Chelsea are going after a surprising profile at forward instead of Victor Osimhen

Chelsea came into the summer 2025 transfer window knowing full well that they need to sign a striker capable of scoring 20-30 Premier League goals, and they also put themselves in the market for a left winger after letting Jadon Sancho go back to Manchester United instead of signing him for 25 million pounds.

The decision to pass on Sancho has already been vindicated by the player’s lack of cooperation to facilitate a reasonable salary for a new transfer, and Chelsea are already being linked to a more dynamic and higher-upside Borussia Dortmund left winger who is a better team player in Jamie Bynoe-Gittens.

Bynoe-Gittens- and potentially Malick Fofana, too – could solve Chelsea’s need for more dynamism on the left wing, but the Blues are still looking for striker help, even after securing young Liam Delap from Ipswich Town.

Delap has what it takes to compete with Nicolas Jackson for minutes and become a favorite of Enzo Maresca’s at Stamford Bridge, too, and the early returns in a 2-0 win over LAFC in the Club World Cup were positive. 

Chelsea are overlooking the best striker option

While the 22-year-old Delap has a lot of talent and scored 12 goals for lowly Ipswich last season in the Premier League, he isn’t yet ready to be a 20-goal striker, let alone a striker on the caliber of Alexander Isak and Erling Haaland, which is what Chelsea will need to go from top five to first in the Premier League, which is their ultimate goal.

According to a report from The Athletic’s Chelsea beat writer Simon Johnson, the Blues are still looking at strikers to join Jackson and Delap, and they have been focusing on well-rounded profiles with three names in particular: Brighton’s Joao Pedro, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike, and West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus.

All three of these players are very talented and should legitimately interest Chelsea. Ekitike will be expensive but looks special after a tremendous season with Eintracht Frankfurt, Kudus is up-and-down for West Ham but has undeniable upside, and Pedro has been a highly productive all-around forward in the Premier League for Brighton.

The thing is, none of these guys can score 20 goals in a season, and Ekitike is the only one who is primarily a goal-scorer. Meanwhile, Chelsea have barely pursued Victor Osimhen, previously viewed as their obvious top target at the striker position and someone who once led Serie A with 26 goals in a title-winning season for Napoli.

Chelsea showing more interest in those three than Osimhen makes little sense when Jackson already is the all-around striker profile and Delap isn’t anywhere near ready to score, say, the 26 league goals that Osimhen has reached twice in two different leagues, including last season at Galatasaray.

It’s a surprise to see that Todd Boehly and Maresca are giving up on their main priority of goals, and that could be a risk that doesn’t pay off, dooming them to a similar fate as rivals Arsenal in having all the attacking ingredients ripe and ready with a world-class midfield but nobody who can reliably put all the chances away.