Valencia’s sporting director, Miguel Angel Corona, has claimed Atletico Madrid tried to ditch their deal to sign Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher to free up funds for a different midfielder.
Gallagher flew to Madrid on Monday to undergo a medical and finalise his move to Atletico.
The England international has been at Chelsea since joining at the age of eight, making 95 appearances for the club and regularly captaining the team last season.
But the 24-year-old could not agree terms on a new contract at Stamford Bridge and now looks set for a move to La Liga after being told he was unlikely to play a prominent role under new Blues manager Enzo Maresca.
While Gallagher will shortly be confirmed as a new player for Diego Simeone’s side, it has now emerged that there was almost a late twist in the tale.
Alongside their move for the Englishman, Atletico were exploring a move for midfielder Javi Guerra but had a strict deadline imposed on the deal by his club Valencia.
The move for Guerra eventually broke down but Valencia sporting director Corona has since claimed Atletico were, at one point, looking to cancel their agreement with Chelsea for Gallagher to revitalise the move.
‘There is a maximum agreement [between clubs] on Sunday, plus it was between the president of Valencia and the maximum shareholder of Atletico Madrid,’ Corona said.
‘On Monday, the documentation is developed and, in the same way, it goes in parallel with the player, who is advancing in this negotiation and almost closes the agreement.
‘On Wednesday morning, due to the delay in the return of Atletico’s documents and some comments made, a specific question was asked to Atletico’s owner, about the situation, why the delay.
‘The answer was that they were trying to get out of the Chelsea operation and that, if they don’t succeed, they can’t face the Javi Guerra operation.’
Chelsea were said to be unaware of Atletico’s reported plans to back out of the deal.
While Gallagher heads to Spain, Chelsea will receive a player in the other direction, with striker Samu Omorodion set to join the Premier League club in a separate deal.
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