Football
Alejandro Garnacho Set for Career Revival at Chelsea, Pending Big-Name Sales
Chelsea are considering swooping for Manchester United's outcast, Alejandro Garnacho, pending offloading high-profile stars. Napoli's interest has waned, making the move more likely. Talks are advancing, but Chelsea must sell players like Nkunku, Sterling, and Jackson first. Garnacho sees Chelsea as the perfect place for a career revival, especially with the influence of Maresca, a World Cup-winning Argentine.
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Chelsea will only swoop for Alejandro Garnacho if they are confident of offloading a number of high-profile names before the end of the transfer window, SportsBoom understands.
The news will come as a blow to the Argentine, who wants to engineer a move away from Manchester United after the deterioration of his relationship with manager Ruben Amorim.
Reigning Italian champions Napoli were contemplating the prospect of swooping for Garnacho but are now thought to be pursuing alternative options instead.
But circumstances, coupled with UEFA’s stringent financial regulations, means that the Londoners must investigate trimming the options at Enzo Maresca’s disposal first before exploring a move for the 21-year-old.
Talks between United and Chelsea about Garnacho have now moved beyond the preliminary stage, as Maresca’s employers look to agree outline terms on the potential move.
However, they are also aware that they must recoup at least part of their investments on the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson before finalising those discussions.
Despite struggling for game-time at Stamford Bridge, Nkunku boasts an army of admirers across Europe with Bayern Munich chief among them. Ideally, Chelsea would prefer to begin brokering deals for at least two thirds of that trio before entering the final phase of their discussions with United.
CAREER RESURRECTION
Crucially, although Garnacho has not yet officially been approached, he views Maresca’s squad as the perfect place to resurrect a career which has stalled following a series of high-profile rows with Amorim.
That, combined with Napoli’s exit from the race for the former Getafe and Atletico Madrid youth team player, have convinced them that the winger will arrive should they choose to press ‘go’ on the switch.
Despite being capped by Spain at under-18 level, Garnacho later changed his international allegiance to Argentina - the country of his mother’s birth.
The presence of Enzo Maresca, a World Cup winner with La Albiceleste, at Chelsea is thought to be another attraction for Garnacho after the pair struck up a friendship whilst on duty with Lionel Scaloni’s team.
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.