According to reports from Mirror Football this morning, Atletico Madrid have contacted Premier League champions Chelsea regarding a potential summer bid for Toby Alderweireld.
The Belgium international has enjoyed fantastic form on loan at Southampton this season, helping the St. Mary’s outfit record the second-best goals conceded column in the Premier League – after Jose Mourinho’s boys in blue.
Manager Ronald Koeman has the option to buy the 6 foot 2 defender permanently this summer for £7million but the Mattress Makers could exonerate that right for a £1.5million fee, which would then allow them to sell Alderweireld for a considerably higher sum.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are both believed to be interested in the 26 year-old, with the latter club keen to reunite him with former Ajax centre-back partner Jan Vertonghen.
But according to Mirror Football, the Vincente Calderon outfit have attempted to open a dialogue with Chelsea, who have also been linked with Alderweireld recently – as This Is Futbol revealed last month.
The two clubs have a strong relationship in the transfer market; Belgium international Thibaut Courtois spent three years on loan in the Spanish capital, helping Diego Simeone’s side win last term’s La Liga title, before emerging as Chelsea’s No.1 this season, whilst the Blues invested heavily in two of Atletico’s stars – Diego Costa and Filipe Luis – last summer.
Interesting one there, I do wonder whether he’d make Chelsea’s starting XI with Cahill’s return to form and the emergence of the physical beast that is Zouma.
I think he’d be a great addition to Man City and Tottenham’s starting lineups; hopefully we can avoid that! As much as I’d like him at Chelsea, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he stays at Southampton.
Think he’d be a squad player at Chelsea, double cover for RB and CB (and potentially DM as well). Apparently Atletico want around £10m for him which I think is an absolute bargain.
But yeah, would make much more sense if he went to Spurs or City. Spurs particularly because of Vertonghen.
Yeah that sounds about right. Seeing as Azpilicueta seems to be the unchallenged left-back I suppose we need someone to actually be a backup to Ivanovic. He shouldn’t be midfield backup though, Mikel has that on lock (and I really hope we don’t continue the ludicrous ‘Zouma in midfield’ experiment).
If Luis does leave I’d want someone who could actually play at left-back as well; Jay Dasilva is sick but nowhere near ready yet. I suppose Aké can play there but I always considered him to be a DM. Although I heard on TIF that we might be looking at Aaron Cresswell?
We could probably do with the extra bodies; I doubt we’ll be as lucky as last year with two over-30s managing to play every game and six players covering four positions.
To be fair, he’d be alongside Kompany at City (presumably) as well. Presumably he wouldn’t pull a Lovren either.