“They had to change everything” – Exclusive details of “tense” and “complicated” Chelsea transfer saga

Transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano has provided some insight into the complicated Chelsea and Atletico Madrid saga involving all three of Joao Felix, Samu Omorodion and Conor Gallagher.

The Blues finally look set to sign Felix while Gallagher can now also complete his move to Atletico as part of the deal, with the Omorodion signing for CFC previously falling through.

Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for the Debrief podcast, Romano gave his inside information on this rather chaotic deal and explained why it took so long for all parties to reach an agreement.

After the Omorodion side of the story collapsed, it seems Chelsea had to quickly change everything to ensure they were able to reach an agreement over Felix, and it seems they have been working hard to do that, and it’s now closer to completion.

This meant Gallagher had to wait a bit longer to finalise his move to Madrid, having already previously travelled to the Spanish capital, only to then return to London for training with Chelsea.

Crazy Chelsea transfer saga explained by Fabrizio Romano

Discussing how it all unfolded, Romano said: “They already wanted to close this deal over the weekend and there is still some difference between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid. It’s a very difficult deal. Difficult in the sense that all parties are very tense after spending almost two weeks in negotiations with players travelling and returning, with players into the deal changing because it had to be Samu Omorodion and then Joao Felix.

“Then when you involve Joao Felix it means a big salary, a big commission, a completely different structure of the transfer fee. They had to change everything. So they’ve been working for days on this one. They keep working on this deal even today and in the next hours. So Chelsea and Atletico are actively working on this and also the agents of all the single players involved in this story, the intermediaries who are taking care of the negotiations. So it’s a very, very busy couple of hours for all the clubs.

“I think today, tomorrow is going to be super busy also because on Wednesday, Atletico Madrid want to present all their new faces, new players, and they hope to have Conor Gallagher there. Simeone is really pushing to have him. They want him internally also. I mean, the management board, they want to have Conor Gallagher.

“The real point of the discussion is about the add-ons, the payment terms, several things, because for Atletico Madrid it’s also important to include some add-ons as part of this deal for Joao Felix, so not only €40m guaranteed, but some add-ons are needed, how to activate the add-ons, how easy or difficult will be these add-ons, when to pay all this package of money.

“All these topics are being discussed and this is why it’s taking some days. As you can imagine, it’s a complicated story, especially after the tense situation they suffered when Conor Gallagher was in Madrid. Conor Gallagher had his medical for Atletico Madrid. Conor Gallagher has his contract ready with Atletico Madrid. So it’s a crazy situation, a crazy saga.”