In dire need of a more consistent goalscorer than Timo Werner, Thomas Tuchel embarked on a quest to get someone capable of finding the back of the net at least 20 times in a season this summer, if not more.
Talks with Borussia Dortmund for Erling Haaland were attempted, but Marina Granovskaia and co. were rebuffed, leading them to turn their attention to Romelu Lukaku.
The then-Inter striker had just come off a great season with the Serie A side under Antonio Conte, and despite making promises that he would stay with Simone Inzaghi, he went back on his word when the Stamford Bridge side came knocking.
A huge fee of over £100m was paid to get him, and he’s repaid that faith with some great early performances and a handful of decisive goals to boot.
At 28 years of age, the Belgian still has many seasons ahead of him at Chelsea, but it appears the Blues are still actively keeping an eye on the striker market, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
The Italian newspaper reveal on Tuesday that the London side are among four big name clubs who ‘have already started to follow’ Victor Osimhen at Napoli.
The striker has scored six goals in his first six games under Luciano Spalletti, quickly becoming one of the more in-form players in that league.
That’s not gone unnoticed, but Napoli are keen to keep hold of their new star, completely aware they spent an initial €60m to get him in the first place.
It’s explained that while there is ‘no possibility’ of a transfer right now, any future fee to get him would need to be ‘no less than €120m’.
Having already spent a similar amount on Lukaku, it remains to be seen if Chelsea really are ready to do so again on Osimhen, but with Tuchel seemingly knowing what he wants these days at Stamford Bridge, meaning that if he has plans to play both the Belgian and his Nigerian counterpart to ensure goals are constantly scored, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if his club accommodated him.
Either way, Gazzetta point out the Napoli striker is ‘pleasantly surprised’ at the interest being shown in him by big clubs, but with an early push for the Serie A title with six wins in six games, he will certainly see if he can first become the new hero at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona by bringing them their first league title since 1990.
