Victor Osimhen’s relationship with Napoli is now completely broken, according to Fabrizio Romano as he discussed the crazy saga involving Chelsea and Al Ahli’s pursuit of the Nigerian striker this summer.
The transfer window is now over for most European leagues, with Chelsea unable to reach an agreement to sign Osimhen, while Napoli also seemed to change some details of their deal with Al Ahli, leading to that move falling through as well.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his latest Daily Briefing column, Romano couldn’t give a prediction over Osimhen’s future, but he made it clear that the 25-year-old is out of the Napoli first-team for the season ahead.
Chelsea did their best but couldn’t get a deal done on this occasion, though it remains to be seen if Osimhen might regret now this whole saga came about, as he’s now possibly stuck at Napoli until January without getting the chance to play.
“A Chelsea delegation had been in Italy trying to reach an agreement with Osimhen – they spent a long time working to reach an agreement with the player. There were several add-ons and bonuses to make their proposal higher, whilst keeping in line with Financial Fair Play, but their proposal still wasn’t close to the €11-12m net salary of Osimhen at Napoli,” Romano said.
“I think in the end Chelsea made five or six proposals, and one final one at 10pm, but again it was not even close, and so the deal collapsed. This was the Osimhen case, with Chelsea trying until the end, and at one point confident about getting the deal done because Napoli had no other option to sell to, but in the end Osimhen said no to their contract proposal.
“The final crucial point is that Osimhen is now out of the Napoli project for this season. Their situation is completely tense as Osimhen now looks set to stay at Napoli, unless something crazy happens with another Saudi club in the next days, but he would be completely out of Antonio Conte’s first-team squad. Osimhen told Napoli he didn’t want to play for them anymore, and now he’s staying at the club in this crazy and tense situation.
“At the moment, the expectation is for Osimhen to remain out of the Napoli squad until the January window. Then I’m not able to predict the future…if they will find a way to fix this situation, we see. But at the moment the relationship is completely broken and in January his future will be re-assessed.”
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