Antonio Conte urging Chelsea to bid for Real Madrid striker — report

Whether or not Diego Costa stays at Chelsea beyond this season, it seems that the Blues are set to add a new striker to the first team reagrdless (sorry, Michy Batshuayi). But while Chelsea are reportedly most keen on a reunion with Romelu Lukaku, head coach Antonio Conte might have a different priority in mind.

According to Spanish newspaper AS, Conte is urging Roman Abramovich and the Board to make a new attempt at landing Real Madrid's Álvaro Morata in the next transfer window. Chelsea had already made several bids for the player last summer, supposedly, when Morata returned to Real on a €30 million buy-back after two years at Juventus. A final €70 million offer from the Blues was rejected by the Spaniards.

However, Morata's expectations of fighting for and potentially keeping a spot in Zinedine Zidane's starting eleven have not been fulfilled. Despite good showings in the few minutes he has gotten this season for Real, the 24-year-old has failed to unseat Karim Benzema and has not really made his wish of a glorious return to Santiago Bernabéu come true.

Now supposedly eager to leave Madrid, Morata apparently regards a switch to Chelsea as a favourable opportunity. The Blues may or may not be willing to offer €65 million for his services, a price dictated by the fact that his contract is not set to run out until 2021.

Morata may not have featured regularly for Real Madrid this season, and he may not have the goalscoring record of a Lukaku (or even the same amount of top level experience), but the foundations of a great player waiting to burst onto the scene are still there, just as Conte envisioned a few years ago already.

Be it with Lukaku or Morata, Chelsea are setting themselves up to make any potential Costa replacement the long-term solution at center forward.