Before Newcastle United decided to lump a lot of money on Alexander Isak, there was a brief period where they were ready to go all out for Victor Osimhen.
The Napoli striker was already starting to prove himself in Italy after his big move from Lille, and the Magpies were newly rich and needed a striker, so the move made sense.
What Newcastle didn’t count on, however, was the Serie A club’s reluctance to part ways with both their striker and Fabián Ruiz, who eventually went to Paris Saint-Germain a few months later.
With Osimhen once again in great form, there’s hope in Naples that he stays for a long time, but if he is to be sold, they at least know he will go for a lot of money.
The question at this point is how much?
It’s recalled in today’s Corriere dello Sport that when Newcastle came knocking with their €100m ‘practically scattered on the table’, Napoli simply ‘shrugged’ and ‘thanked them for the generosity’.
That’s when they decided to close any negotiations there because he ‘was not for sale then’, and there are serious doubts if he ever will be in the near future.
Because if Napoli, who are well on their way to winning Serie A, weren’t ready to accept €100m then, who knows what will be needed to convince them to sell this summer?
