According to Italian press, Napoli wants to recruit defender Takehiro Tomiyasu or midfielder Smith Rowe as part of the contract to sell Victor Osimhen to Arsenal.

Napoli have recently reached an agreement with coach Antonio Conte. The former Chelsea coach is expected to be officially announced this week. During negotiations with Napoli’s board of directors, Conte was given the green light by the southern Italian club’s board of directors to recruit his former student Romelu Lukaku to replace Victor Osimhen.

The price to buy Lukaku is now quite reasonable because Chelsea wants to say goodbye to the Belgian star soon, thereby having more funds to buy and optimize the salary fund under new coach Enzo Maresca. For his part, Osimhen is expected to leave Napoli this summer. He has received interest from some Saudi Pro League teams but his priority is to stay in Europe.

However, the 25-year-old striker is eyeing a move to the Premier League and Arsenal are also in need of a quality No. 9. According to Corriere dello Sport, Napoli have not received any official offers for Osimhen. In the event of releasing the African striker, Napoli would want to collect around £110 million, equivalent to the contract release fee.

Notably, Napoli are targeting two Arsenal players. They want to recruit defender Takehiro Tomiyasu or midfielder Smith Rowe as part of the deal to sell Osimhen to the Gunners.

Napoli want Tomiyasu or Rowe before letting go of Osimhen

Thus, coach Mikel Arteta may have to sacrifice his favorite player Tomiyasu to own the striker who has been storming Serie A in recent seasons. In the 2022/23 season, Osimhen won the Golden Boot and helped Napoli win the Serie A championship.

In the 2023/24 season, despite being injured and missing many matches, Osimhen still scored 15 goals in Italy’s No. 1 tournament. However, after 4 years of fighting in Italy, Osimhen is eager to find a new challenge in another country, especially England. Possessing a strong physical foundation and comprehensive finishing skills, Osimhen promises to easily adapt to the Premier League.

In the past, Tomiyasu was interested in Napoli in January 2024, but Arsenal refused to sell their star because coach Arteta needed a strong enough force for the Premier League championship race and the Champions League arena.

Meanwhile, Smith Rowe has struggled to get playing time under Arteta this season, starting just three Premier League games, due to the lack of consistency in the Rice-Odegaard partnership.

Arsenal will be willing to listen to offers for Smith Rowe this summer and Fulham have made the 23-year-old one of their transfer targets. In the event of a swap deal with Napoli, Arsenal would prefer Smith Rowe to Tomiyasu.

Not only Arsenal, Chelsea are also interested in Osimhen after a difficult season. The Blues will find it difficult to succeed if they continue to trust Nicolas Jackson, the striker who was in the top 3 players who missed the most scoring opportunities in the Premier League last season.

Where does Oshimhen like to go?

Recent news from Gazzetta dello Sport revealed that the striker born in 1998 is waiting for Arsenal’s purchase offer before choosing other destinations.

That is an advantage for Arsenal compared to MU, Chelsea or many other clubs. Last season, The Gunners played well but they still lacked a real goalscorer, with diverse finishing and the ability to operate independently up front.

Both Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah have not met the requirements, forcing Arteta to sometimes use Kai Havertz in the role of false striker.

In addition to Osimhen, Arsenal have a number of other targets to add to their attack line such as Benjamin Sesko (RB Leipzig), Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting Lisbon) or Joshua Zirkzee (Bologna).

Of course, compared to the purchase price of Osimhem, the above cases have lower transfer fees. Among them, Gyokeres has played the most impressively but he has never played for any big club.

Meanwhile, Sesko possesses impressive height and aerial ability and is making his mark in the Bundesliga. Zirkzee is a star of Bologna but when he was at Bayern Munich, he did not leave much of an impression (scoring 4 goals in 17 matches for the first team). The reason may come from not being used much. Therefore, buying Zirkzee is considered the riskiest of the above options.

Arsenal need to keep coach Arteta at all costs

Regarding Arsenal, recently, coach Arteta admitted that he is uncertain about his future at Arsenal: “In football, you should only talk about today and talk about what you want to do tomorrow.

At the professional level, I always keep my future uncertain with any team to keep my mind focused on the immediate goals, keep my feet on the ground and the desire to conquer new heights.

Up until now, I still have a good relationship with everyone at the team and I am very happy with my decision at this time.”

In addition, the Spanish strategist also “wound up” the spirit of his students even though the new season is still 2 months away from officially starting: “Arsenal will review the entire previous campaign in all aspects of the team, from there making the most reasonable decisions to help the players progress further.

Everything can be improved and made better. Everyone in the team, players and staff, wants to win more. They are always hungry to get their hands on trophies.”