Chelsea might have paved the way to welcome Victor Osimhen to the club after appearing to negotiate an exit for one of their exiled stars. Amid a chaotic summer at Stamford Bridge, a number of high profile players have been told they can leave, including the likes of Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, and Romelu Lukaku.
New manager Enzo Maresca has already admitted that around half of his 41-man squad are training away from the first team, and said the club need to offload players before they can add to their tally of 10 summer signings.
And it appears that Belgian striker Lukaku is next to go, having not worn a Chelsea shirt since the 2021/22 campaign.
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According to the Telegraph, Chelsea and Napoli are in the advanced stages of a deal that will see the 31-year-old return to Italy. He’s already spent the last two seasons on loan at Serie A, at Inter Milan and Roma respectively.
Lukaku still has two years left on the contract he signed when he arrived at Chelsea from Inter for a £97.5million fee three years ago. The Blues have this far been reluctant to take a sizeable financial loss on the player, but have now reportedly agreed to lower their asking price to around £25.5m.
Not only would the sale free up funds to make a move for Osimhen to go in the other direction, it would also free up the No.9 shirt for the Nigerian. It’s the same number that the 25-year-old has commanded at Napoli, where he’s scored 76 goals in 133 appearances.
Osimhen’s future has long been the subject of speculation, with the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United all linked. In December 2023, he extended his contract with Napoli until 2026, but the development appeared a move by the club to ensure he couldn’t leave on a cut price deal.
Napoli chiefs agreed to a release clause said to be around £110m. However, amid potential Premier League penalties over profit and sustainability rules, the fee has seemingly staved off approaches from English clubs.
The player himself has made no secret over his desire to move. Osimhen missed training sessions during pre-season, and was absent from the 3-0 loss at Verona last Sunday.
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On Friday, ahead of his side’s trip to Bologna this weekend, Napoli manager Antonio Conte hit out at the constant questions over Osimhen and Lukaku. “Let’s get straight to the point,” he said. Last week we had a press conference where we only spoke about the transfer market.
“I received zero questions about Verona. I want to talk about Bologna. As you know, it’s a big match, you know what they did last year. Let’s put all our focus on the game, it’s more important to me.”
