Sources: Chelsea abandon plan to sign long term target despite major need in this position | OneFootball

It sounds like Chelsea are now definitively out of the race to striker sign Victor Osimhen from Napoli.

Things have been heading that way for a while – last week we wrote up the news that the club had been so impressed by Nicolas Jackson’s progress that they had decided to back off in their pursuit of established, elite, peak age players like Osimhen and Viktor Gyokeres in favour of younger options.

And now it’s being actively reported, with CaughtOffside claiming that the Blues have “decided to step back” from chasing their long term target, ending a long-running saga. Last summer felt like the closest we ever got to him, as we were still keen to find ready made solution up top, but the Italian side’s demands proved too much, and in the end nobody took the leap. Osimhen was ultimately loaned out to Galatasaray for the season, where he’s shown his quality by scoring 28 in 32 games.

Chelsea take another gamble on youth up front

Liam Delap and Benjamin Sesko. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

On the one hand, this makes sense in terms of Chelsea’s recruitment model. They are keen on younger options with upside and sell on value. Osimhen does not provide that; while someone like Benjamin Sesko or Liam Delap could end up being just as good and costing less.

On the other hand, after seeing this side struggle for goals for so many years does make us reluctant to write off the idea of getting someone in who as close to a sure thing as you’ll get in terms of hitting the ground running and being a consistent goalscorer from day one.

It will be particularly brutal if Osimhen goes somewhere like Manchester United and instantly solves their scoring problems. But let’s not worry about that until it happens.