Mauro Icardi tops Chelsea striker wishlist for January — report

We’re about halfway between the summer and winter transfer windows, so it’s about time for the rumor mill to start spinning up once again. Like any good warm-up, you must start with the easy, familiar, obvious moves.

Sure enough, here comes the Mail — Matt Barlow’s byline adds a bit of weight — to link Chelsea with a couple strikers, including Genoa’s man of the moment Krzysztof Piatek (who’s not going to be available until the end of the season) and Inter Milan’s big star Mauro Icardi. Icardi’s certainly not a name unfamiliar to the Chelsea rumor mill; the Blues have been linked for the last few years as the Inter captain’s future seems to be constantly in question.

But what may be new is that Icardi is apparently at the top of our list.

Alas, Chelsea’s strong interest may be for naught, especially in January, when big moves are considerably harder to pull off — and Icardi wouldn’t be an easy get in normal times either, even if he has a very active and scheming agent in Wanda Nara (who’s also his wife).

As much as Chelsea’s striker situation is a big concern — faith in Morata is quickly back down to zero after Saturday — spending upwards of £100m on Icardi seems to be one of those things that makes for a good headline but has about a 0% chance of actually happening. Icardi does reportedly have a €110m release clause, but it won’t be active until the summer.