Arsenal & Man Utd Lead Chelsea In Race For £40m Spanish Striker

The opening of the summer transfer window is fast approaching so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe. Today, the race hots up for Alvaro Morata….

Arsenal and Manchester United are leading the likes of Chelsea and PSG in the race for £40m-rated Juventus striker Alvaro Morata this summer, according to the Guardian.

Morata joined Juve from Real Madrid two years ago having failed to establish himself at the Bernabeu and has enjoyed his time in Italy having helped guide the club to successive Serie A titles as well as reaching the 2014/15 Champions League final.

However, his time in Turin may be coming to an abrupt end as the Guardian claim that Madrid have decided to activate a buyback clause they inserted in to the deal in 2014 that will allow them to re-sign Morata for a fixed fee of £23.6m.

The Spaniard’s will then immediately sell the 23-year-old to the highest bidder and the newspaper suggests that Arsenal and Manchester United are currently leading Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in the race for his signature.

The Guardian claim that Morata would likely cost around £40m and the striker is understood to favour a move to the Premier League, and would be keen to move to United if Jose Mourinho replaces Louis van Gaal as manager at Old Trafford.

The so-called ‘Special One’ is favourite to replace van Gaal if the Dutchman is sacked and he knows Morata well from their time together at Madrid with the Portuguese coach giving the striker his debut in 2010.

A new striker to help ease the load on Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford is likely to be a priority for whoever is in charge at United this summer and Morata would be an excellent addition.

However, Arsene Wenger has admitted he’ll be in the market for another striker after losing Danny Welbeck for nine months and the Gunners have held a long-standing interest in Morata having missed out when he left Madrid two years ago.

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You can’t discount Chelsea from the running either as in-coming boss Antonio Conte is a known fan of Morata having signed the striker for Juventus in 2014 and the Italian tactician could certainly do with him at Stamford Bridge next season as Radamel Falcao is heading back to Monaco while Loic Remy is expected to find a new club this summer.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out but if Morata does end up back at Madrid and on the market, it looks like he’ll have three top English clubs battling for his signature if he fancies trying his luck in the Premier League.