Chelsea pushing for Victor Osimhen loan deal despite Napoli insisting pathway is 'blocked', as PSG hand Blues huge boost in gruelling transfer pursuit

Per Fabrizio Romano (via Chelsea News), the Blues are insisting on a loan deal for Napoli's Osimhen as they look to bolster their squad with a clinical No. 9. The Nigerian forward had earlier made it clear that he wants to leave the Serie A club in the ongoing summer transfer window.

The Standard, however, reports that Napoli will make attempts to 'block' their star forward's exit in the ongoing window. Sporting director Giovanni Manna recently told Sky Sports Italia, "Victor is an important player, with an important value and conditions. His desire is clear. We tried to maintain the integrity of the squad at this moment. We are not the only club in this situation and we’ll see what happens over the next 10 days. At this time, it is not right to say what sensations there are. We are working with his entourage to find the best solution. As we said, he is an important player, so it’s not that we can just find him anywhere [to play]. He is under contract for another two seasons, so clearly if we don’t find a solution by August 30, we’ll have to talk to the player."

The report also states that Paris Saint-Germain have backed out of the transfer race for the Nigeria international, thereby handing the Blues a massive boost in their pursuit.

While the Osimhen transfer pursuit is on, the West London side are also parallelly in talks with Napoli to offload £100 million (€116m/$127m) flop Romelu Lukaku in the ongoing summer transfer window. The Lukaku deal, however, will be treated separately from Osimhen's.

Enzo Maresca's side did lack a clinical forward as they went down against Manchester City in their Premier League opener on Sunday. They will now face Servette in a Europa Conference League play-offs first leg clash.