Chelsea have signed Alejandro Garnacho in a £40m transfer from Manchester United, taking their summer spend to nearly £300m.
The 21-year-old winger becomes Chelsea’s ninth arrival, joining new attackers Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Estevao and Jamie Gittens, and increases their outlay to £296.8m.
Chelsea, though, have recouped £314.4m in sales with 26 players exiting the club either in permanent transfers or on loan.
Garnacho has signed a long-term deal at Chelsea and says he is happy to be joining “the best team in the world”.
“I can’t wait to get started,” he told the Chelsea website. “I watched the Club World Cup and to join the world champions is special – we’re the best team in the world! It’s amazing to be here and I’m very happy.”
A compromise over Garnacho’s valuation had to be reached as United valued him at £50m, which was more than Chelsea were prepared to pay.
United negotiated the fee up from an initial Chelsea offer of £25m and are understood to feel it is a good, pragmatic deal, delivering their largest sale fee for five years. They also believe it is a good solution for the player, who has been pushing strongly to leave.
The deal, which includes a 10 per cent sell-on fee, represents the fourth-largest sale in United’s history after those of Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Angel Di Maria – and the club’s largest sale of an academy graduate.
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Watch Alejandro Garnacho’s best Premier League goals for Manchester United
Garnacho turned down offers from other clubs because he wanted to move to Chelsea. The winger was told he could leave at the end of last season and was not training with Ruben Amorim’s first-team squad during pre-season.
Chelsea pulling out of Jackson’s move to Bayern
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Minutes after landing in Germany, Nicolas Jackson’s Bayern loan move is called off after Liam Delap sustains an injury during the game against Fulham.
Chelsea are pulling out of the Nicolas Jackson loan deal to Bayern Munich.
Bayern have been informed that Chelsea will not be able to proceed with the proposed deal due to an injury to Liam Delap against Fulham.
The decision to cancel Jackson’s loan was taken after discussions this afternoon between Chelsea’s football leadership team and head coach Enzo Maresca.
The player is now expected to return to London. He will go straight back into the first-team squad.
He has been training with the first-team squad as there was always the possibility he would stay.
He signed an extension last September and his contract runs to 2033.
Chelsea bid for Barca star
Fermin Lopez
Chelsea have sent Barcelona a £36.6m (€40m) written bid for Fermin Lopez.
They are now waiting for a response after submitting the offer on Saturday.
Sky Sports News has been reporting that Chelsea would make an offer if they received any encouragement that a deal was possible.
‘Man Utd very happy with Garnacho business’
Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol:
“We’ve reported in the past that Chelsea were considering opening bids of £25m. I know some Manchester United supporters were very angry with those reports.
“It’s all been sorted out now. It’s a £40m fixed fee and United will also retain a 10 per cent sell-on clause for the player.
“This is a significant deal for United. They are often criticised for not getting enough for players and not making money from selling players. This is the largest ever sale for a Manchester United academy product.
“From United’s perspective, they are very, very happy because a £40m fixed fee is a very good deal for them, for a player who didn’t really have a future at the club.”
Amorim: Talented Garnacho has not worked out
Speaking earlier this summer, United boss Amorim said: “You can understand and you can see he’s a really talented boy, and sometimes things don’t work out.
Garnacho was not involved in Man Utd’s pre-season training
“You cannot explain specifically what it is. But I have the feeling, I think it’s clear that Garnacho wants a different thing with a different leadership, and I can understand that. So I think it’s not a problem.
“Sometimes you adapt to one guy, you have the connection. Other times, you want a new challenge, so we try to make everything OK to all the parts. To the club, to the coach and to the players. It’s a natural thing in football.”
In
Jamie Gittens – Dortmund, £51.5m
Joao Pedro – Brighton, £60m
Liam Delap – Ipswich, £30m
Jorrel Hato – Ajax, £38.5m
Estevao Willian – Palmeiras, £29m
Dario Essugo – Sporting, £18.5m
Mamadou Sarr – RC Strasbourg, £12m
Kendry Paez – Independiente del Valle, £17.3m
Alejandro Garnacho – Manchester United, £40m
Out
Kendry Paez – Strasbourg, loan
Djordje Petrovic – Bournemouth, £25m
Bashir Humphreys – Burnley, £10m
Dylan Williams – Burton, undisclosed
Marcus Bettinelli – Man City, undisclosed
Kepa Arrizabalga – Arsenal, £5m
Teddy Sharman-Lowe – Bolton, loan
Mathis Amougou – Strasbourg, undisclosed
Zak Sturge – Millwall, undisclosed
Noni Madueke – Arsenal, £52m
Caleb Wiley – Watford, loan
Mike Penders – RC Strasbourg, loan
Joao Felix – Al Nassr, £43.7m
Ishe Samuels-Smith – Strasbourg, £6.9m
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – Everton, £29m
Mamadou Sarr – Strasbourg, loan
Leo Castledine – Huddersfield, loan
Lesley Ugochukwu – Burnley, £23m
Marc Guiu – Sunderland, loan
Armando Broja – Burnley, £20m
Renato Veiga – Villarreal, £26m
Carney Chukwuemeka – Borussia Dortmund, £24m
Aaron Anselmino – Borussia Dortmund, loan
Alfie Gilchrist – West Brom, £1.2m
Brodi Hughes – AFC Wimbledon, loan
Christopher Nkunku – AC Milan, £36m
Sky Sports to show 215 live Premier League games this season
This season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games are on Sky Sports.
