea now fear Arsenal might win the race to land Victor Osimhen’s transfer with the Gunners prepared to meet the SSC Napoli striker’s wage demands come the summer.
Clubs across Europe are on red alert about the possibility of Osimhen leaving his Serie A side in the off-season. The 25-year-old is producing another superb season at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with 11 goals in 17 outings, despite Napoli’s deficient Scudetto defence.
The Azzurri sit seventh in the standings through 28 games and are even a huge 31 points off leaders, Inter Milan. Osimhen has only played in 61% of Napoli’s fixtures having missed four matches with a hamstring injury, one owing to a suspension and a further six due to ACFON.
Chelsea fear Arsenal will win the Osimhen transfer race
Now, TEAMtalk reports that Osimhen’s camp are doing constant work to find the best squad for him to join. Chelsea have also been doing the most work to try and coax the Nigerian out of Italy. But the Blues fear Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain will win the looming transfer fight.
Arsenal and PSG are also in constant talks with Osimhen’s camp to sound out a transfer from Napoli. Emirates Stadium chiefs are even ready to meet the 27-cap marksman’s demands for a contract worth at least £200k-a/w. Chelsea are reluctant to shop in the range of that wage.
Stamford Bridge executives want to keep their salary bill down and within a structure which led Mason Mount to join Manchester United last year. Osimhen, though, believes he is very much worth £200k-a/w as the Lagos native views himself among the best No9s in the world.
Osimhen would add another level to Arteta’s attack
Unlike Chelsea’s ideal wage structure, Arsenal sporting director Edu giving Osimhen £200k-a/w to secure his transfer from Napoli would not be that huge at the Emirates. According to Spotrac figures, it would only mark the Nigerian as the Gunners’ joint-fifth best-paid player.
Osimhen would also only rank fifth in north London via Salary Sport figures. While his arrival at the Emirates would give Arsenal the out-and-out centre-forward that Mikel Arteta’s team lack. He would add another level to the Gunners’ attack over the injury-prone Gabriel Jesus.
While Jesus interlinks Arteta’s frontline by dragging defenders around to create space which Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard can exploit, Arsenal can still crave the imposing presence in the box that an out-and-out centre-forward like Osimhen would offer.
Osimhen is also capable of beating defenders on his own. Ex-Watford boss Walter Mazzarri hailed the striker when he destroyed his Cagliari team in 2021. The Italian said, via Football-Italia: “Osimhen is phenomenal because he runs alone at five players and gets through.”
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