Barcelona and Real Madrid to battle it out for €65 million Manchester United superstar, Chelsea and AC Milan to pull off stunning swap deal and more: Transfer Roundup, 23 December 2018

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Dec 23, 2018 13:15 GMT

This is one signing that could tip the scales in Barcelona's favour

Chelsea and AC Milan wait for Juve's greenlight to swap Morata for Higuain

Maurizio Sarri is ready to send Chelsea flop Alvaro Morata back to Italy in exchange for veteran striker Gonzalo Higuain, according to Sky Sports. However, Higuain is currently on loan at AC Milan and hence the deal is a lot more complicated than it actually sounds.

Sarri and Higuain have worked together at Napoli and the Argentine produced his finest performances in Italy under the current Chelsea manager. But their reunion will depend upon whether or not Juve will greenlight the move.

Higuain was heavily linked with a move to Chelsea last summer. However, he ended up joining AC Milan on a £16.3 million loan deal. Il Rossoneri have the option to make the move permanent by paying £32 million.

However, if Juventus okay the swap deal, AC Milan will transfer their obligation to pay over to Chelsea and the Blues will have to furnish the rest of the transfer fee.

Sarri talked highly of Higuain when he was recently quizzed at a press conference. But he refused to talk about a potential deal.

Sarri said,

"As you know, I like him very much. He is a wonderful player, a wonderful man.

"But I don't want to talk about Higuain. I have two strikers, two-and-a-half at the moment, and Gonzalo is playing for AC Milan. It's better not to talk about him at the moment."

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad