The La Liga giants will have to regroup and look for a different striker in the transfer market after a £88m bid was rejected by Chelsea and Alvaro Morata. Atletico Madrid was keen on luring the big Spanish forward in order to replace French forward, Antoine Griezmann, who is linked with a move away from Madrid, either to Barcelona or Manchester United, in the summer.
Morata has been unable to impress at Stamford Bridge following a club record transfer fee of £70m last summer. He replaced Diego Costa, who ironically rejoined Atletico Madrid during the winter transfer window after Chelsea manager Antonio Conte revealed was not part of his future plans at the London club. But things have not worked out well for Conte since Costa’s departure from Chelsea as Morata has been rather underwhelming in his time so far at Chelsea.
However, Morata has still rejected a contract from Atletico Madrid, which goes on to say a lot about his character and will to fight for his place at Chelsea. The Spanish striker initially got off to a great start in his early Chelsea days but injuries and lack of adaptation to the Premier League have been the main reason of his catastrophic past few months at the club. With the club signing Olivier Giroud on transfer deadline day, Conte has used the Frenchman more regularly than Morata, which may have put off the 25-year-old forward even further.
Morata was also used as a substitute for both the crunch Champions League encounters against Barcelona in the Round of 16 as his Italian manager preferred to use talismanic winger Eden Hazard as a false number nine despite Morata’s availability. Even Giroud was started before Morata at the Camp Nou for Chelsea, which just proved that Conte is extremely unhappy with his Spaniard’s performances.
Having endured a difficult debut season in the English side, most players would quit and move on to another club where they are wanted, but Morata’s decision to stay and help Chelsea is a very respectful and courageous one.
Atletico Madrid is now afraid of losing Antoine Griezmann in the summer as his release clause will be activated and therefore are preparing for his exit by looking into the transfer market for new attackers. And reports claim that a €100m (£88m) bid has been rejected by Alvaro Morata himself.
Morata has reportedly told Atletico Madrid that he would not want to return to the Spanish League anytime soon and moreover would never play for any other club other than his boyhood one, Real Madrid.
I guess it’s just a matter of time before Morata starts scoring again, he is lacking a bit of confidence and once he gets his natural free-flowing attack back, he can take Chelsea to great heights. However, the Premier League champions have had a disastrous defense to their title as they sit in 5th place on the table and are likely to finish outside the top 4 this season. Chelsea will face Leicester City in the quarter final of FA Cup.
