Part of Atlético’s sporting planning for this summer may have fallen through in the last few hours. The signing of Samu Omorodion by Chelsea has been broken, at least for the moment. A news story reported by El Chiringuito that AS has confirmed. The first version suggested that the negotiation had been blown up by a financial disagreement, although in reality the reason is that Chelsea has changed its objective: Atlético now wants João Félix, so the sporting planning for this summer, the two signings that are yet to be closed, Gallagher and Julián Álvarez, both in Madrid, could go ahead.
Samu, who had undergone a medical with Chelsea in Paris a few days ago, while he was with the Under-21 team at the Olympic Games, would have returned to Madrid from London where, like Gallagher and Atleti, he was waiting for the official transfer. That move, Samu’s to Chelsea, was the result of Gallagher’s operation, who had arrived from Chelsea for the red-and-white club. Different contracts but on par, like communicating vessels. But what seemed like an earthquake when Atlético was flying on its flight to Madrid from Gothenburg, where it had played its last pre-season match, is actually fixable. The solution to the mess that would unblock this stalled operation was also travelling on that plane: João Félix.
The key João
In the last few hours, Chelsea showed interest in signing João Félix (on loan at the London club for six months, from January to June of the 23-24 season) instead of Samu. The player’s agent, Jorge Mendes, travelled to London for negotiations with his owners who, by the way, always showed interest in buying the player, something that stopped Pochettino from arriving at the blue bench last season. The Argentine coach did not count on him, that possible signing fell through and João returned to Atlético and then went on loan to Barcelona. But now everything is different again.
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Chelsea’s manager is now Maresca and João is shining in Atlético’s pre-season with Cholo, with a good attitude and goals (he has scored two, against Getafe and Juve). Chelsea and the red-and-white club are now arguing about the transfer of the Portuguese as part of the agreement for Gallagher (the operation of Julián Álvarez, who arrived in Madrid this Sunday afternoon to close his signing, is not in danger). Neither of the two clubs, neither the English nor the Spanish, want the agreement to be broken and the operation of the midfielder with Atleti to fall through, who has even trained secretly as a red-and-white and who alone would not go ahead if João’s also falls through.
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