Chelsea to offer TWO players in Victor Osimhen swap as Boehly accepts eye-watering loss
Chelsea are reportedly close to agreeing a deal with Napoli that could see TWO Blues players join the Italian giants in part-exchange for striker Victor Osimhen.
The Nigerian international has been Chelsea’s top centre-forward target for several months and as we have consistently reported, he’s open to a Stamford Bridge switch.
But winning the race for Osimhen was never going to be easy given he has a release clause of £110m in his contract which, up until recently, Napoli were demanding in full.
Chelsea have been looking at ways to drive the price down and have benefitted from Napoli’s new manager Antonio Conte being a huge admirer of Blues outcast Romelu Lukaku.
Previous reports have suggested that Chelsea offered Lukaku plus an undetermined sum for Osimhen, which has seemingly been rejected.
That’s according to The Sun, who claims that Conte wants two Chelsea players in exchange for Osimhen, one being Lukaku, and the other is young midfielder Cesare Casadei.
Chelsea clear favourites in Victor Osimhen race
The report claims that Napoli want £39m in cash along with Lukaku and Casadei, who cost Chelsea £97.5m and £17m respectively.
Talks between the two clubs have been progressing in recent days. Napoli’s sporting director Giovanni Manna, has been in London attempting to thrash out a potential deal.
Manna has also explored deals for Brighton’s Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay while in England.
It’s suggested that Chelsea are leaning towards granting Napoli’s transfer demands and that they are ‘leading the race’ for Osimhen despite competition from Paris-Saint Germain.
But the swap deal would represent a huge financial loss for Chelsea co owner Todd Boehly, effectively getting £71m for two players who cost them a combined £114.5m in the last three years – and that’s only if you value Osimhen at £110m.
Other outlets have suggested that Napoli could reduce their demands to £86m as they have already accepted that Osimhen is leaving the club this summer.
Chelsea won’t care about any of that if he can replicate his form for Napoli in the Premier League, however.
The 25-year-old fired Napoli to the Serie A title in 2022/23 by scoring an incredible 26 league goals in 32 appearances, before netting 15 in 25 matches last term.
Osimhen is considered one of the best strikers in Europe on his day and could be exactly what Enzo Maresca needs to get Chelsea back into the top four this season.
