Chelsea to continue spending with Fernando Llorente and Benjamin Mendy on Antonio Conte’s wishlist

French connection | Mendy (above) is also a target of Manchester City
AFP/Getty Images
Simon Johnson21 July 2017

Chelsea will carry on their summer spending spree after Alvaro Morata completes his club record move from Real Madrid.

Morata has passed his medical and will sign a five-year contract worth £170,000 a week with the deal costing Chelsea £58m initially, potentially rising to £70m with add-ons.

The Spain forward’s arrival will mean Chelsea have spent £132m during the close season with arrivals including Antonio Rudiger (£34m) and Tiemoue Bakayoko (£40m).

But the Blues are still keen to strengthen with five players having left this summer, while Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic are in talks with Atletico Madrid and Juventus respectively.

Antonio Conte still has a fortune to spend with the club already receiving more than £130m from player sales in 2017, while Costa and Matic’s departures could raise another £80m.

Chelsea earned £150.8m in TV prize money from winning the League last season and the £60m-a-year kit deal with Nike has just begun.

Standard Sport understands Chelsea are looking to strengthen at wing back, central midfield and in attack. They want Swansea forward Fernando Llorente to act as back-up to Morata and it is believed he wants the move.

However, Chelsea will find it tough to persuade Swansea to sell, just as they did when coach Antonio Conte wanted him in January.

Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

Their search for a wing back has hit a stumbling block with Juventus raising the fee for Alex Sandro - they value the player at around £65m - and intimate he will not be sold now Leonardo Bonucci has joined AC Milan.

Manchester City have staged a late bid to beat them to Real Madrid full-back Danilo, although the Blues are threatening to do the same to Pep Guardiloa’s side for Benjamin Mendy.

Monaco have rejected City’s offer of £44.5m because they rate him higher than Kyle Walker, who has moved to the Etihad Stadium for £50m. Chelsea were willing to spend £60m on Sandro so the fee will not put them off.

Morata arrives atr Heathrow Airport Photo: Sky Sports
Sky Sports

Morata will join them for the next leg of their pre-season tour in Singapore, where he could make his debut against Bayern Munich or Inter Milan.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in