Simon Phillips discusses Chelsea’s chances of signing Mauro Icardi from Inter Milan.
Chelsea have reportedly made a 63 million euro bid for Inter Milan forward Mauro Icardi, according to Argentine Journalist Fernando Czyz of TNT Sports.
The bold claim states that the blues are the first club to make a formal offer for the Argentine international, amidst substantial interest from Real Madrid.
Icardi has been linked with Chelsea for a few years now, and he was allegedly on their shortlist of strikers before they decided to sign Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid in the summer.
The 25-year old has bagged 93 goals for Inter Milan since arriving there in 2013 from Sampdoria. He is undoubtedly the type of forward that Chelsea supporters expect the club to be linked with, a far cry from the Andy Carroll’s of the summer.
Perhaps surprising though is that Morata is expected to be the leading man at the club, any arrival of an Icardi type striker would raise a question mark around the Spanish international, who has been left out of the latest Spain squad. But perhaps some robust competition is what he needs? I feel a club who wishes to challenge for the premier league title can benefit from having three top forwards to compete and rotate.
Chelsea are expected to overhaul their squad this season, with Antonio Conte’s future also remaining in doubt. But a team who face a hard task to even get into the Champions League again, it’s hard though to believe that players like Icardi would be interested in joining.
The former Barcelona youth player is currently considering a new contract from Inter, and may well end up staying there, but I firmly believe that any club wishing to sign him will need to go slightly higher than Chelsea’s alleged offer – perhaps somewhere closer to his reported 110-million-euro release clause.
Written by Simon Phillips – @SiPhillipsSport
