The club’s patience is running thin
Álvaro Morata could leave Chelsea on loan this January, according to Fernando Evangelino, reporter for COPE.
The Spanish forward hit the ground running at Chelsea at the start of the 2017/18 season, but has not been able to sustain a run of form for Chelsea since then.
Morata joined Chelsea with big shoes to fill, replacing the departed Diego Costa, who returned to Atlético Madrid. But he has not managed to fill those shoes, and has lost his place as Chelsea’s first choice striker to Olivier Giroud, who arrived back in January this year.
Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri held positive talks with Morata before the start of this season, reassuring him that he was wanted at the club. Sarri has been patient with the Spaniard, giving him plenty of opportunities to impress.
But the club have seemingly run out of patience with Morata and will look to loan him out this winter, clearing space on the wage bill for a new striker to come in.
💥Informa @ferevangelio:
🎙️"El @ChelseaFC está pensando en ceder a @AlvaroMorata en el mercado de invierno.
🎙️"Sería una decisión del club, no de Sarri"#Premier🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/EcCgnxJxAX
— Tiempo de Juego (@tjcope) December 8, 2018
Sarri experimented with playing Eden Hazard as a false 9 against Manchester City at the weekend, which resulted in Chelsea becoming the first team to beat City in the league this season, courtesy of goals from N’Golo Kanté and David Luiz.
Sarri used a similar tactic in the absence of a conventional number 9 at Napoli, after Arkadiusz Milik suffered a knee injury. The Italian moved Dries Mertens into a central role, which proved to be a stroke of genius, as the Belgian could not stop scoring, and helped to lift Napoli to their best league campaign since the days of Maradona.
Chelsea currently have Michy Batshuayi out on loan at Valencia, and it remains unclear as to whether they will try to bring him back early.
A deal that could work for all parties could be a straight swap.
