Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in the mix for Benjamin Seško
Seško has a €50m release clause
It’s looking likely that this summer will see a mad merry-go-round of strikers on the move.
Leipzig’s Benjamin Seško is expected to be in demand. Chelsea and Arsenal have been tracking him since he was at Salzburg.
Although the 20-year-old Slovenian striker only moved to Leipzig last August, the expectation is he will leave this summer.
Seško has a €50m release clause, but Leipzig are open to negotiating around it. They did the same with Christopher Nkunku. Chelsea paid slightly more than his €60m release clause in order to get a more preferable structure as well as get the deal pre-agreed ahead of Nkunku’s summer move in order to avoid a bidding war.
Seško is also a possibility for Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain. Milan have looked, too, but see better value in Bologna’s Joshua Zirkzee as it stands.
Seško has nine Bundesliga goals and 13 in all competitions this season. And his wage demands would be considerably lower than strikers like Victor Osimhen, Ivan Toney or Viktor Gykoreres.
A lot has been made of Chelsea’s potential pursuit of Osimhen, and there’s no doubt the Napoli striker is open to a proposal. But Napoli expect the €100m+ release clause to be paid, and Osimhen is looking for £250k-per-week in wages. This makes any approach problematic.
Toney wants similar wages, and comes with a steep price tag given he’s 28 and will have just a year left on his contract this summer. My understanding is suggestions he’ll be made available for as low as £30m are not correct.
Toney perhaps won’t cost the £100m Thomas Frank valued him at earlier in the year, but he’ll likely be priced higher than Seško, especially if he makes an impact at Euro 2024 if selected.
Toney is not expected to join either Arsenal or Chelsea. In fact, he may not even leave at all, waiting instead for free agency in 2025.
Instead, it’s Seško and I would add Brighton’s Evan Ferguson, being seriously discussed internally at Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.
Most top clubs haven’t yet fixed on one single striker target, but there is certainly a lot to like about Seško from a potential and financial standpoint.