Chelsea are in talks with Napoli over a move to bring Victor Osimhen to the club on loan with an option to buy, according to David Ornstein. The talks also involve Romelu Lukaku and the breaking story sent some Arsenal supporters into something of a spiral of questions.
Arsenal should surely be on this deal? Why haven’t Arsenal rivalled Chelsea for Osimhen? The list goes on.
The reality is that despite some interest in the Nigerian international, Osimhen has not resurfaced much this summer as a potential candidate. Benjamin Sesko was an early target in the window but he decided to stay with RB Leipzig, while Viktor Gyokeres’ release clause being demanded by Sporting CP could be the sticking point for the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta when asked this week if Arsenal would repeat a Declan Rice-type move this summer put forward a response to douse those hopes. “We don’t expect to do anything like it,” he said. “That’s the reality.”
However, a loan is far from an investment of tens of millions and it is this new revelation that has sparked such discussion. I previously wrote about how a move for Osimhen made little sense this summer for a number of reasons.
His numbers last season were a regression from the previous campaign and compared to Havertz the goal contribution figures for a centre-forward did not justify the transfer. Even looking at the season before where the Nigerian had his best goalscoring campaign ever, his goals per shot (0.18) were the same as Havertz last season who played two-thirds of the campaign in midfield.
