Despite Manchester United being the club most often linked with a move for Victor Osimhen over the past month or so, it was Arsenal that started the whole thing.
The Gunners need to sign a striker this summer when taking into account both the exit of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January and Alexandre Lacazette’s contractual situation.
That’s where the Nigeria international would come in, but it would take a lot of money, meaning more than what Juventus paid for Dusan Vlahovic during the last transfer window.
Claims that Arsenal made a €100m+ offer for Osimhen have done the rounds, but Il Mattino in Italy dismiss that on Thursday morning, making it clear that from Napoli’s end, ‘they swear that no one has yet presented official offers’.
Yes, intermediaries and emissaries are working, but ‘real negotiations have not yet begun’, and the club’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis ‘has not met other clubs’.
In fact, he’s ‘hinted that his jewel is not for sale, but he would be willing to change his mind for a staggering amount’.
Such an ‘indecent proposal’ has yet to be made, but ‘put at least €110m on the plate’ and the Serie A side would ‘wobble’.
Regardless of it all, the sale of Osimhen isn’t a priority, because while the wage budget needs to be reduced, Osimhen ‘can easily stay a third year’.
Should someone come forward, however, it would likely be a Premier League club, as only they can afford such extravagances, where ‘Arsenal are serious and were the first to take the steps’.
Still, Napoli’s director of football has made it clear the Italian side’s return to the Champions League means they are in no desperate need to sell and will only do so ‘if the amount is the right one’.
Il Mattino point out that while there have been ‘many courtships’, none have led to anything concrete, and even if ‘the men surrounding Osimhen flatter him by speculating of the super-wages that he could perceive in the Premier League’, everything is still at ‘suggestive levels’.
