Chelsea have reportedly tabled a new offer to sign Barcelona striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before the summer transfer window slams shut.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has now provided an encouraging update regarding Chelsea’s deadline-day pursuit of Barcelona striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The well-known Italian journalist has claimed Chelsea are growing increasingly confident of signing the former Arsenal captain after lodging a fresh offer to get a deal over the line on deadline day.
A busy transfer deadline day could be on the cards for Chelsea, who are in extensive talks with Barcelona to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before the closure of the transfer window. The Blues are desperate to land a new striker, having let their club-record signing, Romelu Lukaku, return to Italy last month.
Aubameyang, who only joined Barcelona in January, has emerged as Chelsea’s top transfer target to reinforce the attack, and negotiations for the centre-forward have been ongoing for a while now, without an agreement being reached as of yet.
Chelsea are keen on including Marcos Alonso, a target for Barcelona, as part of the deal to sign Aubameyang and have already made their initial offer, which was rejected by Barcelona. The Catalan giants want to complete the two operations as separate deals.
Negotiations for Pierre Aubameyang are progressing, working to reach full agreement. Last Chelsea bid being discussed: £10m fee plus Marcos Alonso to Barça. ?? #CFC
All parties confident to complete the deal before Deadline. #FCB pic.twitter.com/SPLP64n1AJ
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 1, 2022
But with not much time left in the transfer window, Fabrizio Romano is reporting that the Blaugrana and the London giants are still negotiating to conclude the transfer and striking an agreement in the next few hours.
The Italian journalist claims that Chelsea have now tabled a fresh proposal for Aubameyang which includes a fixed payment of around £10 million, while also offering Alonso in exchange, with the proposal being discussed by the two clubs currently.
Alonso is a priority target for Barcelona to bolster the left-back department. With personal terms already agreed, the 31-year-old is all but guaranteed to arrive at Camp Nou. However, with Jordi Alba rejecting a move to Serie A giants Inter, things could get complicated.
The size of the new Chelsea bid comes as a bit of a surprise given that Romano himself had previously stated that the Blaugrana had rejected a bid for £15 million plus Alonso for Aubameyang. Chelsea may be trying to leverage the advantage of Barcelona’s desperation to reduce their wage bill with limited time remaining in the transfer window.
Nevertheless, Romano insists all parties involved are confident about reaching an agreement for the transfer of Aubameyang before the deadline. It will be interesting to see how this story develops as we get closer to the final hours of the deadline day.
