Although it’s believed that Victor Osimhen has been offered the best contract in Napoli’s history, the striker has yet to sign it and that has alerted Chelsea and others.
The brilliant front man has been in outstanding form in 2023/24, scoring six goals in just nine Serie A appearances, of which two were as sub.
It’s abundantly clear what he brings to the Partnopei and why they would be so keen to keep him. All the while the contract remains unsigned, however, it allows potential new employers to dream.
He won’t come cheap of course, which could be the reason why the Italian giants manage to hang onto him until at least next summer.
Fabrizio Romano, writing in his exclusive Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside, noted that Napoli certainly don’t want Osimhen to leave in January, but there’s still a way in which he could.
‘There’s no change to the Victor Osimhen situation guys. I keep repeating the same thing regarding January, and that is that I don’t expect the player to be made available by Napoli at that time,’ he wrote.
‘Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis seems fairly confident that his player will stay, suggesting that Osimhen’s new contract, offered last summer, is ready to be signed. My information is that, at the moment, the contract extension is not guaranteed yet, so it remains all open.
‘The Serie A side will keep insisting that they don’t want Osimhen to leave early in the new year, so it will need to be a crazy bid in order to tempt Napoli to do business. Otherwise Osimhen’s situation becomes a hot topic for the summer transfer window.’
We’ve seen before that Todd Boehly isn’t frightened of really shaking up the marketplace, with the only real issue for the Chelsea owner being to stay within the bounds of Financial Fair Play.
Given the Blues’ current predicament, having a striker of Osimhen’s quality up front for the remainder of this season could be the difference in them getting into the Champions League or not.
Watch this space…