Shock Gallagher TWIST! Atletico Madrid wanted to CANCEL Chelsea transfer

Cameron Smith

• 9 Aug 2024 08:30 BST
• 3 min read

Atletico Madrid tried to cancel Conor Gallagher’s imminent move from Chelsea in order to sign Javi Guerra, according to Valencia’s sporting director Miguel Angel Corona.

Gallagher, 24, is set to join Atletico Madrid from Chelsea for a reported fee of €42 million, with Spain U21 international Samu Omorodion heading in the opposite direction.

The England international, who featured for his country at Euro 2024, has just one year left on his current deal at Stamford Bridge and he rejected the Blues’ latest extension offer of a further two seasons.

READ MORE: Premier League summer transfers 2024 - All the Done Deals

Atletico Madrid moved quickly to finalise a deal with Chelsea and an agreement was reached this week.

However, the Spanish giants were also in discussions to sign Valencia midfielder Guerra. In fact, Atletico reached an agreement to purchase the 21-year-old for a fee of roughly €25m, as per The Athletic.

Despite this agreement, the move has now collapsed as Atleti failed to finalise the deal by Valencia’s deadline of Wednesday.

READ MORE: Romano confirms Chelsea's next signing after Omorodion

What has been said?

Corona, Valencia’s sporting director, has now revealed that Atletico Madrid were reportedly trying to get out of their agreement to sign Gallagher.

“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, as per The Athletic.

“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, and 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.”

Corona continued: “It was the first news that we and Javi had about it, that the operations were linked, and therefore we [Valencia] got out of it because it was not a condition that was discussed on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, when there were constant WhatsApps, emails, calls, comments on clauses.

“We were not informed of anything regarding the link between the two [Guerra and Gallagher] and we got out of it to protect ourselves.”