Earlier today, we covered claims from Calciomercato.it that Liverpool have joined Napoli in the race for Lille’s Victor Osimhen.
Then we noticed that Gazzetta dello Sport also pushed the idea the Reds could be one of the clubs in the background for the big name striker, and it was made very clear the Serie A side would find it ‘impossible’ to battle it out with the Merseyside club if they actively made a move.
We then have Radio Marte, who bring their latest update on this case (as relayed by Area Napoli).
They said the Naples club had everything agreed for Osimhen’s transfer and had also scheduled a medical for the Nigeria international. However, things changed after the Ligue 1 star decided to swap agents and is now represented by William D’Avila.
The African’s new representative has since ‘promised him the moon’ to undermine the work done by his former agent.
Liverpool then contacted Lille about the ‘possible signing’ of their player ‘in the last hour’, and Napoli are aware of the contacts that took place between the two sides. Manchester United and Tottenham are also said to be in the background.
CalcioNapoli24 then add their bit on this and claim Osimhen’s agent has hinted at surveys from Liverpool, which is why D’Avila has since ‘frozen’ talks about his client with Napoli.
Gennaro Gattuso’s side are waiting to see how things develop because they are aware the Premier League clubs can offer better wages and a hefty commission than Napoli.
The website adds Napoli have already made a salary offer of €3.5-4m net and are unwilling to make another improved proposal.
If you ask us, this seems to be a ploy from Osimhen’s agent to drag Liverpool in the middle in order to get a better deal for both himself and his client from Napoli.
Lille’s involvement in this cannot be ruled out either as they could involve other clubs to pressurise Napoli into speeding things up, because they want this done sooner rather than later, while their Italian counterparts are in no rush.
It just seems very weird and somewhat convenient for Premier League clubs to suddenly be this involved this late, and it wouldn’t be the first time big names such as Liverpool were used to try and speed up transfers or get more wages.
