Atlético Madrid identify Marcos Alonso as the heir to Filipe Luís — report

There’s an “exodus” happening at Atletico Madrid, as the La Liga runners-up face a crucial summer of rebuilding. As Marca put it, only Koke will remain of Simeone’s “old guard” in a familiar-sounding development. But Atleti’s situation may involve Chelsea on a deeper level than just as a parallel narrative.

One of the five big stars leaving is left back Filipe Luis, who’s been at the club for almost a decade minus the one-season detour to Chelsea for a Premier League title in 2014-15. Now 33, Filipe Luis is leaving for free, much like fellow veterans Diego Godin and Juanfran. Meanwhile, Antoine Griezmann and Lucas Hernandez are moving on for a combined €200m, to Barcelona and Bayern Munich, respectively.

So there will be money to spend, part of which is probably earmarked for Alvaro Morata. But if a recent report from AS is true, even more of those funds could make their way into Chelsea’s coffers. Atléti have apparently identified Marcos Alonso as the ideal replacement for Filipe Luis.

In his third year at Chelsea, Alonso has seen his minutes dwindle under Maurizio Sarri after being ever-present under Antonio Conte. Atlético are said to be eager to explore and poke and prod at that situation, and seeing what joy they might get, even though the 28-year-old left back signed a new five-year contract just in October and would thus probably be a quite pricey proposition. However, since then, Emerson has also started to come into his own and has taken some minutes away from Alonso.

For now, this is little more than idle speculation. But depending on how Chelsea’s summer turns out, especially regarding the transfer ban and the future of the head coach, we may find ourselves revisit this situation.