Chelsea reach final agreement for Bakayoko after giving in to Monaco demands — report

Another day was threatening to pass by without any concrete news to report on Tiemoué Bakayoko, who may or may not have been in London already, but the French transfer oracle, Mohamed Bouhafsi, has come to save us all with some heavenly 140-character mana.

“Final agreement reached between AS Monaco and Chelsea FC for Bakayoko [for] ~€45m! Medical and signing on Friday”

The agreement comes after recent rumblings and threats of a mystery Manchester United bid (denied by several other rumors) that was supposedly willing to pay upwards of £40m for Bakayoko, or £5m more than the agreement Chelsea thought they had with Monaco. Given the price mentioned by Bouhafsi, it sounds like Chelsea relented and gave in to these negotiating tactics, upping the bid to £40m (€45m) in order to reach a final agreement.

At this point, that’s probably okay. As long as it’s the final-final agreement of course. No more takebacksies!

Bakayoko is scheduled for a medical on Friday, which will perhaps shed some specific light on the condition of his knee and what his recovery prospects may be. Reports earlier on Wednesday claimed that he would be out until September, thus missing the first three games of the season.

(Meanwhile, Nemanja Matić has continued to train alone and is thus probably nearing his Chelsea exit.)

Hurray for transfer progress!

UPDATE: Confirmed by Bakayoko’s brother on Snapchat, apparently.