Mauricio Pochettino has been told Victor Osimhen would be 'perfect' for Chelsea despite the imminent return of Romelu Lukaku. The 24-year-old striker has been heavily linked with a number of top European clubs lately following his impressive performances for Napoli.
Osimhen, who sees his contract expire in 2025, has featured 29 times for Luciano Spalletti's side in the Serie A this season, scoring 23 goals. While the Italian giants are desperate to hold onto the Nigeria international this summer, football.london understands that the Blues are considering a bid which could cost at least £100million.
It's said that the west Londoners are in the market for a new striker, with Kai Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failing to perform. Lukaku is expected to have the chance to impress Pochettino upon his return from loan at Inter Milan, but the Belgium international didn't exactly leave Chelsea on good terms last summer.
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In an interview with BoyleSports, Florent Malouda explained why Osimhen would be the ideal candidate to bolster the Blues' frontline. However, while the Frenchman was very complimentary of the Nigerian, he conceded that Lukaku still has a future in west London - on one condition.
"When you look at what Victor has done for Napoli and his background, you can see that he is hungry for success and for trophies – this is definitely the sort of profile Chelsea should be looking into," said Malouda. "First things first though, does the player actually want to play for Chelsea?
"What does it represent for him to play for a club like Chelsea? He has to consider if it is part of his career plan, whilst the club also has to look at the situation with the current players.
"You cannot have five strikers with the system and the way they are currently playing. So that is what I mean about getting back to being attractive, this becomes clearer when you have a vision.
"It becomes easier to negotiate with players if you don’t have the lure of the Champions League if they can see exactly what they will do and where they will play. Everyone wants this player, everyone wants to recruit him and I don’t think Napoli will settle for less than £100million."
Then, on Lukaku, Malouda claimed that the Belgian must publicly apologise to the fans if he wants to stay at Chelsea. The 42-year-old added: "There are many issues to be fixed, but I would not mind Romelu returning to Chelsea because I believe that he can, and he will, have something to prove.
"However, he can’t do it in the conditions that he previously left under - this is the reality. He has to improve his relationship with the fans for sure, because of the interview he gave two years ago when he was there.
"I read comments saying Pochettino wouldn’t mind working with Lukaku, and this should give Romelu confidence. He is still a top player and he has proved that during his time in Italy.
"He has faced a lot of adversity and he still has some wrongs to correct. Chelsea need good players and are not playing in the Champions League, so they need players who want to be here. There are too many players who are looking elsewhere because they don’t feel like they are part of the project."
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