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Chelsea’s €15m pursuit of Fernando Llorente is facing dangers on all sides in the final hours of the transfer window, with Spurs supposedly joining the race (perhaps just to be the proverbial fly in our ointment just as we are in theirs for the Ross Barkley situation) and Swansea’s hoped-for replacement, Wilfried Bony meanwhile agreeing to join Hellas Verona on loan from Manchester City instead.
Spurs interest has been widely reported over the past few hours by various English sources, while Di Marzio has been on the forefront of the Bony news over in Italy. Should the latter turn out to be true (and there’s no obvious reason to doubt it), Swansea are unlikely to let Llorente go to either Chelsea or Spurs as that would leave them with only Tammy Abraham at striker, which could be great as far as he and Chelsea are concerned but probably not as far as the Swans would be.
Confirmed: Spurs are in for Fernando Llorente. More difficulty for Chelsea. Battle is on to convince him in final 24 hours. #CFC #THFC
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) August 30, 2017
#Calciomercato | #Bony ha detto sì all'#HellasVerona ⬇ https://t.co/0iUSFHBtUL
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) August 30, 2017
Meanwhile at Chelsea, there’s the future of Michy Batshuayi to consider. While Llorente is being posed as a potential third-striker, Michy could yet move (on loan) in order to find more regular playing time. Club and international teammate Eden Hazard certainly wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. In fact, he would support it wholeheartedly.
“I spoke with him about it this morning. He is now 23. If he wants to move forward, he has to play. I do not know if Llorente still comes but if we have Llorente, Morata and he, it will be difficult.
“He was especially disappointed because he had a good pre-season and was counted on more. But we all know that you’ll be on the bench quickly when you’re not playing.
“As a friend, I recommend him to find a solution to play. But we have to wait for Chelsea to decide on him.
“A season like last year is not good for him and not for the national team. Because for Belgium he can be important.”
-Eden Hazard; source: Metro
It sound like the Llorente situation would complicate things more than it could ever help. Maybe we just move on a concentrate on spending the last few hours on positions of actual need?