Breaking News: Chelsea blow as Osimhen’s verdict on ‘blockbuster’ swap deal emerges amid ‘agreement’ with PL rivals

Victor Osimhen, a forward for Napoli, is reportedly discussing his position on moving to Chelsea until the Premier League’s biggest clubs work out a trade agreement.

Osimhen’s stint in Serie A with Napoli has seen him develop into one of the world’s top attackers.

With 26 goals in 32 league appearances, the 25-year-old was a standout for Napoli and helped them win the Serie A championship in 2022–2024.

Despite Napoli’s downturn in the previous campaign, Osimhen managed to score 15 goals in his 25 Serie A games.

In recent years, Osimhen has been strongly linked to a move to the Premier League; however, clubs have previously been priced out of pursuing him.

Although there have been rumours that Arsenal would outbid Chelsea in the hunt to get Osimhen, Chelsea has been in negotiations with Napoli on a possible player-plus-cash trade.

Romelu Lukaku, a Belgian international, is one of Antonio Conte’s main goals ahead of his debut season at Napoli. Chelsea may utilise Lukaku to increase their chances of acquiring Osimhen, who has a £110 million release clause in his contract.

The Italian report from Thursday stated that Chelsea is eager to get rid of Lukaku and that they have “reached an agreement” with Aston Villa to do so because they are “losing patience” with Napoli.

Since nothing has been stated regarding this alleged “agreement,” this news should be treated with caution, particularly in light of Football Insider’s claim that Chelsea and Napoli had “held new swap deal talks.”

According to sources who spoke to Football Insider, Chelsea is still in talks to sign Napoli star Victor Osimhen, but a formal agreement is still some distance off.

The striker’s £93.5 million release clause will not be activated by the Premier League team. Even if PSG and Chelsea are two of the top teams in Europe keeping an eye on the Nigerian international’s circumstances, no club is prepared to spend that amount.

But Osimhen is reportedly “unenthusiastic” about moving to Stamford Bridge, thus sources from Italy suggest that he may need to be persuaded to join Chelsea.

Christopher Nkunku started up front for Chelsea on Saturday in the absence of Osimhen, and Enzo Maresca’s team lost to Manchester City 4-2.

In his post-match remarks, Maresca attributed Chelsea’s loss to the pitch since they were unable to play the ball quickly.

“I don’t want to say this, but sometimes when we say something, it can sound like an excuse, so the pitch definitely doesn’t help in the way we want to play because the ball has to be quick,” he remarked. The ball is slowed down by pitches like this.

We have things to learn right now. More than the goals we gave up, we must understand that you cannot give up a goal two minutes after you give up another.

And we let up a goal in the second half, and then we gave up another in a short while. I just told the players that we must acquire this knowledge. When you lose one, that’s when you have to get stronger so you don’t lose any more.