Chelsea likely to call off Jan Oblak pursuit
According to a report from the Daily Star, Chelsea have suffered a blow in their chase of Atletico Madrid star Jan Oblak, as the La Liga giants are unwilling to budge from their £110m valuation.
Having joined Atletico Madrid from Benfica in 2014, the 27-year-old Oblak has grown into arguably the best goalkeeper in the game currently.
In the season gone by, the Slovenian international featured in 49 matches across all competitions and managed to keep as many as 22 clean sheets, conceding only 38 goals.
Chelsea’s goalkeeping situation currently is not the most ideal. Kepa Arrizabalaga, since arriving in a world record deal a couple of years ago, hasn’t been able to convince. In fact, his error-prone ways led to Frank Lampard axing him from the starting XI in the 2019/20 term.
Second-choice goalkeeper Willy Caballero is in the final juncture of his career. So, a new goalkeeper, in the form of Oblak, would have been an excellent signing for us.
However, it seems like our efforts to land the Slovenian international have proved futile. As per the report, Atletico Madrid are unwilling to lower their asking price of £110m for their No.1, which will force us to quit the pursuit.
It is even claimed that Chelsea, desperate to offload Kepa this summer, offered him to Atletico as part of a potential swap deal that would see Oblak move to the Bridge. However, Los Rojiblancos will not entertain any such offer. (h/t Daily Star)
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Oblak would have been the ideal choice to bolster our goalkeeping department. However, it might be time for the club to look at other options to replace Kepa as the first-choice custodian from the coming season.