When news emerged 48 hours ago that Chelsea were interested in Atletico Madrid striker Samu Omorodion, it felt a bit like he was being considered as a backup should a deal for Jhon Duran not come off.
The Aston Villa striker has been at the centre of attention of a lot of the recent chatter, not least because we’re doing business with his team over Ian Maatsen, who is moving the other way.
But a report this morning from the reliable Matteo Moretto of Relevo makes it sound like quite the opposite. We seem extremely keen on Samu, and in fact have been pursuing him for some time, not just in the days since the Duran talks seem to have gone cold.
After a good season on loan at Alaves, there’s growing attention on Omorodion this summer, although Moretto claims his desire is to succeed at his parent club, and that it will likely take a crazy offer or paying his release clause to prise him away from the Metropolitano.
Chelsea have done their best however – apparently we’ve already made three bids for the striker, after initiating contact during our talks with Atletico about a potential move for Conor Gallagher. The largest of these bids reached €50m, apparently.
An interesting strategic decision
If that’s true, that really blows our image of Chelsea’s summer apart. If they’re offering €50m for Samu, they must fancy him at least as much as Duran. If they offered that same money to Aston Villa, we’re sure the bid would be accepted.
In general we’ve felt it’s unlikely we invest too heavily on one player up front as Nicolas Jackson is already number one option, and needs to be supported not replaced. But we’re not going to complain if a top goalscorer is brought in this summer.