Chelsea have reached an agreement with Atletico Madrid to allow
Alvaro Morata to leave on loan, with the Liga club having a £48.5
million ($62m) option to sign the striker on a permanent basis, Goal understands.
Morata had already reached an agreement with Atletico Madrid over his personal terms last week
and he is willing to accept a lower contract than his current £120,000
per week Chelsea deal upon the activation of an option to buy.
Offloading the 26-year-old striker is also a major step in Chelsea's
bid to take over AC Milan's loan deal for Gonzalo Higuain, with the
Blues having already reached an agreement with the Argentine forward's
parent club Juventus.
Like Morata, Higuain has been left out of his team's latest match, with Milan due to play Genoa on Monday, after Chelsea agreed a six-month loan deal with an option to extend it or sign the striker outright for £32.5 million ($42m).
They will also pay Juventus on the basis of appearances, goals and
season's achievements over the six-month period that they are loaning
Higuain for.
Genoa's Krzysztof Piatek is set to replace Higuain at the San Siro
and a £35m ($45m) deal is expected to be reached in the next 48 hours,
according to the selling club's sporting director Giorgio Perinetti.
"After today's match against Milan, we will meet them and reach an
agreement in the next 48 hours, whether he leaves or not," said
Perinetti. "We spoke with Gazidis and Leonardo for two hours and we
still need to evaluate the counterparts in the deal.
"This is why the deal has not been finalised yet as we need to
analyse whether it will be functional for our transfer market session."
The movement of strikers across Europe is part of a bigger picture as
major clubs look to ensure they are not left without a reliable forward
option for the rest of the season.
This is what has led to Michy Batshuayi's proposed loan move being
held up, as Chelsea look to explore opportunities to cash in, with a
£40m ($51m) valuation being placed on the Belgium international, who
endured a disappointing first half of the season on loan at Valencia.




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