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Chelsea forward David Fofana is in advanced talks to join AEK Athens in the next 48 hours, sources have told Football Insider.

The Blues hope to offload the outcast forward before the Greek transfer window shuts on Wednesday.

Fofana is one of several fringe players that the Premier League side have been trying to offload all summer, and AEK Athens have shown interest in recent weeks.

Sources have told Football Insider that negotiations between the two clubs have stepped up in the last 48 hours, but the fee has yet to be agreed.

Chelsea will receive a smaller fee than the £8.4million they paid Molde for Fofana, but they are hopeful that add-ons being triggered will lead to them making a profit on the 21-year-old.

Chelsea legend Mikel has previously revealed that he was working with both parties to help make the transfer happen due to his relationship with Osimhen and his former club.

The pair´s friendship started when Osimhen made his national team debut for Nigeria in 2017, while Mikel was still captain.

´We were very, very close to getting this deal done, but it was just slight issues, slight little problems that we just couldn´t get over the line.

´I know what the club offered him, we got to finally go to a compromise. Both sides had to compromise. It was just some little things here and there, paperwork, medical, and few issues that we just couldn´t get over the line.´

Behind the scenes, working on the deal took its toll on Mikel who seemingly worked tirelessly to try and make the transfer happen.

´I was the guy right in the middle of everything,´ Mikel continued. ´There were couple of days I didn´t sleep. Thursday, I didn´t sleep. On Friday, I didn´t sleep.

´I´m here in Dubai, it´s about three, four hours different, so I have to wait for phone calls, I think in the middle of the night.

´On Thursday, I slept around 4am in the morning because I was waiting for phone call from this side and phone call from that side.´
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Chelsea were not the only club interested in Osimhen over the summer. Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli tabled a £55million bid in order to secure his services, but the striker rejected their advances.

With options at his disposal, Osimhen had a decision to make, and Mikel has claimed that there was only one destination that the striker really wanted to go to.

´I said we have to send somebody down to see Victor, and that will change the way he sees things, and then he will understand how much the club wants him to come,´ he added.

´The club sends somebody to Naples and try to speak to Victor and his agent to make sure we get the deal done. It just shows how much the club were willing to have the player, and how eager the club were willing to get Victor.

´I know he really wanted to come to the club, because he still knows he has a lot to prove in Europe.

´He wants to come to Chelsea, he wants to come in and help the club to get back to where we should be. He knows he can score a lot of goals here in the Premier League, and what a what better place to do that than, you know, his childhood club, Chelsea.´

Osimhen, who scored 76 goals for Napoli across four seasons, joined Galatasaray on loan last week to seemingly put an end to his transfer saga.

Skal jeg gætte hedder det: Felix £80-£100k - Neto £65k - KDH £50K

Tror du virkelig på at Felix ligger under 100k og Neto kun på 65k. Det lyder som det rene fantasiland for mig. Indrømmet jeg har ingen fakta på hvad de tjener, men det der tror ganske enkelt ikke på.