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Where's the money, Lebowski? That seems to be Atletico Madrid's attitude about both the Filipe Luís and Diego Costa transfers. Both players are supposedly a whisker away from joining the Blues, yet there's been no progress (real or rumored) for a while now. And while Diego Costa at least had the excuse of the World Cup, Filipe Luis has not.
You may recall a couple weeks ago we had reports of an agreement between club and the left back followed by a report that Chelsea were willing to pay the 28-year-old's buyout clause of €24m. Those two numbers, incidentally (one of which will turn into 29 before the season starts, even) is exactly why I'm not a fan of this transfer at all. But it would appear that perhaps Chelsea aren't quite so willing to pay the clause and associated taxes.
Filipe has made a firm decision to move to Chelsea. So he communicated [that decision to the club] who tried to stop [him by] offering a wage increase...
But [Filipe] said no. The offer of Stamford Bridge was higher-about 5 million per season, and he had already made the decision to go to play Premier, so Atletico were resigned to the [loss] of the player, always, yes, sought payment by the 24 million listed in its clause.
But the weeks and at the Vicente Calderon side without news...
-source: Marca via Google Translate
Atlético had gone even as far as to already secure Filipe's replacement in yet another Brazilian left back in Guilherme Siqueira. So you can understand their frustrations in not getting the Filipe Luis money yet.
We've seen buyout clauses hold up deals this summer already. United tried to and failed to carefully navigate around Ander Herrera's, while Chelsea and Cesc Fabregas seemed to overcomplicate that deal before finally managing to negotiate some common sense terms. Diego Costa's deal is rumored to be in a similar situation. And now Filipe Luis.
Hope they're really worth it.