Spurs sign Fernando Llorente from right underneath Chelsea’s nose

Chelsea have missed out on an all-but-assured transfer target for the third time this summer as Spurs have officially confirmed the deadline day signing of Fernando Llorente from Swansea City. Llorente almost joined Chelsea in January and his reunion with Antonio Conte, with whom he worked at Juventus a few years ago, was as expected to occur this summer. But just as with Romelu Lukaku and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chelsea have missed out.

Part of the reason was Chelsea’s dithering on the transfer bid, harkening back to the situation with Lukaku. As in the case of the now Manchester United striker, Chelsea did eventually conjure up a bid, but it was to late.

In Llorente’s case, the decision to snub Chelsea was probably also motivated by Spurs’ willingness to give him a multi-year contract. Chelsea’s over-30 policy means that only single-season contracts are awarded to older players, while Spurs apparently had no problem giving out a 2-year contract with an option for a third. Given that Llorente is 32, that’s pretty generous from Spurs. But in today’s market, teams have to be overly generous to get anything done.

In associated Spurs news, they also signed right wing-back Serge Aurier from PSG, which was highly annoying until Chelsea were able to secure the signature of Torino’s Frank Zappacosta.

In any case, deadline day is now over, the transfer window has slammed shut. Chelsea still have to announce Drinkwater, but otherwise business is closed until January.

Time to relax for a minute.