Napoli ponder Osimhen exit as Chelsea insist on loan

Napoli continue to “work” on sealing Victor Osimhen’s exit from the club this summer or even retain the player, according to the club’s sporting director, Giovanni Manna.

Having scored 76 goals for Napoli since arriving from Lille in 2020, Osimhen has yet to play for the club in their first two games of the season as he hopes to secure a move.

Chelsea continually insist on signing Osimhen on loan despite Napoli making it clear the striker’s exit will be ‘blocked’.

According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano (via Chelsea News), the Blues are insisting on a loan deal for Napoli’s Osimhen as they look to bolster their squad with a clinical No. 9.

The Nigeria forward had earlier made it clear that he wanted to leave the Serie A club in the ongoing summer transfer window.

The Standard, however, reports that Napoli will make attempts to ‘block’ their star forward’s exit in the ongoing window.

Sporting director Giovanni Manna recently told Sky Sports Italia, “Victor is an important player, with an important value and conditions. His desire is clear. We tried to maintain the integrity of the squad at this moment. We are not the only club in this situation, and we’ll see what happens over the next 10 days.

“At this time, it is not right to say what sensations there are. We are working with his entourage to find the best solution. As we said, he is an important player, so it’s not that we can just find him anywhere [to play]. He is under contract for another two seasons, so clearly if we don’t find a solution by August 30, we’ll have to talk to the player.”

The report also states that Paris Saint-Germain have backed out of the transfer race for the Nigeria international, thereby handing the Blues a massive boost in their pursuit.

While the Osimhen transfer pursuit is on, the West London side are also parallelly in talks with Napoli to offload £100m flop Romelu Lukaku, a deal they hope to. treat separately from Osimhen’s.

Enzo Maresca’s side did lack a clinical forward as they went down 2-0 against Manchester City in their Premier League opener on Sunday. They will now face Servette in a Europa Conference League play-off first leg clash.