Arsenal legend Alan Smith says he is surprised by claims that his former club are interested in signing Galatasaray striker Victor Osimhen.
The BBC were among the news outlets that reported the Gunners had made enquiries about the 27-year-old, but speaking exclusively to Gooner News (courtesy of Best Betting Sites UK), Smith raised some doubts about the move:
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“I don’t know how much truth there is in that. When Osimhen went from Napoli to Galatasaray, I think most people probably thought, oh, his chance to go to the Premier League may be over there. But he can score goals.”
“You look at his record in Italy and in Turkey. It’s not like he’s over the hill, as it were. I don’t know. It wouldn’t strike me as an Arsenal signing, and I might be wrong. But I think Arsenal do need a centre forward; it’s getting the right one, so that’ll be an interesting one to see how it develops, if it does develop.”
Osimhen won’t be available on the cheap
Galatasaray spent €75m (£64m) to snap up the Nigerian international from Napoli on a permanent basis last summer, so he is unlikely to be sold for below that figure.
In addition, Osimhen’s salary is said to be higher than £300,000 a week, which means Arsenal would have to pay him a similar wage to their highest earner, Bukayo Saka.
Arsenal want to add a forward before the window shuts
It should be pointed out that the Gunners are not necessarily focused squarely on purchasing a no.9, despite interest in Osimhen and Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez.
They may well end up pursuing a left-sided forward instead. It is believed that a fresh approach has been made for Juventus’s Kenan Yildiz. He is clearly a player that manager Mikel Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta like a lot, having first contacted Juve about the Turkish international at the start of the summer.