Higuain deal sees cost of Conte’s text top £100m
THAT infamous text from Antonio Conte telling Diego Costa his Chelsea career was over has proved to be a mighty expensive one.
The bill to try to replace the best striker Chelsea have had in the Roman Abramovich era since Didier Drogba was at his peak will rise again this month and top more than £100million.
The club had to take a hit on Costa’s fee after his fallout with Conte became public, splash out an initial £58m on Alvaro Morata to replace him and a further £18m on Olivier Giroud.
It may even cost them Eden Hazard as well if the decision to deploy the Belgium international as a false No 9 and away from his preferred position on the wing pushes him towards the Stamford Bridge exit.
And now Chelsea have had to spend again, albeit less than they might have had to, in the hope that Gonzalo Higuain can be the top-level, clinical striker they can rely on.
Higuain will arrive on an initial six-month loan, with a fee believed to be £9m, with Chelsea also taking on his £170,000-a-week wages. The deal can be extended to become an 18-month loan if Higuain achieves various performance clauses related to goals and appearances.
The move is another transfer market win for Chelsea’s chief executive Marina Granovskaia.
Juventus wanted Chelsea to take on Milan’s £32m obligation to buy Higuain in the summer but she did not want to commit to such an arrangement and still managed to secure the striker. Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri will be happy too.
He has got his way, and his man, and has been backed at the second attempt after the Blues opted against pursuing Higuain when Sarri first wanted him in the summer.
Higuain starred under Sarri at Napoli, scoring 38 goals in his final season.
The pair are so close they are believed to be in virtually daily contact. A repeat of anything like that Napoli form and Sarri’s persistence will have paid off.
Blues legend Drogba once remarked privately that the key to cutting it as a Chelsea striker is being capable of taking those one or two big chances when they come, especially in the biggest of games against the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United.
Costa succeeded on that front, firing Chelsea to two titles in three years while scoring 52 goals in 86 league starts before his controversial return to Atletico Madrid, but Morata has not.
He started well under Conte after joining in July 2017 but the goals dried up and doubts about his suitability to the Premier League, both mentally and physically, first started to creep in.
Morata was not helped by a back injury that dogged him last season, while the loss of one of his best friends in a car crash last January also hit him hard. He came back with renewed optimism this season after the birth of his twin sons last summer but just nine goals in 26 appearances have followed.
Meanwhile, the same issues noted by Conte were spotted by Sarri. He described Morata as “a little bit fragile from the mental point of view” after his last league goals against Crystal Palace back in November.
Morata is now poised to rejoin former club Atletico Madrid once the deal for Higuain is over the line.
As for France striker Giroud, he arrived from Arsenal as a Premier Leagueready alternative to Morata last January.
He has impressed mainly as a substitute or in cup competitions but has not been able to replicate that form when given a run as first choice in the league.
Now it is over to Higuain to try and fill Chelsea’s Costa void.
The key is to take those few big chances when they come