Sports Burst: Higuain: Chelsea's Choking Hazard
Higuain-Morata double deal comes closer as Barcelona gets ready for Copa del Rey clash
Higuain's agent reportedly in London to continue Chelsea-Milan-Juve-Morata megadeal
A deal that is going to need an army of agents and lawyers to pull-off appears to be well underway across three countries and involving four clubs.
The sporting masterplan is for a desperate Chelsea side to offload a sprightly, youngish striker that chokes when it really matters in order to bring in another older, more battered striker that chokes when it really matters.
Yep. The move to move Alvaro Morata out of Stamford Bridge and bring Gonzalo Higuain in is getting closer with reports on Wednesday that the Argentinean's agent and brother, Nicholas, is in London to work on the transfer.
However, it's complex. Stable genius complex.
Higuain belongs to Juventus and is currently on loan to Milan, so the Argentinean has to get out of that deal and get the Old Lady to sell him to Chelsea to reunite with Mauricio Sarri, who was his coach at Napoli. Chelsea has to then find someone to take Alvaro Morata off their hands for a decent price. No easy matter. But that team currently looks like Atletico Madrid with Diego Simeone not denying the transfer gossip - which is as good as saying "yes, it's a done deal."
With the January window having been fairly quiet of late, this move looks like being the biggest of the winter winter that is certainly going to make the most ripples.
Tune into the Sports Burst live show at 12PM ET / 9AM PT to find out who will get the best of this particular deal.
Barcelona faces Copa del Rey banana skin against Levante
The Copa del Rey continues today with the final three games of the Last 16, first-leg round. The big beasts of Barcelona are in action with the Copa holders at Levante.
However, there is a big banana skin possibility for Barca with Ernesto Valverde opting to travel down Spain's east coast to the city of Valencia to take on Levante without Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic. "We want to win La Liga and the Copa del Rey too," boomed Ernesto Valverde despite the match-day roster.
Munir has also being left off, heralding a possible sale to Sevilla in the next few days. That game kicks off live on beIN SPORTS at 3:30PM ET / 12:30PM PT and is preceded by a cracking encounter between Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla. The third game over on CONNECT sees Betis and Real Sociedad going to head-to-head and there will be goals in them there Copa del Rey hills.
The XTRA is the place to be for all the best action of the day at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.
Mourinho officially ready to cause chaos for club and country
Sports Burst misses him already. Jose Mourinho that is. It's been three whole weeks without him in our lives.
The soccer world is just too bland without the Portuguese provoker to furiously stir the pot like an irate baker with insufficient fluid in his cake batter. Apparently the Special One is now officially ready to cause some special chaos at a club again after reportedly agreeing his pay-off from Manchester United, having been jettisoned by the Old Trafford side just before Christmas.
Despite Real Madrid's Copa del Rey win on Wednesday against Leganes, Mourinho remains the favorite to take over at the Santiago Bernabeu either in a mid-season emergency capacity if matters really go pear-shaped for Madrid or next summer. That might be the only way that Isco gets a start in the side these days, with the playmaker once again being left on the bench by Santiago Solari in the 3-0 victory that saw a debut for new signing, Brahim Diaz.
Chelsea's overpriced back up plan and Ramsey edges closer to Old Lady
TRANSFER TRACKER!
If the aforementioned Gonzalo Higuain deal fails to go through then Chelsea reportedly has a back-up plan. And that's signing Bournemouth and now England striker Callum Wilson, though the south coast side are supposedly wanting around $70 million for the player. $70 million!
Hot-tempered West Ham striker, Marko Arnautovic, is the target of an unnamed Chinese Super League club, however is unlikely that the Hammers will let the forward go, unless he gives them one of his scary stares.
Aaron Ramsey's move to Juventus from Arsenal in the summer could be announced this week with the Arsenal man rumored to be heading to Turin to officially put pen to paper.