Arsenal have reportedly opened discussions with Galatasaray over a possible move for Victor Osimhen, a development that would be striking for both its scale and its uncertainty. The 27-year-old has long been admired by Premier League clubs, and Arsenal have been among the most persistent admirers during his time at Lille, Napoli and now Galatasaray.<\/p>\n
The Telegraph reported that talks have taken place between the clubs, although it remains unclear who made the first approach or what fee would be required to move him on. Galatasaray paid around $86 million (\u20ac75 million) for the striker only 12 months ago, and he is tied to the club until 2029.<\/p>\n
Osimhen has not tried to shut down the speculation. Asked about possible movement away from Istanbul this week, he said: \u201cThere are always rumors during the transfer windows,\u201d he warned. \u201cI\u2019ll focus on my job. I\u2019m focused on my work. We\u2019ll see and think about what comes next then.\u201d<\/p>\n
His record is difficult to ignore. The two-time Turkish champion has scored 61 goals in 75 appearances since arriving two years ago, and his direct style gives him obvious appeal. But Arsenal have already seen how a prolific forward from outside Europe\u2019s top five leagues can struggle to translate that form into the Premier League.<\/p>\n
That comparison naturally leads to Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, whose move from Sporting CP to Arsenal has not yet produced the sort of impact supporters hoped for. Despite 21 goals in all competitions last season, he failed to score from open play against any of the Premier League\u2019s top six.<\/p>\n
There are also fitness concerns. Over the past six seasons, Osimhen has missed 82 matches because of a range of physical problems, an average of more than 13 each year. For a team already dealing with attacking injury doubts, that is a serious consideration.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta has said the club want to improve and evolve the squad, but Arsenal already have Gy\u00f6keres and Kai Havertz as central options, with Mikel Merino another emergency solution. On current evidence, left wing looks a more pressing area, especially if Gabriel Martinelli departs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal are weighing Victor Osimhen, but the deal raises familiar doubts about fit and fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1397],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-18500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-transfer-news","category-transfer-news","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}