Despite Graham Potter’s caution that a new forward does not guarantee goals—as happened with Romelu Lukaku—Chelsea are prepared to smash their transfer record once more in the summer to recruit a striker.
The Chelsea boss may be on a different wavelength to the club’s owners (Pictures: Getty)
The west London club’s new owners have spent over £600million since taking over last summer and embarked on the biggest January spending spree in history.
Nine players were brought in, with a mix of wonderkids, big-money signings – notably the Premier League record £106m addition of Enzo Fernandez on deadline day – and an astronomical loan deal for Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix.
According to The Sun, Chelsea intend to continue spending in the summer and have identified a new forward as their top priority.
The Blues may already have secured a deal for RB Leipzig attacker Christopher Nkunku but they also want a proven goalscorer to lead the line and have set their sights on Napoli frontman Victor Osimhen.
With 14 goals in just 16 appearances, the Nigeria international – who is also wanted by Manchester United – is the leading scorer in Serie A but he will command a massive transfer fee, with The Sun’s report suggesting Chelsea will need to spend in excess of £110m – thus breaking their record once again.
Osimhen has also been linked with Manchester United (Picture: Getty)
But the rumoured interest in Osimhen throws up questions about how in sync Chelsea’s hierarchy are with their manager, with Potter having warned against throwing even more money at the club’s problems.
Since taking charge, Chelsea have struggled massively to convert chances into goals and that continued once again on Friday night in a 0-0 draw against west London rivals Fulham.
Speaking after that match, Potter brought up Lukaku’s disastrous move to Stamford Bridge – with the forward loaned back to Inter after just one season – and feels adding another big-money forward to the squad is not necessarily the solution to Chelsea’s lack of goals.
‘I think we need to improve as a team. If you look back 18 months, from the outside Chelsea wasn’t scoring and they thought they’d spent close to £100million on a centre-forward [Lukaku] and that would fix all their problems, and it didn’t,’ he said.
‘You have to attack better as a team and that’s our challenge – that’s what we need to do.’
Lukaku would certainly appear to represent something of a warning for Chelsea over their pursuit of Osimhen, with the Belgian having scored for fun in Italy before returning to the Premier League in a then club-record deal.
He netted 24 goals and laid on 11 assists for title winners Inter in the 2020/21 campaign – a key contribution every 82 minutes – but only netted eight times in the Premier League last season before being shipped back to Milan, where he has been plagued by injuries.
source: metro.co.uk
