Chelsea have raced ahead of local rivals Arsenal, Manchester United and Spanish giants Atletico Madrid in their attempts to sign Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata.
Last month, Morata penned a heartfelt letter to Juventus and its fans expressing his gratitude and love for the club where he spent 2 successful years. His return to Real Madrid was made official today after the Spanish giants decided to exercise their release clause and bring him back to the club. Los Blancos are widely expected to sell the player for a massive profit this summer with a number of clubs keen on the striker.
For months, there has been a lot of speculation regarding his next destination. Arsenal seemed to be interested in the striker with reports emerging of Arsenal submitting a mammoth £49 million bid to Real Madrid to sell the player after they exercised their buy back clause. Wenger was reportedly willing to make the Spaniard Arsenal’s highest paid player by offering him a deal which would see him pocket £155,000 per week.
Manchester United’s interest in the striker goes as far back as 2014. Last month it was reported that Alvaro Morata would prefer to move to Manchester United, provided they didn’t sign Zlatan Ibrahimovic. With Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and now Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their ranks, it is unlikely that the 23-year-old would move to the red side of Manchester, even if it presented him with the opportunity to reunite with Jose Mourinho, the manager who gave him his debut in the Real Madrid first team.
Atletico Madrid were also rumoured to be interested in trying to bring back Morata who spent two seasons with them as a youth player between 2005 to 2007. But it is highly unlikely that Real Madrid will sell a player of Morata’s quality to a local rival, especially Atletico Madrid.
However, according to MARCA, Chelsea seems to have taken the lead over Morata’s potential suitors in the race for his signature. The report states that the Blues have the advantage of Antonio Conte’s presence in the club. Conte reportedly convinced Morata to make the switch to Juventus from Real Madrid in 2014, but the duo were unable to work together as the Italian would go on to manage his national team a month later. Now the 46-year-old wishes to work with Morata and wants to bring him to Stamford Bridge to be a part of his new-look Chelsea team.
Having already signed Michy Batshuayi from Olympique Marseille, Conte is on the lookout for another striker to add to his ranks after the departure of Falcao and Pato. Loic Remy is expected to follow them out the door with Fenerbahce showing interest in him. This leaves Conte with Diego Costa, whose immediate future is uncertain, with Atletico Madrid reported to be interested in taking him back.
Real Madrid reportedly want €75 million for Morata, a huge fee for a player who has never scored more than 15 goals a season. Morata scored 12 goals for Juventus from 47 appearances in all competitions and lost out his starting position to the prolific Paulo Dybala.
However, his talent is undoubted and Chelsea may be the place to re-ignite his club career as part of Conte’s Chelsea revolution. With the Italian widely expected to use a 3-5-2 system, Morata would get plenty of opportunities to establish himself in the team. Being a multiple title winner himself, he would bring a much-needed winning mentality to a Blues’ side which seemed to severely lack in confidence last season.
