Chelsea to offer €40m plus Morata in outlandish bid for Icardi — reports

Having scored 100 goals in 159 league games for the Nerazzurri since 2013, Mauro Icardi has been one of the best goalscorers in Serie A in recent years. He’s thus been consistently linked with bigger and better things than Inter Milan, whose status these days is nowhere near their historic best (just like in-city rivals AC Milan).

We could fill half a blog with just the (ultimately false) Chelsea-links. Here comes another one; and it’s one of the more ridiculous of the lot.

According to recent speculation from notorious rumor-mongers Cadena SER as well as Italian newspaper Il Messaggero (via Football Italia), Chelsea are ready to offer €40 million plus Álvaro Morata. At a total value of at least €100m, we can easily consider it as unlikely as taking Robert Lewandowski from Bayern.

Still, where there is smoke, there is often fire.

For the first time since Icardi’s arrival at the Giuseppe Meazza five years ago, Inter have qualified for the Champions League. One would think that would be a good thing in terms of trying to keep Icardi, but it’s instead prompting some real talk from the head coach.

“I’ve spoken with Mauro several times and he sent very precise signals. He’s happy at Inter and wants to stay, but then there are clubs which, if they decide to take a player, you could have been saying ‘I won’t leave here’ the day before, then the next day they take you and in the end you’re happy to go, even though the previous day you were thinking very differently.”

”We have to be ready for anything, but for now there are no signals and no doubts about what he wants.”

-Luciano Spalletti; source: Sky Italia via Sky Sports

Certainly somewhat cautious words from Spalletti about a man with a €110m release clause that’s valid until July 15.

But while Icardi would certainly boost our striking department (with or without Morata staying), an approach from Chelsea is doubtful, to say the least. Or at least should be. After all, our transfer business should be prioritised to positions of bigger need. Those which require players such as Christian Pulisic and Jean Michäel Seri.