The £85m striker who Chelsea simply must make their next summer signing

Let’s try this one more time with feeling. Victor Osimhen is a name that I feel as if I have written more frequently than my own in recent months. Then again, how often does the average person actually write out their own name? Half the time even I sign off my articles under a pseudonym, such is their fluctuating quality...

Anyways, Osimhen. After approximately 2.978 think pieces on his professional future, I intend to pen no more after this one that you are reading. How long will that resolution last? My best bet would be less than a week, but never mind.

To that end, here goes; according to CalcioMercato, purveyors of the finest Italian gossip, Napoli are willing to listen to offers in the region of £85 million for the Nigerian sensation this summer. What’s more, their recruitment strategy could see them target ostracised Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku as a replacement. The Belgian, for his part, appears to be on a whistle-stop tour of the upper echelons of Serie A. Next season, Napoli; the season after that, Bologna, perhaps?

Either way, Chelsea’s interest has presumably been piqued by this development. The Blues have long since been linked with a prospective swoop for Osimhen, and the sudden relevancy of Lukaku in Napoli’s plans must have Todd Boehly’s cogs turning at a frankly inappropriate rate. Because you see, Big Rom could prove to be the sweetener that swings this whole saga in the American’s favour. Arsenal, for instance, don’t have a Lukaku to offer. Neither do Manchester United.

And the merits of some kind of agreement involving Lukaku and Osimhen travelling in opposite directions are clear to see. For one thing, it would get him off Chelsea’s wage bill at long, long last. For another, it could facilitate the arrival of a striker who is widely, and justifiably, regarded as one of the finest in world football at the present moment in time.

Because if there was one valid criticism of Chelsea last season, in amongst all the other valid criticisms, it was that they lacked a proven goalscorer, an attacking focal point capable of snaffling up half chances, of single-handedly winning matches through a combination of vulpine cunning and force of will alone. In other words, they were missing an Osimhen.

The 25-year-old averaged a little over a goal every other game in Serie A last term, and even that was regarded as something of a slow campaign by the measure of his own vertigo-inducing standards. Writ large, he has 76 strikes and 18 assists in 133 outings for Napoli, as well as 20 efforts in 27 caps at senior international level. He is, in short, a predator, and one that Chelsea would be well-advised to close in on sharpish.

There will, of course, be competition, especially at this newly reduced asking price, but with Lukaku as their ace in the hole, perhaps the Blues can steal a march on their transfer rivals and tempt Napoli into a mutually beneficial sale.