Chelsea are looking to land a deal for Napoli's Victor Osimhen
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly is reportedly prepared to pay ‘whatever it takes’ to snare Victor Osimhen, and will even shatter the British transfer record, as he’s not worries about FFP.
As a result of a phenomenal season in front of goal last term, Osimhen has the eyes of a lot of the world’s biggest sides on him. Indeed, he inspired Napoli to the Serie A title, scoring 26 goals over the course of the campaign.
That’s more than he’d notched in the league for the last two seasons combined.
In the summer, the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Bayern Munich all looked to the striker to improve their attacks after witnessing those returns.
However, Osimhen’s price tag represented an issue for each of those sides. Indeed, it’s been reported a £130million fee stands between any interested club and the star striker.
The Blues seem the most likely to be able to pay that sum given their free-spending nature.
However, given they had already shelled £400million on fresh faces in the summer, the chances of them also being able to get Osimhen were slim.
They’ve maintained their interest amid his continued good form – six goals in 10 Serie A games so far – and it seems they’re going to push hard to get the transfer over the line.
Boehly prepares to smash PL record
A report from Football Transfers states Chelsea owner Boehly is ‘prepared to pay whatever it takes’ to land Osimhen. It’s not clear if he’ll make that move in January, but the report suggests the club are ‘in the market’ for a new attacker then.
Setting a new British transfer record is not something the chairman will be shy of doing.
Indeed, the report suggests the Blues are ‘hell-bent’ on the signing and are ‘even prepared to break their transfer record’ to sign him.
Their record and the British record are the same – the £106.8million they paid for Enzo Fernandez in January. If reports on Osimhen’s price tag are accurate, they’d have to obliterate that record in order to get him.
Despite having a shelled a lot of money in the past year, with the fee for Fernandez not even making up the bulk of Chelsea’s spending, they are not worried about the ‘uncertainty’ over how they might afford a deal for Osimhen around Financial FairPlay regulations.
Chelsea will have to sell
While their attitude towards FFP is lax, the Stamford Bridge outfit will surely have to sell some assets before they can snare Osimhen.
A recent report claimed Chelsea would block Fulham’s attempts to sign striker Armando Broja as they were ‘unlikely’ to sign a centre-forward in the New Year.
If they are going after Osimhem, though, Broja could and probably should make way.
TEAMtalk recently revealed that Trevoh Chalobah will be sold soon, and a £35million fee could be coming Chelsea’s way.
Shifting both of those men will help the Blues finance a deal for Osimhen. They may need to move on a few more assets before the deal is possible, though.