Chelsea were expected to make a move in January after a wobbly first half of the season, but in the end nothing happened on that front.
On his Debrief podcast this week, Fabrizio Romano had some interesting insights onto what our strategy had been when it came to Victor Osimhen, and to strikers in general in the winter window:
“Chelsea – I’m sure they’re in the race. The interest has always been there. It was never a possibility to sign him in January, but it’s fair to say that Chelsea never entered into any concrete discussions for strikers in January because in the summer they expect different strikers to be available, and Osimhen is one of the most interesting options for sure.”
As we suspected, the reason is that the Blues were not going to settle for second best. They went budget in the summer by going for Nicolas Jackson rather than trying for a superstar, and they held their nerve again in January.
The problem is, that has meant yet another season without a goalscorer, and the results were predictable.
Of course there’s no point overpaying for someone who isn’t up to it – but they’ll have to pull the trigger eventually. Osimhen looks great, but there are going to be a host of teams chasing him, and we might not be front of the queue.