Chelsea appear to be closing in on yet another one of their summer transfer targets in Swansea City’s Fernando Llorente, according to Evening Standard’s Simon Johnson.
Chelsea hopeful over £15m Llorente deal as Swansea lower demands | ✍️ @sjstandardsport https://t.co/4J10tQ5tlC
— Standard Sport (@standardsport) August 29, 2017
Chelsea have maintained interest in the 32-year-old striker since the last transfer window, with a lot of it reportedly being fueled by Antonio Conte himself, as he worked with the player during his time at Juventus. Swansea were facing a relegation battle at the time and were adamant not to let their star striker leave at such a time, but the aforementioned report claims the Swans may be willing to part ways with Llorente this summer after all.
Swansea have apparently been holding out for an offer in the region of £30 million, which is unreasonable even in this market for a striker of that age, even though he bagged 15 goals last season. The sale of Gylfi Sigurdsson may have changed things, however. The Welsh side received a princely sum of £45 million for Sigurdsson from Everton and are looking to invest in another striker, namely Wilfried Bony who’s surplus to requirements at Manchester City. City are looking for £13 million for the former Vitesse Arnhem striker, whose return to the Liberty Stadium seems to be inching closer by the day despite late interest from Spartak Moscow. A combination of these factors seems to have bestowed realisation upon Swansea that selling Llorente at this point for even half their original asking price (and still three times the £5m that they paid for him last year) would serve as a decent bit of business. More so, relations between the clubs are amicable at this point after the loan signing of Tammy Abraham earlier in the summer, who incidentally scored twice for the Swans last week.
Perhaps the stars are aligning for Llorente to work under Antonio Conte once again!