Blues understand that Colombian’s previous association with Atletico will prevent the marksman from moving to the Bernabeu.
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Mega-rich Premier League outfit Chelsea are sensationally planning on going head to head with La Liga giants Real Madrid for the signature of highly rated AS Monaco front man Radamel Falcao as soon as the winter transfer window opens once again for business in the new year.
Los Blancos president Florentino Perez recently caused a stir on the Continent by openly declaring his admiration for the red-hot Colombia international, with the Madrid supremo giving a strong hint that the Spaniards would be making a big-money offer for Falcao come the turn of the year.
The 27-year-old has only been in the South of France now since the summer, when Falcao caused a major surprise in Europe by opting to leave Liga high flyers Atletico de Madrid to sign for Monaco, a club that had only just returned to Ligue 1 at the end of last season.
However, in the end the striker moved to the Stade Louis II in May for a whopping transfer fee of 60 million euros, with Falcao putting pen to paper on a lucrative five-year deal with the big-spending French outfit in the process.
But, ever since the Colombian made the switch from the Spanish Primera Division to Ligue 1, rumours have been circulating that Falcao has simply used his move to Monaco as a stepping stone in his career, with the player believed to be intending on staying for just the solitary campaign with the newly promoted club, before then joining a big-name team on the Continent at the end of this campaign, having earned a huge sum in the process.
And now it is thought that Madrid want to test Monaco’s resolve to keep hold of their star man come January, with Perez said to be confident of being able to persuade both the club, as well as Falcao himself, to come to the negotiating table in three months’ time.
Perez has already sanctioned a deal in principle to offload misfiring forward Karim Benzema to Premier League leaders Arsenal in the new year, with the north London club having agreed by word of mouth to shell out £35m for the out-of-sorts France international.
And the Real boss then hopes to be able to use all of the proceeds from Benzema’s departure from the Santiago Bernabeu in order to plough into luring Falcao to the Spanish capital.
However, there are two major stumbling blocks to Madrid being successful in their efforts to land Falcao, and both are interconnected.
The first of these hurdles revolves around the forward’s previous association with Madrid’s fierce city rivals Atletico, who Falco starred for with huge success for two campaigns between 2011 and 2013, during which time the marksman found the back of the net on 70 occasions in total in just 91 matches in all competitions, including an equally impressive 52 strikes in just 67 league encounters for Atleti.
But as we have seen before in the past when both fellow front men Fernando Torres and Sergio Aguero decided to leave the Vincente Calderon, Atletico refused to allow either player to move across the city, despite big-money offers being on the table from Real for each man.
The one slight difference, though, in this case is that Falcao would not in theory be moving directly to Atletico’s rival, although any possible transfer is still thought to be problematic at best.
And the second issue relates to the recent arrival of the west London club on the scene, with returning Blues head coach Jose Mourinho having already met with chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Ron Gourlay to make it be known that he is far from happy at present with his striking options at Stamford Bridge so far this season.
The self-styled ‘Special One’ went all out of course to lure unsettled Manchester United attacker Wayne Rooney to the capital during the recent summer transfer window, only for the Premier League champions to then play hard ball and block the England international’s proposed move to Chelsea, despite repeated attempts to sign the Englishman right up to the closing of the window on transfer deadline day from the Portuguese.
However, that unexpected setback left ‘Mou’ badly short of both quality and numbers up front for this campaign, with the Blues coach instead left to rely on Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o for goals.
All of which has resulted in Chelsea now agreeing to go all out for Falcao in January in an effort to bring a guarantee of goals that will help to fire the club to both this season’s Premier League title and the Uefa Champions League as well.
And what is more, Mourinho and his employers are understood to be confident that Falcao will reject any overtures from Madrid in favour of joining up with the inspirational Blues manager, especially with the player said to be reluctant to damage his glowing reputation at the Calderon by signing for Real.