It may not be the first meeting, it may not be the last, it may even be a regular thing, but Chelsea and Álvaro Morata’s agent have apparently scheduled a meeting for next week and it’s important enough that somebody leaked it to David Amoyal. Amoyal, once just the English voice of Gianluca Di Marzio, has started making a name for himself in recent years as well, though he does not report on his own very often. This is one of those rare cases.
Been personally told that Chelsea set a meeting with Morata’s agent for next week to decide what to do next. The Spanish striker would like to leave for a new club, Chelsea will ask for a 65/70 million transfer fee
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) June 28, 2018
In any case, the importance of the meeting lies on Álvaro Morata apparently making up his mind about wanting to leave Chelsea after just one season.
This decision has been, more or less, coming for a while, and Morata’s unabashed frolicking around Venice, Milan, and Torino over the last month had done little to dissuade that notion. At least one “coincidental” meeting with the Juventus sporting director later, not to mention a bit of partying in old Juve haunts and of course living the good life in Venice, we’ve now arrived to the part where a decision has to be made about how to proceed.
do you really think this will be the first time they talked about this? Each party already knows the conditions that other one wants, they now have to decide if going separate ways- Morata took some time to gauge what he wants to do and his market with other clubs
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) June 28, 2018
Chelsea’s asking price will be in the €65-70m range, which should basically recoup the club’s record investment last summer. Realistically, that leaves just Juventus as a potential destination, with AC Milan recently banned from European competition and Borussia Dortmund not willing to pay that much.
Of course, it’s not yet set in stone that Morata will leave, but Chelsea don’t tend to stand in the way of players who want to leave — at least not until proper compensation is agreed. If Morata were to leave, Batshuayi and Giroud (and, say, Tammy Abraham?) would probably provide a serviceable depth chart for a lone striker system, while the incoming fee could be turned around for much needed reinforcements in midfield and right wing.