A week or so ago it looked very likely that Chelsea would be signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Now that’s not the case.
The latest word from Spain, reported by Helena Condis Edo of Cadena Copa, is that a video meeting between Chelsea and Barcelona today went “very badly.”
💥 Informa @pedro_morata
💻 Reunión telemática entre @ChelseaFC y @FCBarcelona por el futuro de @Auba esta mañana
😰 La reunión ha ido muy mal
👉🏼 El Chelsea quiere usar a @MarcosAlonso03 como parte del pago y el Barça no
🆕 Esta tarde habrá nueva reunión
📻 #PartidazoCOPE pic.twitter.com/Ud3exv5X8L
— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) August 31, 2022
The crux of the issue is that Chelsea want to include Marcos Alonso in the deal to sign Aubemeyang, while Barca want straight cash.
They are interested in the left back, but not as part of the Aubameyang deal.
It remains to be seen whether we can recover this in time, but with just 24 hours left in the window, it feels like things are getting desperate. With no striker available and bad results stacking up, we feel ripe to make a panic buy in the next 24 hours – whether that player is Aubameyang or not remains to be seen.
Whether the Alonso sale can go through is another question.
I don’t care if Auba’s pursuit falls through, Barce needs to be thought a lesson that they can’t win all of the time. I don’t mind Chelsea staking even a 4th place finish to pass a message to Barce that they can not be pushing every team or players around. Nonsense!