Alvaro Morata agrees personal terms with Juventus, except he doesn’t — reports

For a guy that is supposedly having a bad season — a “flop”, they say — Alvaro Morata sure seems to be in demand. And this demand doesn’t even come from a small team but one of the biggest in the world, Juventus.

The story began with Tuttosport last week claiming that the Old Lady made a pitiful loan-to-buy offer: €15m for the first year followed by €40-45m later on, which wouldn’t even cover the amount Chelsea paid last summer. It’s a similar deal to Juan Cuadrado’s, though Morata has been immeasurably more useful to the Chelsea cause than Cuadrado ever was.

Morata gave an interview over the weekend to Marca which contained zero hints of him wanting to leave, but that hasn’t stopped Rai Sport from escalating the situation in last night’s La Domenica Sportiva program, claiming that Morata is close to agreeing personal terms. (Morata’s late scratch from Sunday’s game due to a last minute injury — “injury?” — lends some momentum to such nonsense, too.)

The headlines have gone for “agrees personal terms” but the actual report made it pretty clear that they are nowhere near agreeing, with wages (somewhat important!) a stumbling block.

Rai Sport themselves do not have this news up anywhere on their website, so we have to go with second-hand reports.

According to Rai Sport, their hopes of landing the Spaniard appear to have improved with personal terms already being discussed between the player and the club.

One stumbling block to a potential deal could be Morata’s significant wage demands, with the striker currently earning £8.5 million per season at Stamford Bridge.

Juve’s current highest earner is Gonzalo Higuain, who nets just short of £7 million per season and in order to keep relations intact, the Old Lady may not be willing to match Morata’s demands.

-source: talkSPORT

Of course, talkSport themselves have gone with the “agrees personal terms” headline even though nothing in their article actually supports that.

Here’s Football Italia’s take on the report:

According to Rai Sport, the agreement was struck between Juve and Morata’s camp, with the Spaniard ‘ready to take a pay cut’ to re-join the Bianconeri. The former Real Madrid attacker currently earns €9m a season at Chelsea, while the Old Lady’s best-paid player is Gonzalo Higuain at €7.5m.

However, the broadcaster warns Chelsea may be looking to recoup somewhere close to the €66m they spent on Morata last summer. One solution could be a two-year loan with an option to buy in 2020, similar to the deal they negotiated for Juan Cuadrado.

-source: Football Italia

It really is a mystery as to what “personal terms” may have been already agreed if they’re not even settled on wages. What did they agree on, then?! Whether Morata gets the window seat on the club bus or not?

So, basically, Morata is close to signing for Juventus but Juventus are neither ready to meet Chelsea’s transfer fee demands nor Morata’s wage demands but basically, it’s a done deal except for those tiny details.

Wonderful.