Napoli striker Victor Osimhen
Manchester United would reach a staggering level of spending if they signed Victor Osimhen in January, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.
The lowdown
Sky Sport Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg has named Osimhen as ‘a potential top transfer target’ for Manchester United looking ahead to the January transfer window.
He even cited talk of a swap deal with Napoli, with Cristiano Ronaldo going the other way.
Key figures at United ‘see a lot of quality and potential’ in the striker, and have placed him ‘on the list’.
Ronaldo and Anthony Martial, who spent last season on loan at Sevilla, are the only out-and-out strikers available to Erik ten Hag at present.
The latest
Speaking to GiveMeSport, Jones said that Osimhen would likely cost around £100million, and feels it would be ‘absolutely insane’ if United shelled out that kind of money in January, on top of their £229million summer outlay.
As such, he thinks United will have to wait around a year before they pull the move off:
“You’re talking close to £100 million again. United have already spent a quarter of a billion pounds, pretty much, in this transfer window. So that’d be an absolutely insane level of spending if they were to also do that in the same season.
“I find it hard to believe they would do that halfway through a season, so maybe we will have to wait until the summer.”
The verdict
United need a marquee striker signing. Ronaldo is 37 now, while there have to be question marks over Martial’s level after he was sent out on loan.
A £100million deal would break the club’s transfer record, eclipsing the £94.5million they paid to sign Paul Pogba in 2016.
Osimhen would also become just the 11th player in the history of football to fetch an 11-figure sum.
You can understand, though, why the 23-year-old is so coveted. In 67 appearances for Napoli, he’s been directly involved in 40 goals, scoring 30 and assisting 10 more.
Osimhen, who was named Serie A’s Best Young Player in 2021/22, boasts ‘infinite’ and ‘stratospheric’ potential, in the words of his manager Luciano Spalletti.
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