Victor Osimhen is going to become THE next biggest transfer saga, and Chelsea’s name is still being touted as one of the clubs expected to be in the battle to sign him.
And hey, maybe we will. But unfortunately, I think we might have to accept defeat in this one and see it as just a pipedream.
Sport1 are the latest reliable outlet to link Chelsea to Osimhen alongside Bayern Munich and Manchester United. They say Napoli will demand more than £100m for him this summer, and that is where Chelsea should duck out for me.
This is before even mentioning the fact that we won’t be able to offer him Champions League football.
Chelsea need to be more realistic and turn to a player who I think would be absolutely ideal – Ivan Toney. I’d even take him if he gets the expected ban for breaking betting rules, obviously depending on just how long it will be. Armando Broja will be back next season, so we will have cover in that sense.
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But Toney is the complete striker, scores goals, and is Premier League proven – these are the three biggest assets we should look for when signing our new striker this summer. And Chelsea clearly want a striker.
I do hope that Chelsea are monitoring the Toney situation with his ban, because he’s the exact kind of smart signing we need to be looking to make moving forward.
Toney also has the attitude that we need more of in this squad and he is a nightmare for defenders to mark.
The 27-year-old scores goals, and he scores goals in the Premier League. His career total so far is 158 in 288.
For Brentford alone he has 66 goals in 120 appearances, scoring 19 already this season. In the Premier League he is averaging pretty much a goal every other game, which is impressive for a PL striker.
Toney has just two years remaining on his contract with Brentford and a market value of £45m, which is at least half of what Osimhen will cost. Factoring in that we still need to sign a goalkeeper and a defensive midfielder in my view, then we might need to be wise and smart when selecting our targets this summer. I don’t think we can drop another £100m on one player alone.
Either way, we need a suitable striker this summer, and we have a decision to make.
