Chelsea have reportedly successfully fended off Atletico Madrid in their bid to try and prise Marcos Alonso away from Stamford Bridge.
The Blues can arguably ill-afford to lose any more players this summer, as with their UEFA transfer ban in place, they will not be able to bring in reinforcements and replacements ahead of next season.
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In turn, Maurizio Sarri’s successor will want to keep the current squad intact and bring back loanees to offer quality and depth, and then make his assessment on a longer-term plan.
With that in mind, The Express report, via Cadena Cope, that Chelsea have managed to put Atleti off from making a move for Alonso by putting a €40m price-tag on the Spaniard.
It’s noted that it is considered too high a price by the La Liga outfit, and so it would appear as though Alonso will remain in west London for the time being at least.
That would be the sensible thing to do for all concerned in truth, as with a new coach coming in, he may well have a prominent role to play for him and will get the nod ahead of Emerson Palmieri next season after he displaced him in the line-up towards the latter stages of last year.
The 28-year-old has made 120 appearances for the Blues since joining them from Fiorentina in 2016, winning a Premier League title, an FA Cup and Europa League in a successful stint to date.
While he has proven to be vulnerable defensively at times and inaccurate with his distribution going forward, he has been a key figure for Chelsea over the last few seasons overall and so it would be a blow to lose him, especially if they can’t bring in a replacement this summer.
