Mikel confident Chelsea can sign Osimhen in January via Galatasaray | OneFootball

Former Chelsea player John Obi Mikel maintains they were ‘very, very close’ to signing Victor Osimhen from Napoli and can try again in January, despite his Galatasaray move. ‘It’s just little details.’

It was known all summer that the Nigeria international was on the market and could leave for under his €130m release clause, but it wasn’t until the final few days that Chelsea really stepped up negotiations.

“I could see the ambition of where they want to take this club now and also on Victor’s side, I think if we have to pick this back up again in January or next summer, we know where we are,” he said on the Obi One Podcast.

“We know where we’ve stopped and it’s just the little details that need to be finalised and the deal will be done.”

It is not quite clear whether there is a break clause in his contract at Galatasaray, or more likely a gentleman’s agreement to release him early with a penalty paid to the Turkish side.

Mikel maintains if Chelsea had started the talks earlier, they could’ve secured the striker in the summer.

“We were very, very close – I’ll put it that way. We were hours away from getting this deal done but it was just slight issues, slight little problems, that we just couldn’t get over the line.

“And then, we didn’t have much time. The one time you want the seconds and minutes and hours to slow down a bit, it just didn’t work. I think both sides really played their part in terms of getting a deal done.”

How Osimhen saga unfolded

On deadline day, the Partenopei had agreed a sale to Al-Ittihad for €80m including bonuses, only for the deal to fall apart hours later reportedly over an extra Napoli request of €5m.

Then Chelsea jumped in, but could not agree personal terms with Osimhen, as Sky Sport Italia claim they were only prepared to offer €4m per season wages, with another €4m made up of performance-related bonuses, including Champions League qualification.

So with the deadline passed in most European leagues, Osimhen joined Galatasaray on loan for the 2024-25 season.

Nonetheless, Mikel is confident that he can join Chelsea as early as the January transfer window.