Chelsea hope to make progress on Gonzalo Higuain deal by end of week
Chelsea hope to get the green light to move forwards with a deal to sign Gonzalo Higuain by the end of the week.
Higuain is with the AC Milan squad for Wednesday night’s Italian Super Cup final in Jeddah against his parent club Juventus.
It is understood that Higuain has already made it clear that he wants to cut short his loan at AC Milan from Juventus to join his former Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea.
But the deal is complicated by various payments AC Milan had agreed to make to Juve and the option to make the loan permanent.
AC Milan chiefs, including chairman Paolo Scaroni, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and club legend Paolo Maldini, are all in Jeddah where they are set to hold talks with Juve over Higuain’s future.
Reports in Italy have claimed Milan are ‘close’ to signing Genoa striker Krzysztof Piatek, which would solve the issue of them finding a replacement for Higuain.
Chelsea have been in negotiations with both Milan and Juve over Higuain and hope to hear in the coming days that they can push ahead with a move for the 31 year-old.
The Blues are willing to allow Alvaro Morata to leave the club once they secure a replacement, but the Spaniard’s hopes of joining Atletico Madrid may rest on their ability to free up space in the squad and on the wage bill.
Atletico have already met their capped wage bill of €293 million per year, which means they must sell or loan out players before they can sign anybody.
Summer signings Gelson Martins and Nicola Kalinic, who have both struggled to make a significant impact, could be sacrificed to make room for a move for Morata.
Michy Batshuayi is still waiting to be given the green light from Chelsea to join Monaco on loan for the rest of the season after agreeing terms with the Ligue 1 club.
Meanwhile, Chelsea will find out at the end of February whether or not they will be hit with a partial stadium closure or ban on travelling fans for the anti-semitic chanting during their final Europa League game against Vidi.
Uefa on Tuesday confirmed that disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the Blues based on the report submitted by the ethics and disciplinary inspector who looked into the case.
The Uefa control, ethics and disciplinary body will now rule whether or not Chelsea should be punished at their next meeting on February 28, seven days after the club’s Europa League last-32 game against Malmo at Stamford Bridge.
That means Chelsea will not be forced to close part of their stadium for the Malmo game and supporters will be able to attend the first leg in Sweden on February 14.
But Uefa could still impose a partial Stamford Bridge stadium closure or stop Chelsea fans travelling for a future European game.
Article 14 of Uefa’s regulations state that, if supporters are found guilty of behaviour “that insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons on whatever grounds, including skin colour, race, religion or ethnic origin”, the minimum punishment is the partial closure of their home stadium in a subsequent fixture. This would be Chelsea’s first offence and a second incident would see them forced to play a match behind closed doors.
The Uefa statement confirming that Chelsea face punishment for the chanting in Vidi read: “Based on the report submitted by the UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector commissioned to conduct an investigation - according to Article 31 (4) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR) - in relation to the alleged racist incidents that occurred at the afore-mentioned match, UEFA has announced that disciplinary proceedings have been instigated against Chelsea FC in accordance with the Article 55 of the DR. The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body will deal with this case on the occasion of its next meeting on 28 February 2019.”
Chelsea have been hit by a series of allegations of racism by their fans over recent months and chairman Bruce Buck has been forced to reiterate the club’s zero-tolerance stance on the issue.
