Arne Slot’s top target is a player Liverpool will have to break their transfer record to sign this summer.
According to the Daily Express, the manager’s top target is Victor Osimhen, with Napoli chief executive Aurelio De Laurentiis demanding a whopping £110million fee for the striker.
According to the report, the Anfield owners are prepared to offer the 45-year-old manager a significant amount of money to sign the players he wants in the first transfer window, with a significant chunk of that sum likely to go towards a Nigerian striker keen to leave the Serie A club.
The 25-year-old has, unsurprisingly, attracted plenty of interest from elsewhere, but the scale of the resources needed to sign him has led to talks with Paris Saint-Germain stalling (Express) and Arsenal even walking away from talks altogether (Soccernet.ng).
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If Liverpool can somehow lure Osimhen to Anfield before the transfer deadline a month from today, it would be the perfect way for Arsenal to get revenge for missing out on Riccardo Calafiori.
The Reds have been heavily linked with the Italian defender in recent weeks ahead of a move to north London, so it would be quite a reaction to see Arsenal snap up the Nigerian hitman after moving on from him.
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Despite Napoli’s terrible 2023/24 season, the 25-year-old has scored 15 goals in 25 league games, following his 26 goals as the team won the Serie A title the previous season (Transfermarkt).
While Osimhen’s record at the highest level in Europe is beyond doubt, it would still take a massive leap of faith for Liverpool to pay the fee the club is reportedly asking for, with the expectation that he will immediately kick-start the move and repay their record-breaking investment in no time.
The irony is that Darwin Nunes is currently our most expensive player (including the additional fee from Benfica in 2022). If a Nigerian player joins, he will be a sacrificial lamb, and our current number 9 will have to adapt to a different position or be left out of the team altogether.
The Napoli striker would be a great signing if the Reds were to land Slot’s dream target, but it’s hard to imagine that happening right now.
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