Chelsea ‘agree’ fee for forward as speculation becomes a saga
The Daily Express say that Napoli’s official radio station Radio Marte claimed that a £49.3 million deal had been agreed with the Blues for the Cavani’s services.
“We have received news in the office from a very reliable source that Napoli have sealed a deal with Chelsea for Cavani’s sale.
“(Manager) Rafa Benitez also gave the all-clear, but before making the move official Napoli want to secure the striker who will replace Il Matador.
“Aurelio De Laurentiis’ club will pick up around €58 million (£49.3 million), a slight discount on the buy-out clause, which is the same situation as Ezequiel Lavezzi to PSG last year.
“The player will earn €8.5 million (£7.2 million) per season plus image rights.”
Assuming this is true, Jose Mourinho will have beaten Real Madrid and Manchester City to the player but I’ll believe it when I see it and doubt anything could be this straightforward when doing business with someone like De Laurentiis.
The news broke around the same time that Cavani said he wanted face-to-face talks with the club president over comments he’d made about him which he probably wouldn’t be overly concerned with if he’d just secured his future with another club. But Napoli and De Laurentiis have and will continue to play games for the duration of this transfer saga. Their posturing is an obvious attempt to get a club to meet their sky-high valuation of the player and they’re probably behind the media leaks themselves.
Cavani is definitely a talented forward and would be a worthy addition to the Chelsea ranks but he’ll have his work cut out for him if he wants to prove he’s worth such an astronomical sum of money.
The 26-year-old is currently competing in the FIFA Confederations Cup for Uruguay, who will meet Brazil in the semi final tomorrow and it’s likely that his future won’t be announced officially whilst he’s on international duty.
Source: Daily Express