{"id":169326,"date":"2025-09-30T00:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/169326\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:59:08","slug":"arne-slot-refutes-reports-victor-osimhen-was-a-transfer-target-this-summer-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/169326\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot refutes reports Victor Osimhen was a transfer target this summer – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of coming up against Victor Osimhen, Arne Slot<\/a> has explained that the striker was not a target for Liverpool this summer as they sought reinforcements at No. 9.<\/p>\n

Liverpool were always expected to be in the market for a No. 9 this summer with Darwin Nunez<\/a> long tipped for the exit, prompting links to countless forwards across Europe and beyond.<\/p>\n

Alexander Isak<\/a> was firmly the No. 1 target but with Newcastle<\/a> initially playing hardball, Liverpool were linked to plenty of alternatives, including Victor Osimhen, who was then of Napoli.<\/p>\n

Reports linked<\/a> the Nigerian as a possible alternative before he went on to sign for Galatasaray in a \u00a365.4 million deal, but Slot has now refuted that the 26-year-old was ever a target this summer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2022 READ: Federico Chiesa\u2019s Champions League absence explained by Arne Slot<\/a><\/p>\n

In explaining how the tragic death of Diogo Jota<\/a> impacted the club\u2019s decisions in the transfer window, Slot said only Isak and Hugo Ekitike<\/a> were considered when asked about Osimhen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019ve added two number nines,\u201d Slot said. \u201cBecause of an enormous tragedy that happened with Diogo Jota<\/a>, in the end, we had to bring in two number nines. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe always thought we were going to replace Darwin Nunez<\/a> for one number nine. But in the end, we had to bring in two number nines. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always been looking, we\u2019re always looking for very good players, but it was always clear to us that from the start that we wanted to bring in these two (Isak and Ekitike), if we needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u2022 READ: Chiesa OUT as Liverpool name 21-man travelling squad<\/a><\/p>\n

Liverpool ultimately signed their two targets while Osimhen found a new home with Galatasaray, where he has since featured four times with a return of two goals after early fitness woes.<\/p>\n

He is not expected to start on Tuesday night after being asked to play through the pain barrier over the weekend in a bid to play a more involved role against the Reds.<\/p>\n

Ekitike, meanwhile, is anticipated to make his return after his, in his own words, \u201cnot smart\u201d red card<\/a> that led to a suspension over the weekend that halted his positive run of form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of coming up against Victor Osimhen, Arne Slot has explained that the striker was not a target…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55,3224],"class_list":{"0":"post-169326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom","13":"tag-victor-osimhen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}