On Wednesday evening, there came the interesting notion that Newcastle United could make a move for Victor Osimhen in the summer.
First, they would need to stay in the Premier League, which is a task Eddie Howe is currently fighting towards, thus allowing to go very big on the transfer market.
The acquisition of Chris Wood from Burnley might just be enough to help them get the goals to do that, but if Newcastle’s new owners do indeed have huge ambitions, they will have to go bigger than the New Zealand international.
That’s where someone like Osimhen would come in, but the Nigeria International would come at a price, and a very expensive one at that.
Gazzetta dello Sport reckoned Aurelio De Laurentiis, the Napoli owner, would want at least €70m, and now a couple more reports have emerged suggesting it would be more than that.
Calciomercato have their information on the matter on Thursday, explaining that after failing for Dusan Vlahovic, Newcastle ‘are focusing their attention on Victor Osimhen’.
It’s made very clear ‘it will be difficult, if not impossible, to develop a negotiation with Napoli in January, but the intermediaries are at work, especially in view of next summer’.
As things stand, ‘the English try and Napoli does not close the door’, but for De Laurentiis, ‘the market value of Osimhen remains at €70-80m’, meaning that ‘if an offer with these economic parameters were to arrive, then the club could sit around a table with Newcastle’.
While that’s all well and good, it’s worth pointing out that the player also needs to want to move to St James’ Park, which isn’t a guarantee.
That being said, Calciomercato are clear: ‘the threat exists and is concrete, the Magpies are targeting Osimhen’.
