Alejandro Garnacho signs for Chelsea in £40m transfer from Man Utd; 21-year-old winger was one of five United player left out of pre-season; Chelsea have spent nearly £300m this summer, with fellow attackers Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Estevao and Jamie Gittens also joining
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.
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 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 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.
