Sevilla want Álvaro Morata and are ready to offer £5m to take the player on loan right now, plus £35m to make the deal permanent in the summer, in order to convince Chelsea to do business. The Blues will try to replace him with Gonzalo Higuaín, also on loan, and will also attempt to sign a midfielder to replace the supposedly departing Cesc Fàbregas, with Zenit Saint Petersburg’s Leandro Paredes and Cagliari’s £45m-rated 21-year-old Nicolò Barella under consideration.
They would do well not to move too soon, mind, because having agreed to leave for Monaco and waved a tearful farewell to fans, Fàbregas is still waiting for the Ligue 1 club to agree a fee with Chelsea, leaving the whole business ripe for potential collapse. Like Morata, Tammy Abraham is a Chelsea striker who wants to leave on loan, though his departure is complicated by the fact he is already on loan. With his temporary stay at Championship side Aston Villa going thrillingly well, Abraham is demanding another chance to prove himself in the Premier League.
Amid rumours of interest from Wolves, the Mirror is reporting that Abraham failed to turn up to training at Villa on Monday, and is hoping to force Chelsea to cancel his loan. Villa have already started looking for a replacement, with their gaze settling on Brentford’s Neal Maupay, who like Abraham has scored 16 goals this season. They could also attempt to snaffle the £10m-rated winger Adam Reach from their former manager Steve Bruce, soon to arrive at Sheffield Wednesday.
West Ham want a striker on loan as well, and have taken a fancy to Internazionale’s Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa. Burnley, Cardiff, Newcastle and Fulham are all interested in the Marseille winger Clinton N’Jie, formerly of Tottenham, but Burnley are hedging their bets by also eyeing up Stoke’s James McClean. Fulham also want the Bordeaux right-back Youssouf Sabaly, while Cardiff are hoping to seal an £8.5m deal for Nice midfielder Adrien Tameze in the next few days.
Talking of Tottenham, Beijing Guoan have offered £11m for their midfielder Mousa Dembélé, and the club are open to offers for the goal-shy Dutch striker Vincent Janssen. Potentially heading the other way to Dembélé is Yannick Carrasco, the Belgian winger currently in China with Dalian Yifang. Arsenal have leapfrogged over Milan in the race for the 25-year-old, but may find the £170,000-a-week wages he is pocketing in China a little hard to match, particularly if they are also going to sign Barcelona’s Denis Suárez. Barça are willing to let Suárez leave on loan, but only if the Gunners agree to pay £20m to keep him come the summer.
That move is necessary because of Aaron Ramsey’s imminent departure. Juventus have offered the Welshman £45m over five years in a bid to convince him to head for Turin when his contract expires in the summer, and now “believe they have won the race” for the midfielder, says the Mirror. They also want to steal Callum Hudson-Odoi from under the noses of Bayern Munich, though the player is believed to favour a move to Germany. Roma’s Kostas Manolas, one of several centre-backs on Manchester United’s shopping list, has a helpful £30.5m release clause, active this summer, in his contract.