Fair enough.
Chelsea’s new striker could have ended up at a few different Premier League clubs. Alvaro Morata was strongly linked with a transfer to Manchester United for most of the summer, until the club signed for Romelu Lukaku.
The Spanish forward also could have been a Tottenham Hotspur player. According to Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs were in contact with Alvaro Morata a few years ago, but he opted against the move for a very sensible reason.
Morata is finally set to get his Premier League move… https://t.co/6GLN1zxvwL
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) July 19, 2017
The 24-year-old, who played for Juventus at the time, didn’t want to join Spurs because he didn’t think he would start ahead of Harry Kane.
“Morata talked about myself in the media,” Pochettino said.
“He said: ‘Mauricio called me’. That was from the beginning, two years ago or more. He said to me: ‘Why do you want me if you have Harry Kane?’ You know, if you go to try to sign a striker, they will say: ‘Eh gaffer, you want me for what? To be on the bench?’ Because it’s Harry Kane, I can’t compete with Harry Kane or Hugo Lloris or different players.
Kane > Griezmann https://t.co/2X3k9B4NM8
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 29, 2017
It would be easy to criticise Morata for an apparent lack of ambition, thinking he couldn’t play ahead of Kane, but he had a point.
Kane is arguably the best striker in the Premier League, and one of the best in Europe. There are very few forwards who would start ahead of him. Morata also spent long enough sitting on the bench at Real Madrid, and understandably wanted to be first-choice if he was moving clubs.
Antonio Conte, after spending a club record fee on Morata, spoke recently about how much he rates Kane. The Chelsea manager called him “one of the best strikers in the world.”
“If I had to buy one striker I would go to Kane. He is a complete striker. He is strong physically, with the ball, without the ball, he fights and he’s strong in the air and acrobatic on the right and the left. He’s a complete player. He’s one of the top strikers in the world. If you go to buy Kane now it would be at least £100m.”
